Portsmouth Primed For New Season, New Team

The debt-ridden football club Portsmouth has been given special permission by the Premier League to sell players outside of the traditional transfer windows in an effort to help ease their current financial crisis.

Portsmouth, who lost 5-0 to Chelsea last night and have already had 9 points deducted as a penalty for going in to administration, will most certainly be relegated to the Championship.

Portsmouth became the first club in the top flight to go to administration with debts of roughly £60 million, and have already laid off 85 staffers to cut costs.

So, it came as a much needed respite when the Premier League re-considered its initial verdict on Wednesday and issued a statement giving permission to the club to sell its players outside of  the transfer windows. They do, however, need to fulfill certain conditions before the sales can go through:

1. Players may be sold to other Premier League Clubs, but may not play first team football for the new club before the end of the season.

2. Players may be sold to a Football League or foreign club, subject to FIFA's approval.

3. Portsmouth FC may enter into an agreement with another Premier League, Football League or foreign club that a player will be transferred to that other club in the summer.

Following the transfer news, club administrator Andrew Andronikou was quick to point out that he wants the club to start next season with an entirely new squad. Adronikou told Soccernet:

"The major assets of this football club are the supporters who pay to watch their team, and then come the players. My job is to maximize both...

We have got to be clever in the way we maximize the value of the club's greatest asset: the players themselves. We need to sell between eight and ten of our first-team squad.

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