Men Pompeys daglige leder understreker at økt satsing på kvinnelaget ikke er på bekostning av herrelagets budsjett.
NYHETER: Det var ikke bare Pompeys herrelag som vant sin serie og rykket opp til Championship i 2023/24. Også Pompeys kvinnelag vant National League Southern Premier Division.
Dermed skal kvinnelaget til Pompey spille i Barclays Women’s Championship i 2024/25.
Denne uken kom nyheten om at spillerne på Pompeys kvinnelag nå får tilbud om kontrakter som gjør dem til fulltids profesjonelle fotballspillere. Også støtteapparatet rundt Pompeys damelag får nå fulltidsstillinger. Det vil også bli opprettet en rekke nye stillinger rundt laget for å profesjonalisere satsingen ytterligere.
Dette skjer bare ett år etter at kvinnelaget ble semiprofesjonelt, og det er økt økonomisk støtte fra klubbens eiere Tornante (Eisner-familien) som gjør dette mulig.
Hovedtrener kommenterer
Kvinnelagets hovedtrener Jay Sadler sier følgende i en kommentar til Pompeys nettside:
«This is a significant step forward for the club and we are incredibly excited about moving to a full-time professional model. This transition will allow us to increase our contact time, enhance our preparation, and ultimately enable us to compete at a higher level.
By providing our players and staff with the opportunity to train and develop on a full-time basis, we will unlock further potential and heavily increase our chances of achieving even more success for the club.»
Daglig leder kommenterer
Pompeys daglige leder (CEO), Andy Cullen, sier følgende til Pompeys offisielle nettside:
«After winning promotion to the Championship and having our licence granted by the FA, we are now absolutely thrilled to announce that Pompey Women will become fully professional.
This is an exciting time for women’s football in Portsmouth and across the United Kingdom, and I am grateful to Jane and Michael Eisner, and the Portsmouth Women board, for their increased investment in our women’s team.
This will have a huge impact on our competitiveness in a higher division, as well as enabling our players to achieve their dreams of becoming professional footballers for the first time in their lives.»
Enkelte supportere har vært bekymret for at dette vil gå ut over hvor mye John Mousinho og herrelaget får å rutte med i sin comebacksesong i Championship. Andy Cullen beroliger i lokalavisa The News:
«It is a big commitment, but once again doesn’t affect anything in the men’s team, as we were very, very clear last year. These are two separate companies and organisations, they have their own registration, their own boards. It’s not a question of the women being subsidised by the men, it’s about the investment coming from Tornante.
Without wishing to go into numbers it’s an increase on what we (Pompey Women) had before, but the key message here is we want to run this in a very, very sustainable manner. There is obviously some additional investment which comes in centrally. In the women’s game, you don’t get any investment in the third tier and below, although you do receive broadcasting and central sponsorship revenue in the top-two divisions.
We get some support from the FA as obviously it’s a major transition taking on full-time people and offering them contracts, so there are grants available to help us with some of those positions.’
