English Championship clubs are a scene of carnage, admits Portsmouth administrator

By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester

March 29 – The man charged with saving crisis-stricken English Championship club Portsmouth painted a bleak picture of all second tier teams by describing them as “a scene of carnage” in terms of their finances.

Administrator Trevor Birch (pictured), who has been chief executive at several high-ranking clubs but is now back in his role as an accountant and insolvency expert, said Portsmouth were paying the price for punching above their weight and paying Premier League salaries to Championship players.

Speaking here, he said: “The Premier League is one of the most successful exports we have but if you move down the leagues it becomes a bit of a catastrophe.

“The Championship is a scene of carnage with clubs pursuing the Holy Grail of promotion, losing between £5 million ($8 million/€6 million) and £10 million ($16 million/€12 million) a year and a third of them spending over 100 per cent of turnover on wages.”

Birch was appointed earlier this year after the club went into administration for a second time in successive seasons but said Portsmouth were constant victims of an unsustainable benefactor model.

“The fans have probably had their full of people promising the earth and will be happy with a basic football club that is part of the community,” he said.

Birch also believes that Germany’s Bundesliga, with its restrictive majority ownership rules, is a more sustainable way of operating and preventing heavy losses than the Premier League.

“With their 51 per cent rule [in terms of ownership], they don’t have the benefactor model,” he said.

“In terms of financial constraints and being a well-run league it ticks a lot of boxes but of course they haven’t been as successful in European competition as the Premier League has.”

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