Tony Goodall Fans’ Conference

Tuesday 28th April – 6:30pm

Attended:

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

Barry Dewing (Pompey Independent Supporters’ Association), Donald Vass (TGFC Secretary & Chichester Portsmouth Supporters’ Club), Gemma Raggett (London Supporters’ Club), Ian Marshall (Chimes Lounge), Ian McKelvie-Seth (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), Roy Gregory (Central Branch Supporters’ Club), Scott Clarke (Clan Pompey), Simon Colebrook (Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust), Steve Heaven-Gandy (Isle of Wight Supporters’ Club), Steve Tovey (Legends Lounge), Susie Chiverton (Portsmouth Women Supporters’ Club) & Tony Howe-Haysome (Armed Forces & Services Club).

Apologies:

Adrian Foster (South Wales Association of Pompey Supporters), Graham Price (Pompey 808) & Kev Ryan (Central Branch Supporters’ Club).

 

Agenda:

 

1. First Team Performance and Budget

 

Q: What is the club’s assessment of this season? Does the club consider it a successful season, and if so why?

RH: It’s difficult to describe. We have secured our Championship status, so we’re pleased with that, but I feel there were some games where we left points out there. There’s some disappointment there. But the main feeling is the achievement of maintaining our status into a third year. That gives us the platform to keep building. We want to get better across the club – we want to improve the team and improve behind the scenes. The work we’ve done, matching last season’s points total with the opportunity to go past it, is a sign of progress.

Removing Sheffield Wednesday, we feel the Championship has been stronger this year, given the clubs who came up from League One. The key message from us is that we’re pleased, but want to get better, and continue building a better version of the group year on year.

We’ve also had some positivity this year around the academy and the first mechanism of the player trading model with the sale of Callum Lang in January. There’s lots to be pleased with, but also balanced with the burning desire from everyone to get better and improve, and to be a better football club next season.

 

Q: Supporters are relieved to have avoided relegation again, but there remains concerns over the playing budget next year. Will we increase the money spent on the pitch to give the team a better chance of competing with similar clubs, and to avoid being in another relegation battle next season?

AC: We’re in a very competitive division where money doesn’t necessarily equal success. Some clubs are in the top 6 without a top 10 budget, and one of the clubs with the very highest budget has been relegated.  We are in a season where three clubs have an asterisk against their points total – that shows the state of financial overspending and challenges within the division.

The owners invested £8m in cash last year, and a further £9m was invested between July and December. There was further significant investment from the owners after December. A further significant sum will be required for 2026-27, which reflects their increased commitment to the club. We’re now at a stage of switching the ratio of investment as much as we can from capex projects and onto the pitch.

Championship clubs are set to try to fix some of the significant annual losses in the division (£555m collectively last year) with a vote scheduled next month (May 15) on Squad Cost Ratio [SCR] rules. This will see clubs only being able to spend relative to their income and with a cap on the amount of owner equity that can be invested.  This is akin to SCMP in Leagues 1 and 2, with real time spending, where you can’t spend in advance, whereas P&S rules are retrospective, leading to retrospective punishments. That will help to prevent fewer clubs getting into a position where they get points deductions for financial irregularities across previous seasons.

Further to the vote, The Premier League and EFL are also negotiating a redistribution deal, with general consensus from Championship clubs that any extra money should not go into player costs, which would only exacerbate the current problem. Instead, any additional redistributions should go into club infrastructure projects and youth development, both of which should help to increase revenue for clubs.    

We then have the introduction of the Independent Football Regulator [IFR] and a new licensing regime to be introduced this year.  There will be stricter licensing regulations on sustainability. The IFR is particularly interested in club liquidity and stress testing clubs in three key areas:

1. What happens if you’re relegated? That’s straightforward for us to answer – we prepare a 3-year budget based on potential promotions and relegation.

2. What if you experience a revenue shock? For example, losing a key sponsor, or the stadium has to close down after an adverse event, or a large creditor defaults, or we enter another pandemic and have to play behind closed doors.

3. Thirdly, the biggest test for clubs – what happens if an owner decides to stop funding their club? How would you cope? Most clubs only have around 6-8 weeks’ worth of cash. Many clubs will find it hard to answer that test. We have seen at Derby, Reading, and several other clubs, the problems where the owner has not been able or willing to continue investing. Most clubs only have two months of cash reserves. That is a challenging question for clubs to answer given such limited cash reserves and huge future squad commitments.

We want to continue to invest in the squad – as well as adding to medical provision, data and analytics. We will progress in this area. As CEO I am mindful that a material increase in playing budget, is not just a one-year commitment – but at least a three-year commitment to multi-year deals. Everyone is aligned – we try to deliver good, intelligent use of resources and do better than others. That comes from really good alignment at the top between the Head Coach and Sporting Director. It’s up to us to find the best way to support them. I do believe that the gap to other clubs will decrease because of SCR and IFR requirements and overspending putting so many clubs at risk will reduce.

 

Q: John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent last week that he would have “a very honest conversation about where we want to go as a club […] where do we want to be and what’s our ambition?” Is the club’s ambition in line with the Head Coach? Are the club worried that if they don’t significantly invest in the first team they will lose him? What is his current contract situation?

AC: Any talented person in any organisation is always going to be in demand. That’s a fact of life and a fact of football, at all levels. I am not at liberty to disclose staff member contracts, but I want to ensure we provide the best level of support to key members of staff. Our shared ambition, John, Rich, myself and the owners, is to continue to establish and consolidate the club as a Championship force – without exposing ourselves to huge risk. We’re really mindful of that. I wasn’t here in 2011 – many of you were. There was a very good article by Daniel Storey today in The I newspaper, a good, balanced article, about the club’s ambition and financial future.

He wrote that: “Portsmouth, a club accustomed to walking through a storm and remaining whole, are having to continuously rebottle lightning or risk their own financial future again. That seems deeply unfair”.

That’s where we are. We know what’s on the horizon, SCR rules and the IFR, so we have to work carefully and strategically. Whatever you think of the new play-off format, 8th spot now gets you into them. Can we be ambitious within SCR rules and reach them?

SCR is challenging for us – we have plenty of headroom under the current Profit and Sustainability [P&S] rules, not so much under SCR. Other clubs who have gambled are also in that position. We will only vote for SCR if it’s right for the long-term future of the game. Championship clubs will collectively lose £555m this year. Owners are not queuing up to take over Championship football clubs. Competitive pressures have led to more overspending which leads to more clubs at risk if owners can no longer sustain their future budget commitments. We are ambitious, John’s ambitious, so is Rich and so are the owners. We are all aligned to work in a way that doesn’t put the club at risk by overspending and going broke again.

Q: The current strategy of spending relatively low fees on young, hungry players new to the league has not been particularly successful, with many of the club’s development signings around the £1m mark not having made a particularly big impact. Will we see a shift in recruitment strategy next season, to look more at established Championship players?

RH: I think the one thing I want to knock off is the notion of “established Championship players”. Look at Coventry – a good chunk of that squad who are now ‘established Championship players’ weren’t when they signed them. Terry Devlin and Adrian Segečić weren’t ‘Championship ready’ players when we signed them but are now. I think what people are asking for is more immediate impact from signings. There’s some frustration around signings not being effective – we just want to make sure we’re in a good spot with balancing the group. We want to get good bang for buck when we sign players. We want to get as much out of the confines of restrictions we’re allowed to spend. When we were signing 4 or 5 players at £1m, it’s because we need 4 or 5 players. It’s not a case of saying ‘let’s buy 1 player for £5m’. Good free agents are now less available than they previously were.  

 

Q: We’ve had 2 seasons blighted by injuries that likely significantly contributed to our close shaves on relegation. What needs to be done to really get on top of this issue?

RH: Injuries have blighted us. We’ve found ourselves on the rough end of significant injuries to significant players. Losing Josh Murphy has hurt us – he’s a standout player for us. We’ve spoken at length about this and made lots of assessments. One of the things that’s interesting to make people aware of is the vicious cycle. When you have more injuries, you become more reliant on the remaining players, which leads to more injuries, and so you feel forced to rush players back, which leads to more injuries. We want to stop that cycle that we’ve repeated for the last two years. There are some injuries where we do take responsibility, there are others we have no control over. We will spend a lot of time during the off-season looking at how we can impact change and let players perform for as many games as they can. Previously, we had lots of League One players. Athletically, they’re not as strong. Now, we’re dealing with lots of explosive movement athletes.

 

Q: What is the contract position for Terry Devlin and other key players? When will the club announce its retained list?

AC: I won’t announce contract positions here as it would harm our negotiation positions. Clubs have to announce their retained lists on or prior to the third Saturday in May.

RH: We’re having lots of conversations now. We always want to keep key players, but as we said with John, high performers will attract interest. There’s a realism there – there will always be interest in good players.

 

Q: What is the position with our current loan players, are there any plans to sign any for next season, or will they all return to their parent club?

RH: I won’t make any comments about any individual’s future. We’ll look at what we move forward with at the end of the season. In January, some of the loan players made an impact for us, others didn’t. Gustavo Caballero had an impact, Jacob Brown helped us. We’ll be trying to sign players who can affect us, and that includes making use of the loan market again in the future.

 

Q: Whilst Colby Bishop’s off the ball play has been impressive, are we going to prioritise a striker next season, and be prepared to spend the money required if so?

RH: I won’t comment specifically around Colby, but we do want to add to and strengthen the top end of the pitch. So it’s definitely a position we’ll prioritise and add to in the summer.

 

2. Youth Academy & Pompey Women

 

Q: Having invested in Fratton Park, the stadium is now looking better than ever. However, the promised funding for the academy has yet to come to fruition. What are the short, medium, and long-term plans to bring the academy into the modern era?

AC: I sat down with the finance team today to look at recent spending on the academy. In 2017/18, the club was spending £550,000 annually on the academy. In my first season with the club in 2021/22, the spend had increased by 70% and since then by a further 50%. The grants we receive as part of EPPP have not significantly increased in that period, so the extra is funded by the owners.

We’re spending nearly three times as much as a decade ago, and nearly half a million pounds more than in my first season. The academy is now based at the training ground, and the facilities there have been completely transformed with significant improvements.

Importantly, we’re having some success with player development. Toby Steward is a Championship title winner in Scotland,and Tayo Singerr has signed a professional contract with us and has a bright future. There will be more positive news shortly in terms of other professional contracts as well.

We have several youth groups playing in cup finals this week and the U16s have just won their league as well as the PL Professional Development Cup. The green shoots are there, and that’s the fruit of reconnecting with local clubs as I’ve previously described in these meetings.

Some clubs are considering the future direction of their academies. I’m aware that one club, renowned for successful youth development, may drop back to Category 3 from a higher category. New rules will hopefully be agreed shortly to limit the predatory actions of some clubs, taking young players under 16 from Category 3 clubs to stockpile in Category 1 academies. That’s one of a number of proposals that clubs will get the chance to consider shortly.

We have to improve youth development in this country. EPPP rules have been in place for 15 years now – it needs a whole radical overhaul. But I feel more positive now – the fruit of our funding is coming through now as we can see with recent pro contract awards and the success of teams in our Youth Development Phase.

 

Q: Can you offer some clarity on the future of the Women’s team?Will they remain full-time, and will they remain at Fratton Park? Regardless of which division they will play in next year, is there a desire to be a stable WSL2 team, in full knowledge of the funding this requires?

 

Q: What is the club’s stance regarding the spiralling costs involved in the Women’s team at the professional level of the game? Is it creating further stress within the club in terms of balancing finances while attendances are still low?

AC: We’re still hurting from Sunday’s relegation, and the players gave everything on Sunday. The question now is about what we do next year. We know that the funding requirements in the WSL2 are ever-increasing.

The first thing to say is that we want stability, and we do want to get back there. One of the key reasons we did this in the first place is to provide positive role models to girls and women in Portsmouth, encouraging them to lead active, healthy lifestyles. On Sunday, one of the great things was to see so many young people, so many young children, watching football in a safe environment, enjoying the atmosphere, and wanting to come back again.

Will we be professional or semi-professional next year? We’ll take a long, hard look at that over the next few weeks. It’s important for the players and staff to be the first to know. There are no parachute payments from the WSL2. The financial cliff edge is getting bigger and bigger. Promoted clubs will only be accepted if they meet ever-increasing minimum standards.

Whatever happens, we will play our games at Fratton Park next season – it’s the only way we can continue to grow and develop interest into the women’s game. We want to really go for growth next year. We want to do something really exciting. We have to recognise that, whether we like it or not, the WSL wants to establish itself as the best women’s league in the world by creating high levels of minimum standards.

Their vision, by 2035, is that the league creates significant returns for owners. They want to attract more eyeballs and more sponsors. They have done really well at that at a national level. As in the men’s game though, increased revenue inevitably means increased costs, and higher salaries. We will have to be mindful of that when we return to the WSL2.

MJ: We’ve done lots of research on our Fratton Park fixtures. The attendees are heavily weighted towards a younger, family audience, 1 in 4 supporters are under the age of 18. It’s a very different demographic. 46% of ticket purchasers are multi generational families, typically buying 5 or more tickets.

We don’t want to get relegated, but the opportunity to engage our community at Fratton Park doesn’t change. We feel a duty of care to present the island with two football teams that they can resonate with and support.

 

3. Facilities, Infrastructure & Travel

 

Q: John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent last week that “we’re still a long, long way behind other Championship clubs in terms of infrastructure, in terms of training ground”. When are we going to see proper investment into the training ground (i.e. a dome, 4G pitches, etc.) to bring it up to Championship standards, like John Mousinho has said we need?

AC: We’ve never stopped improving the training ground. It has improved year on year. We want to keep improving things and will continue to invest. But every pound into infrastructure is probably a pound less we can spend on players. We want to shift more money into the playing budget now, while still improving other areas. These are all important, but the facilities we’ve got are much improved for first team and the academy.

RH: I haven’t heard that interview, but if John’s talking about 4G pitches and domes, I can only imagine he’s referring to the academy – we would only opt to train the first team on 4G pitches in heavy weather conditions. I would think that was the context. The pitches are being ripped up next weekend to make sure they’re ready for the new season.

 

Q: Can we have an update on potential ground expansion? We have the highest stadium occupancy percentage in the league. It’s sometimes easier to get tickets for away matches than home fixtures – we need more seats at Fratton Park.

AC: We are all agreed that increased capacity is the ambition and vision of what we want to achieve. How do we find £80-100m for a meaningful development, which will grow our revenue? The demand is there, but the return on investment on (for example) 5,000 extra seats would be about £2m a season. It would require an enabling development for it to make sense.

That continues to occupy most of my time, looking at various opportunities. I have meetings next week on it and continue to explore various options. We may be able in the short term to get an extra 400-500 seats here and there, which would be good as it would allow us to get extra people into Fratton Park. But the real goal is to get 5,000 or more additional seats. That’s not the cap of our ambition but would be the minimum we would add to the North Stand for a major future development.

 

Q: What’s the latest update on the potential footbridge at Fratton train station? What’s the plan if the bridge can’t happen?

AC: That’s a collective problem – it’s a joint issue for the football club, the Pompey Centre, Network Rail, the new nationalised railway operator and Portsmouth City Council.

The Pompey Centre is vibrant and is looking to grow its business there too. If the feasibility study comes back with a preferred option, but it’s too expensive, then all the stakeholders will consider the strategic options.

There are things happening politically both locally and at central government level. That’s why we continue to lobby hard with both MPs, who will both be at the game on Saturday. The Local Plan at the moment says there can be no development at the Pompey Centre or Fratton Park until there’s a safer access route to Fratton Station. That requirement too is something we continue to monitor.

 

Q: Are there any infrastructure/capex spending plans for the summer?

AC: The main one is the pitch, which we’ll completely relay in the summer. That’s going to be the major, £1m+ spend. That includes the surrounding trackway, and new drainage going into the pitch. There’s also the annual £500k plus spend on essential fire and safety work, necessary to make sure we comply and receive our safety certificate.

 

4. Season Tickets

 

Q: When will season ticket prices for next year be announced, and when will they be on sale? What should fans expect from the pricing?

MJ: The club has been working through our pricing and on-sale plans since January. More recently, we had a consultation with the board and a group of supporters, and plan to announce in the next few weeks.

The on-sale window will remain the same as last year, giving consistency to supporters. Looking ahead, I would be interested to hear supporters’ views on the timing of season ticket sales.

I wouldn’t ever want to move the sales window without giving fans enough notice of change, but we have observed that other clubs are moving season ticket renewals earlier into the season, potentially in January, February and March.

It wouldn’t give us any financial gain, but it would help with operational efficiency, bring us in line with other clubs, and give the ticket office staff some breathing space in the summer, which we don’t currently get. We’re in the very early stages of thinking about this, but we’d appreciate some time spent on this at the next TGFC, once you’ve had a chance to consider it.

 

Q: Can the club make the physical season ticket pack, including printed material and a pin badge, optional for supporters when paying for their season ticket?

MJ: We’ve looked into this. We want to find a balance – some fans really appreciate the pack and the pin badge, and have told us this year that it helped them to learn about ticket forwarding and how to use the ticket exchange.

The Club have explored options for supporters to opt in and out, as well as consolidate postage for supporters in the same household. This isn’t as simple as it would seem on paper; regarding consolidation of postage, it is achievable based on transaction but not by address, e.g. one supporter renews multiple season tickets in their network but there is nothing to say they all live at the same address, meaning all season tickets would be grouped and sent to the booker who would then be required to pass them on to those in their booking. That’s a challenge we’ll continue to work on.

The season pack is the only postal mailing we do, and some people value having something in their hands. Could we move to digital only? That could marginalise older fans, who are over represented in our season ticket numbers. I don’t want to make changes based on fairly limited feedback, making older fans feel like they don’t belong.

For 26-27 we will again offer two fulfilment options, with new season card (£10) and without (£4) – this is the same as 25-26. Prior to last season (24-25 and 23-24) fulfilment was charged at £5.50, therefore the price has reduced for supporters retaining their season card despite associated costs with fulfilment having increased significantly, e.g. postage, pin badge production and printing.

 

5. EFL Championship

 

Q: What impact would Squad Cost Ratio rules [SCR] have on the club and the Championship in general? What changes in revenue generation is the club planning for to improve our first team funding capacity under SCR?

RC: Currently, financial rules in the Championship are dictated by profit. Clubs are permitted to make a £39m loss over a 3-year period.

The proposed SCR rules would instead be a revenue-based calculation. They would limit spending on the playing squad, management team, and agent fees to a maximum of 85% of your allowable turnover. That can be topped up with equity, capped at £33m over three years. We’ve been very efficiently run under the current PSR rules, and have lots of headroom in our calculations – that’s an advantage to us. So we’re pushing for some historic accounting as part of the proposed new rules to reflect that.

SCR wouldn’t change our overall strategic plan. We would have less headroom as would many other clubs, but our revenue strategies would remain the same and our strategy as a club would remain the same. We want to sustainably grow in the right ways.

AC: Things like the Pompey Health & Fitness Club all add to our revenue calculations. Growing revenue at the Victory Lounge with various events would be another way we could grow revenue to raiseour SCR limit. We’ve significantly grown our catering and merchandise recently – we’re now looking at how we can grow our international audience. We have to be alive to all possibilities, as all revenue countstowards SCR.

 

Q: There is increasing frustration amongst matchday fans regarding the growing number of games being played at inconvenient kick-off times. Can clubs get together to look at ways of providing subsidised travel to help ease some of the impact on supporters?

MJ: Kick-off times are dictated by league and broadcast requirements. We understand the impact on fans, but TV revenues are a significant income source to all clubs. Throughout the season, we’ve worked with Lucketts to make coach travel costs competitive, usually much cheaper than the equivalent train fare.

We have also introduced new pickup points this year, which has helped fans in the east and west of Hampshire and Sussex get to games more easily. In addition to that, wehave offered subsidised travel for the rearranged Charlton fixture and the recent Coventry game, to assist with the inconvenient kick-off times. Lucketts have worked with us on that and are a great partner to the club. The club has also continued to offer complimentary parking at Fratton Park for those using the away coach service.

AC: When the new TV deal was being agreed, we pushed as a football club – and were successful in doing so – for supporters to be given agreater notice period from TV companies for date changes for fixtures.

 

Q: What’s the club’s view on the current 3PM ‘blackout’? The issue is likely to build over the coming months in preparation for the next TV deal.

AC: The premise of the question is correct – this issue is likely to build over the next few months. It has to be given serious consideration if football TV revenues are to continue to grow. It’s concerning that the TV rights deals in other countries, particularly France, are collapsing. Some French clubs are in serious trouble now.

Personally, I’m not comfortable with the 3pm ‘blackout’ going as I think it will have a serious impact on grassroots football. If Manchester United vs Liverpool is on TV at 3pm on a Saturday, will as many people turn out to watch any of our local non-league clubs at the same time?

But I understand the other side of the argument. Only the UK and Montenegro have a TV ‘blackout’. Changing it would require England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland FAs to take a joint approach, so it’s not something The FA could change unilaterally. There is an interesting debate to be had, and we haven’t reached a club view on it yet.

 

Q: Is there any progress being made to break the deadlock between the Premier League and EFL in terms of a fairer distribution of revenue throughout the Football Pyramid?

AC: We heard last week that discussions are ongoing between the two leagues. The Independent Football Regulator has to publish their State of the Game report by May 2027, with an interim report due in the autumn. The ongoing cliff edge caused by these negotiations are very much part of that consultation. Anyone can contribute to that on the IFR website. The football club has submitted our own contribution to that. We are hopeful there may be a solution prior to intervention from theIFR, but let’s see.

 

Q: Did PFC vote against bringing in a challenge system of VAR for the 2026/27 Championship Season?

AC: I can confirm we did vote against it. There were a number of factors for that – the disruption to the flow of the game, the negative impact for supporters in the stadium, and the cost involved.

 

6. Other

Q: Are Tornante likely to visit soon? Will they be prepared to meet with supporters?

AC: Eric will be here this weekend from Thursday to Saturday, to take in the final game of the season. I will recommend to Eric that he makes time to meet with supporters over the next few months.

 

Q: Last year, Brighton gave their fans a free pint or pie when they travelled to Newcastle for an evening kick-off. Given a couple of disappointing away trips this season and last, would the club consider a similar gesture?

MJ: The economics of the Premier League are very different to the EFL. We have worked with Lucketts to subsidise away travel this year, so have supported fans in a different way.

 

Q: Some EFL clubs have stopped producing a physical matchday programme. Will we continue to print one next season?

MJ: There are no plans to stop printing a matchday programme at this stage.

 

– Minutes by Donald Vass