Both were too quick to brush off questions over the club’s ownership- and now the club may not even see out this season.
What is going on at Portsmouth is a sad, shocking, and desperate state of affairs.
And the powers-that-be in football again seem too slow to act.
But it is their negligence that has put Portsmouth in the position they find themselves in now.
The 2008 FA Cup Winners now lie in the relegation zone in the Championship, after having a 10 point deduction enforced on them for entering administration.
Now it is threatening to get even worse, with a realistic threat being held over them that they could be wound up before the season is out.
This would have confusing permutations for the Championship, as all results involving them would become void.
But that is hardly the point, if Portsmouth were wound up it would be a footballing tragedy, and the worst thing about it, an avoidable one.
When Sacha Gaydamek took over from Milan Mandaric as owner it seemed like the start of a new beginning, Portsmouth had grand new stadium plans drawn up, which looked spectacular, but of course these never ended up leaving the drawing board.
By time Gaydamek had handed the ownership over to Balram Chanrai and his consortium, alarm bells were not such ringing, they were blaring.
The Sun newspaper had run a series of articles attempting to unravel the confusing state of the club’s finances, which if nothing else drew national attention to the issue.
But both the FA or the Premier League did nothing.
The FA have a ‘Fit and proper person test’ for football club owners, but quite simply it is a farce. When was anybody stopped from taking over a club?
The warning signs have been there with clubs going into administration over the past decade, and it is very worrying.
Crystal Palace were nearly wound up a couple of seasons back, while this season Plymouth and Darlington have both experienced financial plight, but each have survived. Portsmouth, FA Cup winners in 2008 and runners-up in 2010, would be the highest profile of the lot.
If they became a casualty of finance, it would be a disaster for the game, and the FA and the Premier League should take a long hard look at their inaction and ask why they did not show the resolve or desire to do anything about it.
image: © Ben Sutherland
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