Portsmouth, the Premier League football club with mounting, unpayable debts, have decided to take drastic action ahead of Friday's scheduled winding-up order, and have appointed a team of administrators.
By entering into administration, Pompey will be docked nine points, but the winding up order against them due to be heard on 1 March will be suspended.
One of the administrators is Tracy Smith, 19 from Southsea. Tracy is a typist, and says she prefers typing to her last job as a till operator at the local Tesco, although there are certain obvious similarities.
Another one of the team is Julie Skivvy of nearby Hayling. Julie abandoned her job as a Career Doley and took up a LearnDirect Officework course last October. She has already learnt to read well enough to be able to do filing. She also doubles as a cleaner and bog-unblocker, and will be an indispensable part of the Fratton Park administration team.
Head of the unit will be Dave Jinks. He is a former traffic warden, and trudged the streets of Portsmouth for more than 30 years before 'coming inside' and turning his hand to office work. He managed an office at a local timber firm for a while before being demoted due to a sexual abuse allegation which was never proven.
Phil Hall, a spokesman for Pompey owner, Balram Chainrai, said:
"I don't know why we didn't hire an administration team a long time ago. They're so efficient! They do all the typing, filing, telephone-answering, that sort of thing. And Tracy makes a beautiful cup of tea as well!"
