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By Nick Harris
28 April 2010
The Premier League and the Football Association have this afternoon released a joint statement clarifying why Portsmouth have been denied a place in next season’s Europa League, and why that fact won’t change.
The club’s administrator, Andrew Andronikou, has been quoted as saying that he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for Pompey to win the right to play in Europe. Under normal circumstances, they would be in Europe next season because they have reached the FA Cup final – and with Chelsea’s place in Europe already assured, the ‘FA Cup’ place passes to Pompey.
But the Premier League / FA statement states that following Andronikou’s comments, the bodies “would like to make clear” the following:
- Portsmouth did not meet the strict 1 March deadline for applications for a Uefa Club Licence for the 2010-11 season.
- Portsmouth have not, as of today (28 April), put in a formal application for a Uefa Club Licence for the 2010-11 season.
- The FA and Premier League “made Mr Andronikou’s lawyers, whom we had been asked to deal with, aware on 16 April that we would not accept a late Uefa Club Licence application from Portsmouth”.
- The exceptional circumstances referred to by Mr Andronikou [when saying clubs can appeal late for European places] only apply to clubs who qualify for European competition whilst they are in the Football League – the most recent example being Cardiff City.
- In any event, in order for a club to obtain a Uefa Club Licence for the 2010-11 season they need to show that as of December 2009 they had no outstanding money owed to the tax authorities or football clubs. “This is manifestly not the case for Portsmouth,” the statement says.
The statement concludes: “The Premier League and the FA are both fully committed to upholding the governance criteria set out in the Uefa Licence for all clubs looking to compete in European competition.”
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