I went to my first football match as long ago as 1944. Portsmouth were playing Crystal Palace in a wartime friendly... and won 9-1 thanks to borrowed soldiers like Ted Drake. This is the team for me I decided. So I have now followed the team all over the country, from Spotland to York, Wrexham to Gig Lane, for 68 years. Crikey, as long as that?
In the last three years my team has won the FA Cup, lost to Chelsea in a final, had some of the best players (Crouch, Defoe, Johnson, David James, Muntari, Diarra) and... crashed to bankruptcy. It became the plaything of billionnaire fraudsters and crooks, using the club to borrow vast sums of money, asset stripping and doing the stuff that Liverpool and Manchester United know so well. Last year we had four different owners, though one was never seen -- it is rumoured he didn't exist. You couldn't make it up. The present owner has no interest in football, Portsmouth FC or the community. But with over £100m in debts, an antiquated stadium, no training ground, the price of £25m is too high even for oil-rich sheikhs.
We fans haven't sat back. We formed a supporters' group and are ready to form a new club on a local ground (Havant & Waterlooville) in the Conference should the almost inevitable happen: liquidation. It is time for fans everywhere to take things into their own hands for, without them, no football club could exist.
James Riordan is the author of THE YOUNG OXFORD BOOK OF FOOTBALL STORIES; MATCH OF DEATH; WAR FOOTBALL and his autobiography:COMRADE JIM. THE SPY WHO PLAYED FOR SPARTAK.
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