Posted on 24th August 2020
Since its launch on Friday the Sustain The Game! message has reached millions across the UK – and the list of signatories to the campaign continues to grow.
© PA Images
Posted on 24th August 2020
On Friday we launched our Sustain The Game! campaign and since then it has been endorsed by supporters and high-profile figures across the game – here Portsmouth chief executive Mark Catlin argues that regulation must be strengthened but there are no easy answers or “one size fits all” solutions…
Definition of ‘self-sustaining’; adjective;
“a self-sustaining process or system is able to continue by itself without anyone or anything else becoming involved.”
As per the pure definition, when talking about the future of football being self-sustaining, is this really the vision we all share? Or, as I am sure will be the case, this will mean different things to different clubs, supporters, and their respective owners.
Owners investing tens, even hundreds of millions of pounds into clubs would argue that because of their own personal wealth they fit perfectly well into the definition of ‘self-sustaining’, where the pure meaning clearly runs contrary to that principle; the entity (the club) is actually reliant on an exterior person or entity to survive.
Over time my own views on this subject have evolved.
When first arriving at Portsmouth I became a ‘self-sustaining’ purist, and still at heart believe that there is and should be a ‘natural order’ of a club’s standing based upon its size, fanbase and revenue generating capabilities.
Owners injecting millions, even at League One or Two level, is in my opinion a perversion of this natural order. However, having listened to the polar opposite argument put forward by many wealthy, decent owners, and witnessed first-hand the great things many of them have done at their clubs and local communities, I have arrived at my own personal thoughts on a pragmatic and sustainable solution for clubs, and one to this day we employ at Portsmouth FC.
In 2012 I joined Portsmouth in the middle of its administration process, teetering on the brink of going out of existence, and worked with the Pompey Supporters Trust and a group of what we called ‘High Net Worth’s in trying to save the club.
I witnessed first-hand the damage done to a club by previous owners who overspent way beyond their means. Following the fans successfully saving the club, I became radicalised to the purist self-sustaining cause, and we literally spent on players what we generated, or to quote from our Chairman at the time Iain McInnes: “We eat what we kill’.
Our budgets were set using a simple accountancy method; accounting mid-range for our projected income, minus projected expenditure (but excluding the playing budget), and the balance was what we set as our playing budget for that season. The result? Seven years of operating profit and loss (P&L) neutrality.
You may think this is a perfect solution, but I have learnt that it’s not for two major reasons;
Every club Chairman, CEO, and supporter generally will have their own view on how the future of football should be shaped; as they all have differing models, structures, expectations, and ultimately are businesses in their own right. It’s not easy.
Having the experience of working with both fan and billionaire owners, witnessing first-hand the ‘pros and cons’ of a variety of differing football business models, and in the spirit of striking a balance between club size and owner investment, here are my underlying thoughts on the principles that I believe (and we will all have differing opinions) should underpin any discussions regarding the future of sustainability in football;
Unfortunately, in life generally, the minority can taint and spoil the reputation of the majority, and that equally applies when talking about football club owners. Clubs are not just businesses; they are community assets and need protecting from the minority of owners that we all know can force them into oblivion.
I often use the phrase at Portsmouth that ‘we may not be community owned, but we remain a community club’, and whilst I believe there to be no ‘silver bullet’, one size fits all solution, I do believe that the implementation of at least some of the points I have raised are fundamental if we are to seriously tackle the protection of OUR clubs.
Since its launch on Friday the Sustain The Game! message has reached millions across the UK – and the list of signatories to the campaign continues to grow.
Every week we’ll be looking in more detail at one of our Sustain The Game! key principles and this week it’s supporter engagement. We believe fans are the lifeblood of the game, they need a voice in their clubs and on all issues that affect them and their communities.
Every week we’ll be looking in more detail at one of our Sustain The Game! key principles and this week it’s transparency. We believe everyone has a right to know who owns their club, and how clubs and the authorities operate. Owners are custodians of clubs on behalf of all of us.
Sustain The Game! is the FSA’s campaign to persuade the football authorities to take measures to protect the existence of our clubs – and it’s more important than ever with so many under threat because of the financial strains caused by COVID-19.