Arsène Wenger calls on Premier League to safeguard Portsmouth

Arsène Wenger has called on the Premier League to provide Portsmouth with a "minimum payment" to ensure they complete their remaining fixtures this season. A high court hearing on 1 March will decide on a winding-up petition issued by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs against the club and Wenger believes it would damage the integrity of the division if that led to their instant dissolution. "The Premier League must guarantee a minimum payment," he told the Arsenal magazine. "You cannot pretend you are in the best league in the world if a team stops competing in the middle of the season. It's impossible. "I think they [Portsmouth] have at least to play until the end of the season. It would be completely unfair on the rest of the league otherwise. The league would not make sense any more if Portsmouth did not complete their fixtures." Wenger says he is "pessimistic" about Portsmouth's chances of coming through their current financial crisis, whose latest twist was the club yesterday asking the Premier League to allow them to sell players outside the transfer window. "I worry for their future," the Frenchman added. "It's terrible that some clubs will go out of business because it's part of the history of the country."