LONDON — The Premier League has fit-and-proper-person criteria that anyone wanting to take over a club must pass. Ali al-Faraj, a Saudi businessman, assumed control of Portsmouth in October after fulfilling the criteria, yet each month since then the players' wages have not been paid on time.
The criteria seems to concentrate on any criminal record rather than securing financial guarantees. Al-Faraj took over from Sulaiman Al-Fahim, who held the keys at Fratton Park for 42 days, after passing the Premier League test. That cannot be a fit or proper time scale to be king of an English football club before selling on.
What is indisputable is that Portsmouth is in a proper mess, threatened with administration and having promised to pay the players' December wages totaling £1.8 million last Tuesday, payment was delayed for two more days.