• Image rights test case could have major consequences
• Taxman claims cash-strapped Pompey owe £18.2m
Portsmouth will be cheered on by the rest of Britain’s professional clubs when they defend themselves against the taxman in the high court next Tuesday. Every UK football club – as well as those in rugby and cricket – who give their players an image rights payment as part of their salaries have an interest in
• Flight delays, missing kit and injuries dog US tour
• It’s painful, admits manager Steve Cotterill
If Portsmouth thought that things could hardly get any worse for them after going into administration, being relegated from the Premier League and having a transfer embargo imposed upon them, they were sorely mistaken.
A disastrous pre-season tour of North America concluded yesterday with a 4-0 thrashing inflicted by DC United in which the English side had to borrow kit to clad their patchwork team of youth players and senior pros after losing their luggage during a lightning-storm affected, 27-hour journey, in which they spent much of that time in transit at an hotel near Chicago airport.
Portsmouth’s two-week trip to the States has been dogged with almost farcical problems. So limited are the club’s player reserves that more than half of their squad in the US had never played a first team game for the side before the tour, leaving the manager Steve Cotterill with little option but to field youth players.
Their initial journey from England to their first game in San Diego took 42 hours after a connecting flight was cancelled, leaving the squad stranded in Chicago. Then, after they had travelled to Canada – where, against Edmonton, Cotterill had a back five made up of three second-year professionals and two triallists – two players had to be sent home with injuries, including a suspected broken leg for the goalkeeper Jon Stewart.
Cotterill must have been hoping his luck would change. However his squad were then stranded in Chicago once again as a storm grounded their plane from Edmonton to Washington. When they eventually arrived for Saturday’s game against DC United, they did so having had just four hours sleep and without being able to train for three days. “The time it took us to get here, we could have flown to Australia,” said the furious manager.
The club’s midfielder Michael Brown added: “After a cancelled plane the boys got up at three in the morning to get another plane that was then delayed which meant we got to Washington just a few hours before the game.”
Worse was to come, though. During the flight, 14 of their bags went missing – including the one containing their kit. After being forced to borrow DC United’s change kit, they then strode out on to the pitch to find the temperature was 38C (100F), the hottest day of the year in the the US capital so far.
“The temperature at the stadium was unbelievable,” said Brown. “The lads all lost 4kgs. That tells you how hot it was. It was very humid. We came from Edmonton, where it wasn’t too hot, straight to this. But, just like throughout the two weeks, we’ve had to deal with it.”
Once on the pitch, the situation – almost unbelievably – worsened. The goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown, fighting to earn a new contract, injured himself as he collided with his team-mate Joel Ward and had to be substituted. Then, as the heat rose, tempers flared. Hayden Mullins was sent off after getting into an argument with DC United’s Santino Quaranta. Quaranta himself was also dismissed after appearing to spit at Mullins, before a second player for the US team, Julius James, was also sent off in the last minute.
“I can’t believe he’s been allowed to officiate a game,” said Cotterill of the referee. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
The result hardly seemed important after Portsmouth’s tribulations. In the event, they were sunk by a hat-trick from the Australian veteran Danny Allsopp.
“Probably that result summed up the tour for us really – it has been extremely tough,” said Cotterill.
He added: “We were OK for 20 minutes against DC United, but after that we were shot. The next 70 minutes were very painful and hard for the players.
“The one thing about this result is that it’s shown the position we’re in. It’s painful. We’ve got some good honest senior lads here and some youngsters who are trying their hardest. The kids have got to be at full tilt to be anywhere near the team, and we’re going to be playing in a mans’ league in a couple of weeks’ time.”
PortsmouthChampionshipTom Bryantguardian.co.uk
Mike Marqusee (Come on you Ghana, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Korea, Italy …, 8 June) is well wide of the mark to suggest that neutral watchers of the World Cup are the luckiest. The most fortunate supporters of all will be those who passionately support a team and then see them win the trophy. As Mike points out, moments of joy for most supporters will be few and far between. But to my mind, the possibility of such elation is what makes the game worth following. As a Fulham supporter, I had the intense joy this year of seeing my team get to the final of European competition for the first time ever. There were moments of elation during the cup run and, despite losing the final, I wouldn’t swap the experience of the run for anything. A friend who supports Portsmouth feels that all the misery of his club’s receivership and relegation were worth suffering for the experience of his team winning the FA Cup in 2008.
I will be watching and supporting England and probably will end up bitterly disappointed as usual. I would not, however, swap my experience for the bland indifference of the neutral.
Tim Matthews
Luton, Bedfordshire
• If Mike Marqusee doesn’t want to invest his emotional support in one team, he’s not entitled to, nor will he understand, the extraordinary pleasure I’ll get in the (admittedly unlikely) event that England win the tournament. Choosing not to support any one team because they might disappoint you is like opting not to form a relationship, pursue a career or have a child in case it doesn’t turn out well. Come on, England!
Warwick Smith
Ardingly, West Sussex
• Interesting that the criteria by which New Yorker Mike Marqusee decides his allegiance includes neither the country of his birth nor the one in which he has lived and worked for decades.
Lou George
Kendal, Cumbria
World Cup 2010EnglandFulhamPortsmouthguardian.co.uk
