Portsmouth must sell to escape administration

While the owners of Chelsea and Manchester City lavish money on their expensive playthings the Premier League's bottom club is struggling to survive after missing three deadlines to pay its players their wages for December.

Pompey now face going into administration unless they can offload players during the transfer window as they struggle to make ends meet.

The club's chief executive Peter Storrie said selling players could be the only "way to keep this club alive", and added: "If you do not sell, then you could well be going into administration."

Portsmouth's executive director Mark Jacob told the BBC that the monthly wage bill, believed to be around £3m, will be cleared today. The players should have been paid on 31 December, but were told they would have to wait until 5 January, yet they were not paid on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Nick Cusack, the senior executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, has got involved in the debate. He claimed Pompey's failure to pay threatened the "integrity" of the Premier League. "Portsmouth cannot carry on like this," he said.

The club are already banned from signing new players and earlier this week it emerged that the Premier League would use Portsmouth's share of TV money to help pay off its debts - £7m will be split between Chelsea, Tottenham and Watford.

It has been a disastrous season on and off the field for Pompey who sit at the foot of the league table and face relegation. They have fallen a long way since winning the FA Cup in 2008.

The club's current owner Ali al-Faraj only took over in October and has struggled to find finance. He came in after the shortlived regime of United Arab Emirates businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim, who was in charge of the club for just six weeks.

But even the biggest clubs are not immune from financial pressure. Despite the wealth of their backers both Chelsea and Manchester City posted big losses this week and could face being banned from Europe.

Uefa is proposing regulations that would penalise clubs that make big long-term losses. It is thought both Premier League clubs will need to break even within four years to escape punishment. ·