THE GAME`S UP....

Some years ago, I bought some shares in Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC (SLH), the holding company which owns Southampton Football Club. When I bought them, the price was about 39p a share and I said at the time that I didn`t look upopn it as a financial investment but an emotional one, since I have followed the fortunes of The Saints since my father first took me to The Dell in 1946 (Southampton 4 - Derby County 2.)

How right I was to view my investment as emotional. When the team was riding high in the Premiership and reaching the FA Cup Final, the share price rose to something like 70p. I never once thought about `profit taking.` After relegation, battles against yet more relegation which are still going on, boardroom wrangles, inept management, dwindling crowds and a painful decline, shares in SLH have this morning been suspended with the price listed at 9.5p per share.

I gather that SLH, as a holding company, are likely to go into administration, which for some unfathomable reason will avoid the football club itself incurring a points deduction either this season or, more probably, next. This move smacks of yet more sleight of hand by Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Lowe and can only result in the reputation of the club sinking even lower, if you will excuse the pun. But whatever happens, the future - if indeed there is one - can only be bleak, which is sad given the years and years of achievement, entertainment, history and tradition of a once proud club. The game`s up, I fear, accompanied by a wave of mixed emotions, shoulders being shrugged and share certificates being shredded.