Wednesday’s Pompey press conference marked the morphing of the chrysalis of an ownership bid into the fully fledged butterfly of a Community Football Club. Pompey Community Football Club Limited, the biggest community owned club in the English game, is up and running.
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Whittingham we know. He is proper Pompey. His words on team building have already been proved by actions on the pitch, culminating in Saturday’s exemplary display. He is intent on rebuilding.
Mark Catlin, too, claims to be a builder. His words on Wallace, ‘We want to build a team for the future and players like Jed Wallace are central to that,’ are testimony to that claim. Unlike Guy, Mark has been hampered by the club being in administration. It is only now that he is able to show his mettle and he seems geared for action. There is no doubt he will be the most scrutinised CEO in the history of Portsmouth Football Club. The only non-Pompey member of the Board, he has to prove he ‘gets’ us and ensures this is a local club run for the benefit of its community and fan base. Failure to do so has been the hall mark of failed CEOs in the past. Pompey fans have been made cynical by the slick words and manipulations of such characters. Catlin has a big job on to overcome the damage done.
Here is his blueprint, from Micah Hall in the hiatus before the dark days, October 2009. ‘The measure of success of this takeover will be if the circle between the need for great facilities and some really good players can be squared with ensuring they are still watched by a crowd containing 15,000 mushes.’ This has been wanted for years and the proof of this takeover’s worth remains the same. The mushes are the lifeblood of this club and they are the ones who have saved it. It is Catlin’s brief to ensure this time we build on firm foundations. The link with the mushes is key.
The new board have affirmed their will allow him to do just this. This will be no ‘management by committee’ they say. ‘That way you only get a camel,’ said Iain McInnes, chairman, at Wednesday’s press conference. ‘Day-to-day management decisions are down to the CEO,’ was McInnes’ definitive answer when questioned. (See here 27 mins in)
The PFC Board is constituted of seven people. Iain McInnes as Chair is one of the Presidents. There are three representatives from the Pompey Supporters Trust Board, Ashley Brown (Trust Chair), Mick Williams (who is also a president) and Mark Trapani – all three were the PST bid team. There are two representatives of the Presidents, Christopher Moth who runs his own investment management firm and John Kirk a global fund manager. The last place is taken up by Mike Dyer of Solicitors Verisona. All are Pompey fans. All are concerned with building a better club for the future. All are signed up to the ethos of Community Pompey. And none are able to take any money out of the club whatsoever. The shareholders’ agreement firmly states there will be no dividends paid on any shares in the club. More details of the background of the Board and the management team can be found here.
It is clear that the Pompey Supporters’ Trust will be the majority shareholder in the club as matters stand. Ashley Brown said that currently there are £1.5m community shares converted with another £400,000 in process. That gives the Trust £1.9m stake in the club already. The Presidents/HNWIs have staked £1.6m. Trust shares continue to increase at the rate of around 50 per day since the court case was decided on 10 April. Brown said the Trust is on course to own 60-65% of the club if the trend continues. The share issue is open until December. Mick Williams added that there were also people still considering being presidents, so the £1.6m figure may increase.
How the Board will work in practice, only time will tell. But they too have to over-come much in the way of fan cynicism. They too will be under scrutiny, and it is to be hoped that the Pompey Supporters Trust proper will maintain their watching brief on the conduct of the club, along with other fans’ groups at the Tony Goodall Fans Conference. The conference is soon to be developed into an advisory and consultation group for the club. Details will be released soon.
Pompey people have come to distrust ‘the men in suits’, rightly so from recent history, and until the Board’s chosen CEO can swing into action and show that this club will have the fans at heart then nothing will change there. This is a crucial time and as Mark Trapani said to me at the Press Conference, the board want to ensure that the decisions made are the right ones. Hence they were unable to do everything the fans were expecting yesterday. There was no season ticket announcement (two weeks was the time span given) and no new kit on display (expect a kit launch soon though in proper fashion) because although we are in a hurry, our commercial partners aren’t. We have to work in the real world.
As the proud new plaque on Frogmore Road proclaims, ‘We cannot change the past, but we can shape the future’. Now the fans have saved the club they must continue to care for it and transparency from those running it and fair scrutiny from those supporting it must go hand in hand. Trust will come if those are maintained but trust must be earned through actions.
Guy Whittingham had the best words on it. He said we have ‘an unbelievable set of fans. Players will have to realise they are expected to perform.
The same goes for those running the business of the club.
The views of SJ Maskell are their own and don't necessarily reflect the editorial view of pompey-fans.com.
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The Pompey Supporters' Trust is still seeking pledges from Pompey fans to back their bid. Information can be found here