The full breakdown of Portsmouth’s debts makes horrendous reading.

And you fear something similar could happen at Hull as the Armageddon of relegation from the Premier League approaches.

It’s hard to comprehend some of the telephone figures of debt racked up by these clubs.

But it is the smaller numbers that really hit home; the £500 here or there that is owed to the St John Ambulance, the local printers, the butcher who delivers to the training ground.

Most of them will be genuine supporters and they will all suffer. None will get the full whack of what they are unpaid – the newsagent owed £900 by Pompey will be lucky to see a quarter of that.

The same thing happened with City’s meltdown in 2002 and 2004. Local Bradford firms were hit the hardest.

Meanwhile, the players get every penny back. As preferred creditors, they are entitled to the lot – and stuff the rest.

The PFA union got it written in stone to protect their “members”. Who cares about the little guy in the corner shop who will earn less in a year than these footballers take home each week?

Yes, the players aren’t to blame if their employers cannot afford to keep up a contract which had been signed in good faith. But equally, I’m sure the agreement with a local firm wasn’t set up on an ad-hoc basis that “we might pay you a bit every now and then”.

That is what is so wrong about the administration system.

You can debate the validity of docking points on the pitch for the reckless actions off it. And you can question whether it’s morally right clubs should be allowed to “get away with” slashing their debts through such a process.

But I can’t see the justification in some receiving all they are owed while the rest have to make do with scraps.

Especially when the ones taking their full share are arguably those who least need it.