Interesting debate on 606:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A63481016
If the club were allowed to sell their half-decent players they would be left with an even worse team than they played the first half of the season - this would give an advantage to teams yet to play them... Whereas, when Gordon Ferquhar said "if Portsmouth go under all their points would be cancelled and the league table would be falsely affected", he has failed to back that up with any logic - surely if all points were cancelled then everyone gets zero - and this is totally fair.
It happens in many other leagues at lower levels, and other sports - because it's 'fair'.
Ask anyone that has played FA grass roots football and they'll confirm that if a team drops out the points are cancelled for all.