Tony Goodall Fans’ Conference

Saturday 14th February – 11am

Attended:

Andrew Cullen, Rich Hughes, Mark Judges & Johnny Moore (PFC)

Andrew Plenty (Armed Forces & Services Club), Barry Dewing (Pompey Independent Supporters’ Association), David Callahan (South West Supporters’ Club), Donald Vass (TGFC Secretary & Chichester Portsmouth Supporters’ Club), Ian Marshall (Chimes Lounge), Ian McKelvie-Seth (South Wales Association of Pompey Supporters), Kev Ryan (Central Branch Supporters’ Club), Mark Roman (South Wales Association of Pompey Supporters), Mike Fulcher (TGFC Chair & Social Media Groups), Mike Whittle (Pompey History Society), Nick Paul (Northern Blues), Pam Wilkins (Pompey Disabled Supporters’ Association), Peter House (Pompey Independent Supporters’ Association), Roy Gregory (Central Branch Supporters’ Club), Steve Heaven-Gandy (Isle Of Wight Supporters’ Club) & Steve Tovey (Legends Lounge).

 Stu Grover & Will Dodds (Hampshire Police)

 

Apologies:

 Gemma Raggett (London Supporters’ Club), Martin Callahan (South West Supporters’ Club),  Simon Colebrook (Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust), Tracy Jane (Portsmouth Women Supporters’ Club) & Vicky Lamb (Her Game Too).

 

1.    First Team Recruitment, Performance and Injuries

 

Q: Millenic Alli and Ebou Adams have made an instant impact in the team. How do you reflect on the club’s January transfer additions?

RH: I’m absolutely delighted with the impact of these two. Milli is a real livewire, and I’ve worked with Ebou before, so I knew what a gem he was going to be. Them coming in early really helped. I know there’s often a narrative around us not getting deals done early and leaving it too late in the window; I did some crude maths on this this week. In the first three weeks in January, Championship clubs made 33 deals. In the last 8 days of the window, there were 50 deals. That shows it’s reflective of the marketplace. The rest of the additions, we’re really pleased with as well. We always look to be stronger at the end of a window than we went into it, and in January we’ve added depth, physicality, pace and power to the squad, all the things we’ve been shy of. Readiness to play in the Championship was really important.

 

Q: The club has suffered a significant number of injuries again this season, impacting our chances of staying up. Why does this keep happening?

RH: Injuries are a natural part of football. For us to compete against teams with more substantial budgets, we do have to be physical. We can’t be passive, we can’t lay off people, we have to play this way – even if we get more injuries as a result. That’s something we’re all aligned to. When we’ve been good, we’ve been front footed and powerful. Sometimes it’s hard to get players up to that level mid-season. We get benchmarking data on injuries throughout the season, so we can see where we sit against other teams. We’re really high against other clubs for ‘severe contact injuries’. We’re part of a larger trend – the number of injuries is increasing every year across football.

 

Q: Are you satisfied with the medical team?

RH: Yes, we’re happy with what they’re doing. We’ve put an increased demand on them this year. We’re asking players to be full-blooded going into contact. In the past, we’ve had lots of muscle injuries, now we’re getting more contact injuries. The demand is in training as well as matches – we can’t ask players to be passive through the week then ask them to be aggressive on a Saturday, we have to train how we want to play. I can’t level any problems at [the medical team’s] work – they’re the last out of the training ground each day and are so thorough and so professional.

 

Q: Portsmouth have to travel more miles than most in a football season. Does the irregular match scheduling cause an additional injury risk to players?

RH: We have stock plans for every variation of the scheduling. We’ve been travelling to longer away games with two coaches, so the players can get some sleep overnight. One of the coaches is a normal coach and the other is full of beds so the players can rest and recover

 

Q: Are players rushing themselves back from injuries too soon?

RH: If you ask players, they’ll always say they don’t consume any social media – but they absolutely do. It’s easy for them to get into that spiral of wanting to prove people wrong. There’s a lot of different psychological impacts to contend with. When Regan Poole tore his ACL a few seasons ago for example, that was really tough for him – he’d never really been injured before. He found that process really tough.

Q: Did we miss out on any targets in January? It was suggested that we would be looking at players with Championship experience, however on deadline day we have gone for loans from lower leagues and signed a centre-half from a club in the second tier of Norwegian football.

RH: If you tie this in with the first question, Milli Alli is a loan from a lower league team, but he’s had a big impact. I thought he was Luton’s best player in the Championship at the back end of last season – he’s still a good signing even though he came from League One. Jacob Brown has scored goals in the Premier League. It’s probably the first time a Championship team has loaned two players from the division below, but ‘Championship ready’ doesn’t have to mean playing in the Championship right now. ‘JoJo’ [Madiodio Dia] isn’t from the Norwegian second division – he came from a relegated side in the Norwegian first tier. We really like him and think he has big upside. Did we miss out on targets? We didn’t get some players we wanted, yes. But of the three we actively targeted to bring in, all three didn’t move in January. That shows it wasn’t cost based – their clubs just weren’t willing to move them in January, even though there was also competition from other clubs for them

 

Q: It’s been reported that we have one of the lowest playing budgets in the division, and John Mousinho recently told The News that we need to “[make] sure we’re up to date on where the market is and where everyone else values a player. I think that’s a conversation we have to make sure we have as a club moving forward.” Have we spent enough to allow us to be competitive in the Championship?

RH: We think we have. Every decision we made, every deal we’ve done, it’s with a view to strengthen and improve the squad. We’ve done key work to strengthen the group and to strength in depth to cope with the Championship. Going into the window, you know every player has a value. But the selling club may not have time to replace them in January – and that adds a premium to what you’d have to pay. That means deals can tip into overpaying, and then it becomes more financially attractive not to do. We’ll be sitting with the board to do a post-window wash-up and look at what the rest of the market is telling us. We’ll show them what fees are being paid elsewhere.

 

On the sale of Callum Lang, the board put no pressure on us to sell the player. Andy, John and I felt it made sense for a number of factors. Do you necessarily need to replace a player who’s only played 8 times in 12 months?

 

Q: Who has the club not registered as part of our 25-man squad? Can any of the players left out move on loan to other clubs?

RH: We’ve registered the players who are fit or close to fit. We haven’t registered players coming back from injuries, but we have left space for them to come in when they’re ready. As long as we register them by 12pm on the day before a game, they can play. It gives us space to breathe and operate. Technically we could loan players out, like we’ve done with Jacob Farrell to Australia, but the only leagues with transfer windows open right now are in Scandinavia, and we’re not looking to do that at the moment.

 

Q: Are you happy with the progress of the Academy?

RH: I’ve worked here for over 3 years – For most of that time, I’ve had to keep saying ‘people in the Academy are working hard, the players are coming’. For the first time, we’re now in a spot where other people are getting to see it too. Andy and I are privileged enough to see the work in the background, but now it’s more visible to everyone else. Tayo Singerr has earned a professional deal and played for the first team, Toby Steward is doing well in Scotland and Elisha Pfupa is a 16-year-old who had a great performance at right-wing against Havant on Tuesday night.

 

We had a technical meeting recently, where we were earmarking the players we like now at 14, 15, 16, and identifying pathways for them. We give opportunities to Academy players who deserve it. Tayo is attracting a lot of interest in loans – but we’re keeping him around as he’s close to the first team.

 

AC: Youth development in this country is not in a great place. Although we’re totally committed to our Academy and have more than doubled our investment over three years, some clubs are considering whether it is worthwhile continuing investing in academies with rising costs, central grant funding not keeping pace and clubs’ emerging under-16 talent being raided by the big six clubs. Radical change and a reset of the youth development system is needed. As Rich has just outlined, at Portsmouth, we’re seeing real progress and positivity at the moment.

 

Q: Would you support the introduction of VAR in the Championship?

RH: I know supporters don’t always view it this way, but I want VAR in every game. I get the fan sentiment, but if we’d have had VAR this season, we’d have had more penalties, and possibly more points. I believe we’d be in a better position this year with VAR, as there have been key decisions that have gone against us this year. In the Premier League, it’s led to a greater level of accuracy and decision-making. The whole system needs refinement, but as a sporting professional, I’d like to see it used.

 

2.    Facilities, Travel & Local Infrastructure

 

Q: In light of the recent postponements due to frost and a waterlogged pitch, are there plans in place to improve the pitch and drainage, or to install under-soil heating?

AC: Prior to the Ipswich postponement, the owners had already agreed to invest in a new pitch this summer. This is great news. It also means that Pompey Women can play the majority of their games here next season as well, which will provide the impetus to accelerate interest and support for the women’s team. Undersoil heating, which would cost roughly £700,000 extra on top of over the £1m-plus outlay on the pitch, is not planned at this stage, but we’ve only needed it once in the last 16 years – the recent Ipswich game. Any new pitch going in wouldn’t have saved the second Ipswich postponement. We had the best part of 220mm of rain in January, compared to 95mm of rain in an average January. For the Ipswich postponement, we took an early decision mid-morning on the day of the match to help travelling supporters, before their coaches left Portman Road, not to mention the large number of home fans who travelling distances to support Pompey

 

Q: The popularity of the Fanzone has caused some fans to report overcrowding difficulties, such as the walkways getting very congested. Are there any plans to improve this ahead of next season?

AC: The Fanzone is hugely popular, The only way we could potentially prevent congestion is to close the area off and make it ticket access only, but this would create issues as people use it as a walk-through both ways between the north and south of the stadium for access and egress.  Strategically, we would like to explore how we can widen the nearby alley to make access here easier.

 

Q: Can we have an update on the Fratton Footbridge Feasibility Study?

AC: I reported at the last meeting that Lawrence Bowman, Managing Director of the newly nationalised South Western Railway, had met with the feasibility Board stakeholders with Stephen Morgan MP at Fratton Park. Since then, the feasibility Board has met again. Network Rail gave us different options on cost, which are extraordinarily high. The stakeholders have asked Network Roil to explore how the costs might be engineered and we will see those results at our next stakeholder board meeting.

 

Q: Oxford United are reportedly paying only £1.05m towards the cost of improving the local train station as part of their new stadium development.  

AC: If we’d only had to pay £1.05m it would have been done by now. This is not just a Portsmouth Football Club problem – it will regenerate the whole area. But currently, it would take an astronomical sum of money. We are appealing to central government to take a lead on this. The regeneration of the area delivered by this bridge will create jobs, help with housing, and much more. We’re in continued communication with our local MP on the matter who is supportive.

 

Q: Do the police have a view on the issues at Fratton station on a matchday?

SG: Fratton train station is a bit of a nightmare. We are working with them on how best to implement a safe queuing system. Currently, the station opens straight out onto Goldsmith Avenue, which is not a closed road. We would love a pedestrian footbridge to help with this.

 

3.    South Coast Derby

 

Q: Having now played both the home and away league fixture, what are the club’s reflections on the arrangements made for supporters for these games? If the fixture is played again next year, would the clubs look to enforce club-managed travel for away supporters again?

MJ: Ultimately, the plans were executed well for both fixtures in our eyes. Our aim was to have both sets of supporters arrive and leave safely. Obviously, we encountered some challenges, but overall, we felt the games were operated well. We understand and respect that not everyone wanted to travel in this way, but we got support from our fans for the arrangements, and it’s hard not to argue it was the right decision.

 

Honestly, we would probably still look to use a club-managed travel plan if the game were to be played again in the future. Our aim, alongside the police, is to get fans to and from the stadium safely. If things had played out differently, there would have been flashpoints all around the ground. We’re happy to listen to feedback. We will speak to fans, speak to police, and speak to the other club involved, but there are only so many options to get people in and out safely. The easy option is not to do it this way – it required huge resources and had a huge impact on people’s time over and above their usual workload at the club. The length and effort to cater for every single supporter was immense. The club answered every single email that came into the south coast derby email address, including up to 6am on the day of the game.

 

Unfortunately, some events at the game now form part of an FA investigation. In the stadium, we need to continue to plead with fans to bring the passion as that takes the team forward but be careful not to cross the line into criminal behaviour.

 

SG: We’re working with the club and will support them with their decision-making. It took significant work from the club to get the fans in safely for the games. We’re yet to have our full review on this fixture, but our sense and feeling was that it went really well. There is an investigation going on into fan behaviour in the North Lower corner by the Milton End – we’ll be focusing on that and wanting to prevent that in the future.

 

Q: Did the CCTV footage allow you to identify the people involved in the disorder?

AC: We’ve got very good coverage within the ground – roughly 250 cameras in total. For the Southampton fixture, we invested around £30,000 in enhanced CCTV alongside the police. This was extremely useful in helping to identify those who threw objects and the flashbang. The clarity of those additional cameras has been extremely useful.

 

SG: It’s a phenomenal bit of kit – we’ve got really clear pictures. That has supported our investigation and enabled us to make arrests for the thrown objects.

 

Q: The visiting side were given the biggest away allocation of the league season at Fratton Park, and some fans would prefer them to be restricted to the normal allocation of around 2,000. It was disappointing that, despite being the most anticipated game of the season, it was the league game with the fewest Pompey fans in attendance.

AC: Even if we limited Southampton to 2,000 tickets, it’s very unlikely we would be allowed Portsmouth fans in the Milton End for this fixture. We would be depriving ourselves of 700 ticket sales, for a fixture which is already expensive to put on.

 

MJ: There’s the added cause and effect – if we do limit Southampton’s allocation, we could only get 2,000 in return for the away fixture. We’ll discuss this again next season if we find ourselves in the same division next year.

 

Q: Are you still concerned about recent reports that the government may look to charge event organisers for more policing costs?

AC: It would have a major impact on all fixtures, giving police the chance to put costs back on to clubs. There is a consultation on this going on at the moment. It could mean the possibility of a ‘police tax’ on events like football. Based on [Police and Crime Commissioner] Donna Jones’s estimate of £125,000, it might mean £7.20 added to the cost of every ticket. That specific example has been included in a submission to the Home Office consultation on this matter. The imposition of such a tax would go against everything government has tried to do for football supporters, through the introduction of the IFR and Fan Led Review. The additional cost to the club for today’s fixture (Sheffield United) would likely be around £20,000-£30,000. One of the things in the submission is that the only way such costs could be mitigated is through a reduction in away allocations, or even away fans being banned from football altogether. This would be an unintended consequence. None of us want to see that and I would urge supporters to lobby their MPs on this matter.

 

4.    Piglet’s Pantry

Q: What’s the current situation regarding Piglet’s Pantry, and how is this likely to impact the club’s catering moving forward?

AC: Piglet’s Pantry called an urgent meeting with me shortly after the final whistle of the West Brom game. They told me they were no longer able to fulfil their contract to Portsmouth. Our arrangement was such that Piglet’s Pantry ran the full catering operation – including employing all the staff – and Portsmouth took a share of the revenue. They told us that staff hadn’t been paid since mid-December and were due to be paid on the Wednesday after the Ipswich game. On the Tuesday after the West Brom match, they wrote to their staff to tell them they couldn’t pay them and that they had instructed an insolvency practitioner. The seven salaried staff can apply for the government’s protection scheme on their due salaries, but casual staff are not protected. There are around 280-290 staff working on catering at Fratton Park on any given matchday, from a pool of around 500 casual staff.

 

We had to quickly decide what to do going forward. We put out our own statement, saying that we would take on any catering staff who wanted to continue working at Fratton Park. We then had to engage them, employ them, sort out contracts, carry out right to work checks, and much more. What I’ve seen this week is a testament to the true values of this football club. I saw first-hand that those values mean much more than words, with our staff and colleagues all pulling together in a moment of crisis. I’m really sad for Piglets with whom we enjoyed such a fantastic relationship and they have done so much in partnership to build our matchday experience. I am though overwhelmed by how the team of people here have all come together to ensure our supporters can enjoy a strong uninterrupted catering offering today.

 

The reality is that we have not received our revenue share for those games since mid-December, but the most important thing here is the people. They haven’t been paid, and we wanted to give them the security of their jobs going forward.

 

I’ve been in contact with both our local MPs, who have been getting calls from affected constituents. Amanda Martin MP asked us whether we might pay staff early after today’s game, as they’ve not been paid by Piglets since mid-December – and that’s what we’re doing. We’re paying them early next week, so they’re not waiting a whole month for money to come in.

 

There is also a GoFundMe page which has been set up by our partners and sponsors to support the workers affected. It has currently raised over £11,000, with people coming together to support those working in lounges and kiosks.

 

MJ: I’d like to echo Andy’s point – it’s been amongst the toughest 10 days I’ve had in sports administration. I’ve seen people stand up and do more than we could expect. The empathy shown by the team has been second to none. Moving forward, the club has taken the decision to bring catering in house for the rest of the season. That means we can support the staff financially and give them consistency. We believe in supporting the economic ecosystem of our city and our island. The reality of trying to set that up in 2 weeks has been very challenging, but we’ve done what we’d have liked to have been done if we were on the other side of it.

 

Thanks to people who have donated to the GoFundMe page – we all want to do the right thing for this community.

 

You won’t see any Piglet’s Pantry products stocked at Fratton Park today. Instead, we’ve used Willy’s Pies today, who work with Norwich and Arsenal. Will fans see any difference? Hopefully not. Our supporters are used to premium pies, so we didn’t want to go down the route of using a cheaper supplier. I hope today you can buy a sausage roll and not tell the difference. The pricing will stay the same, so fans get a consistent experience. In hospitality, we’ve got the same food suppliers and the same great Head Chef.

 

I’m incredibly grateful for the support of Andy and others. We’ll take stock at the end of the season and review the different options we have available for the future. In these scenarios, it’s challenging, but there’s excitement about the future.

 

5.    Other

 

Q: Is the club close to appointing a new Chief Financial Officer to replace Tony Brown?

AC: Yes – we have appointed Ronan Callaghan as our new CFO. Ronan is currently Group Finance Director for Wentworth Golf Club owned by The Reignwood Group. He is due to start with us on the 2nd of March and is currently working his notice period. We’re really pleased to have him after an extensive recruitment process. Ronan is passionate about the game and was an Academy footballer at Brighton and Hove Albion from 8-16 years old.

 

Q: Yet again one of Pompey’s longest away games is scheduled for a lunchtime kick-off, after the Blackburn away fixture was selected for Sky coverage. Can PFC take into account the difficulties it causes for the loyal travelling fans and ask the EFL and Sky to take these issues more seriously when making future scheduling?

AC: When the new TV deal was announced, the EFL delivered an increased deal for teams in a declining domestic market. Other leagues were struggling to sell broadcast rights, so the EFL did a good job, but it did come at a price – more games on TV. Notice periods have improved, but beyond the 1st of March we go down to a 4-week notice period. Everyone wants to see greater investment in players and squads – the TV revenue goes straight into the playing squad, lifting the quality of the team. There’s a movement at the moment to see the end of the Saturday 3pm blackout. I am mindful that could seriously impact the football ecosystem, especially at EFL and grassroots level, and there needs to be a careful considered debate on all of that.

 

MJ: There will be some football fans who choose to pick their warm sofa rather than travelling to games, but Portsmouth fans are made of hardier stuff than that. Do tickets sell slower for Tuesday night than Saturday? Yes. But do we still sell out? Yes. Our fanbase is amazing. The propensity to buy is still high. We have sold out every home game for the last 2 and a half years.

 

Q: Some supporters have mentioned that the navigation menu and options for booking stadium tours on the club website aren’t very intuitive. Could the user experience in this section be reviewed to see whether it could be made clearer or easier to book?

AC: We’ve linked matchday tours to games on our ticketing website, as we do for parking. That means supporters don’t see different iterations of each game. We haven’t had any feedback from supporters on this but have spoken to the Pompey History Society about this issue, who I understand are now pleased with the changes. In the last few years, we ran 37 tours in the 22/23 season, 62 in the 23/24 season, 85 in the 24/25 season, and have run 50 already this season.

 

6.    AOB

 

Q: Have you seen an increase in supporters using the ticket exchange now that supporters get more money back for selling their ticket?

MJ: We’ve seen similar numbers for the ticket exchange, but an uptake in forwarding and exchanging. We still have the issue of people selling tickets privately on social media, but we are still taking an informed approach with these people. Nobody has had their season ticket removed. What has happened for the last 2 years is that we have blocked match tickets being sold privately and got them to come into the ticket office for a conversation. It’s illegal to sell tickets and means we can’t control who’s in the ground. We don’t want people here with banning orders, for example. Ticket forwarding to friends and family is quick, easy and free. We’ve posted a step-by-step guide on our website.

 

Q: We’ve seen an increase in fan behaviour problems in recent months. What’s the police’s view of it?

SG: There are lots of things people don’t realise are a crime at football, and people don’t realise the impact it can have on them. At the 2019 fixture against Southampton, one lad got an 18-month prison sentence for throwing a Haribo across the train station platform because it was part of wider disorder at that game. Judges and courts take a very dim view of disorder at football matches and the areas around a football ground. Hate crimes are an issue across the country at the moment. The club has done a good job on confidential reporting, which means fans are helping police and the club to tackle issues.  

 

Following several FA investigations into fan conduct at recent home games, a majority of supporter groups represented at the TGFC agreed to release a joint statement in support of the club.

 

–       Minutes by Donald Vass.