PREMIER League boss Richard Scudamore has admitted that any top-flight club which went out of business would be guilty of ‘‘rank bad management.’’ But the chief executive of the world’s richest football league would not rule out a Premier League club going into administration.

Portsmouth have struggled to pay their players three times already this season and currently are banned from transfers, with the January tranche of their broadcast revenue having been withheld and used to pay clubs who are owed money.

Scudamore insisted the club’s transfer embargo will stay in place until they have no outstanding liabilities.

On whether a top-flight club could go to the wall, Scudamore said: ‘‘Given the amount of central income that is generated by the Premier League, it would be down to absolutely rank bad management if a club was to go into administration.’’ Scudamore refuted that the Premier League could have done something sooner to avert the financial crisis at Portsmouth and put the blame squarely on the club’s owners He said: ‘‘We can only go by our rule book. I don’t think anyone wants the Premier League running football clubs, it’s very much for the owners to run the clubs.

‘‘In fairness to the people at Portsmouth they’ve had a succession of owners through there and the people there now are scrabbling very hard to make sure this club stays alive.

‘‘There’s only a certain point at which we can intervene.

We changed our rules in September and now, when we see the financials (reports) that come in from clubs at the end of March, we will be able to take a stronger role to come in and make sure they are sustainable.’’ Scudamore revealed that the ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test was not designed to ensure an owner had enough funds to run a club.

He said: ‘‘Do you want to just have a club that barely survives in the Premier League? Do you actually want to own a club that is safely mid-table? Do you want to own a club that pushes for Europe? Do you want to own a club that guarantees being in the Champions League?

‘‘Your attitude and answers to those questions give you an answer as to what sort of money might be required and we at the Premier League are never going to be intervening to the level where we decide how much it needs to run a club.

‘‘It’s the amount of debt relative to your income that’s the critical issue.’’