Rangers and Portsmouth Enter Administration

Rangers F.C. (one of the two biggest teams in the Scottish Premier League along with Celtic F.C.) is a Glaswegian side who are currently said to owe at least £49m to the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) in supposed taxes that were avoided through payment plans based out of the UK. The attempt to dodge these payments through some sort of employee-benefit trust scheme sends them into administration, a situation in the UK very similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. The one key exception between administration and bankruptcy is that in the UK and "administrator" steps in at the company and runs the finances as opposed to the idea of the "debtor in possession" who still runs the company now under much more stringent financial watch in the US. Also, any team who enters into administration takes a huge blow in the tables as they're deducted points for not being able to support themselves.

The big deal about this is that Rangers are literally half of the SPL. Their games against Celtic, known as "Old Firm Derbies," are widely regarded as some of the greatest games of football in the world outside of the major tournaments. If Rangers are to actually go down into liquidation they will reform but it's not exactly clear how. There is an option that they could attempt to join the English leagues at the lowest level but there would have to be much negotiations in the FA. One of the other biggest things to come out of this is what will happen to Celtic if they are to just be left at the top of Scotland all by themselves. There's also talk of them joining into the English leagues but this would be even more complicated because as it stands they're too good to join at a low level and work their way up through the seasons but at the same time, they can't just jump into the Championship as it would disallow another team who'd earned its spot.

Portsmouth, who are looking at relegation in the Championship, have also just entered administration and are in a bad spot right now but it's nothing in comparison the extreme crisis at Rangers. They owe around £4 or £5m in taxes due to negligent owners. It looks like they'll probably end up getting out of this as they have a huge fan base and could draw the attention of a very good new owner who's up for a challenge.

Manchester Clubs and Spurs Fly While Wins Dry Up for Challengers

About two months ago this line would've read as a joke (at least the Manchester part). In December both Manchester clubs went out of the Champions League at the group stages while Arsenal and Chelsea moved on. This earned the failed sides a spot in the Europa League (or Champions League Lite, if you like). Last week MUFC played away at Ajax (a very good club from Netherlands) and won comfortably putting out a good side while City went to face Porto (the best Portuguese side, previously managed by Andre Villas-Boas, now manager of Chelsea). City won very comfortably as well in a very good match against a great team. Although it was a Europa League game, they are both Champions League teams.
Tottenham have been looking better than ever as their manager, Harry Redknapp, was both acquitted of charges of tax evasion and became highly favored to be the next England manager on the same day.

Under them in the table sit Arsenal and Chelsea. Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger is facing increasing pressure for money not spent (correctly) in the trade windows. Arsenal have become a team that lets their best players go while bringing in new talent that still needs cultivation before reaching the necessary level of play. As those new players do reach that point where they are "good enough" they are traded and the cycle begins again. This has all been most recently highlighted last week with their 4-0 loss to AC Milan in the Champions League and today with their 2-0 loss to Sunderland in the FA Cup.

Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas is under amazing pressure from Russian owner Roman Abramovich who has recently been seen at the Chelsea training grounds. Their steady decline in play along with rumors that the senior players don't agree with the young manager have brought a lot of questions to the west London side. A loss 3-0 to Napoli in the Champions League and a 1-1 draw at Championship side Birmingham in the FA Cup today haven't helped their cause.

The potentially greatest thing about all of this is that Jose Mourinho (manager of Real Madrid and former manager of Chelsea) has basically said he wants out of Spain and wants to return to England (maybe Chelsea). This would be an extra slap in the face to Villas-Boas as he used to be an assistant coach for Mourinho. In a recent interview AVB was giving credit to those who'd taught and influenced him and failed to mention Mourinho in that category. And while all of this is happening Pep Guardiola (the Barcelona manager) has also expressed interest in trying his talents on a new stage and new country. It would seem that he would fit in well at Arsenal if Wenger was to leave, by his own will or not. So the possibility of these bitter managing rivals facing off with new squads at their command is actually not too far from a reality.