Portsmouth chief's 'sustainability' admission under Michael Eisner as losses at Championship clubs soar

Andy Cullen admits he cannot foresee Championship clubs breaking even ‘any time soon’.

Yet he is adamant that, under the long-standing financial commitment provided by owners Tornante, Pompey remain a sustainable football club.

Since replacing fan ownership in August 2017, chairman Michael Eisner has overseen the investment of £54m into the Blues, with around £25 of that figure spent on Fratton Park improvements.

However, since the 2020-21 season, Pompey have posted total losses of £19.76m - including a deficit of £4.3m for the year ending June 30, 2025, as detailed in latest accounts.

Tornante have long stressed the importance of running a sustainable football club, yet the sole occasion they have posted a profit in eight-and-a-half years as owners was £259,950 for the 2019-20.

Meanwhile, the intriguing introduction of the Independent Football Regulator on the horizon, a development in the English game Pompey’s chairman is right behind.

And Cullen insists that, with the Eisner family still committed to funding annual losses, the Blues can consider themselves ‘sustainable’.

‘Sustainability can mean different things to many people’

The chief executive told The News: ‘It depends on your definition of sustainability. Sustainability can mean different things to many people.

‘For some people it will mean break even - and clearly that’s not going to happen any time soon in the Championship.

‘It’s about being able to live within your means. Are you able to fund your football club, not just over one season but over several seasons?

‘With the new licensing regime from the IFR (Independent Football Regulator), there will be a licensing regime which will be introduced later this autumn. What the IFR is looking at is your financial model going forward.

‘Have you got enough liquidity in your football club to meet the commitment you’re making in certain areas, particularly on players. Where is the cash coming from? Can you suffer a shock, which could be obviously relegation in terms of impact? Are your contracts in such a way that you can continue to fund?

‘Another is if the owner loses interest. We have seen that at clubs where an owner does have a go and sometimes hasn't achieved the objective they have set out and get themselves into trouble. Then that owner doesn’t have the appetite to continue to fund those losses they have committed over a number of years.

‘And the third could be the owner funding being cut off. Again we have seen that at some clubs recently where the owners haven’t traditionally been able to finance a football club.

‘We are sustainable because we have owners that are putting sufficient funds into the football club and increasing funds into the football club to enable it to move forward in a way which doesn’t put the football club at risk.

‘Those are two measures for sustainability. One is knowing you’ve got the funds to be able to put the money in and, more importantly, you are not putting the club at financial risks should any shocks happen.

‘This is part of the succession planning. It gives us a sustainable future going forward in the event that anything untoward happens to any of our owners.’

Independent Football Regulator passed as law in July 2025

Cullen - and Tornante - are hugely in favour of the introduction of the Independent Football Regulator, which was passed as law in July 2025.

According to the Government, the IFR has been ‘established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities that football clubs serve.’

In October 2025, sports media executive David Kogan was appointed as the new body’s chairman - and preparatory work is ongoing to ensure it will be implemented in the 2027-28 season.

Cullen added: ‘We have an independent regulator coming in because fans are quite rightly concerned about the longer-term security of their football clubs.

‘Don’t forget, the regulator was born out of the fan-led review, which in turn was born out of the disasters of Bury and Macclesfield. Other clubs also came close, Bolton went perilously close to going out of existence in the same way Bury had a few weeks earlier.

‘You just get yourself into a spiral, which is never-ending’

‘Clubs quite rightly don’t want their committee assets to fall away, that’s why the IFR is being much more stringent in terms of financial regulation going forward.

‘I very much agree with it. We are seeing incredible player wage inflation across all three divisions, particularly in the Championship and League One.

‘The Premier League and EFL have still to come to an agreement over how the Premier League funds the football pyramid. Once that happens, those extra distributions can then be used in such a way to finance future infrastructure and investment such as youth development, stadium infrastructure, better pitches and better medical support.

‘However, with competitive pressures as such, any available income tends to go on the pitch and that builds the inflation, it fuels higher losses and therefore higher losses need more owner funding.

‘You just get yourself into a spiral, which is never-ending.’

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