Portsmouth owner’s message to PFC Coalition after plane protest group question Eisner ambitions

Blues director Eric Eisner stated the club are open to meeting PFC Coalition - but warned them they won’t be treated differently to any other fan body.

PFC Coalition are the anonymous organisation who flew a plane over John Mousinho’s first game in charge against Exeter City in January, as part of a peaceful protest.

The group are questioning Tornante’s ambition for Pompey, and have set out questions for Michael Eisner and the board to answer over the direction headed at PO4.

Eric Eisner has made it clear the club are open to a meeting, but feels the terms being demanded are not reasonable to chief executive Andy Cullen.

That in part appears to be based around the group identifying themselves and at which point they do so, as well as how the meeting is documented.

Eisner said: ‘I think they are treating Andy Cullen unfairly, in that they are asking to be videoed which I feel is unfair.

‘We are the most open and transparent club I know, we have many fans’ conferences and many different mediums we relay everything through.

‘We’re willing to talk to them, but they need to do it in a way Andy Cullen feels comfortable with. Then it’s fine, no problem.

‘We will continue to have an open-door policy, but it needs to work both ways.

‘If we are going to be open, they need to be open as well.

‘We look at it as not a big deal. We respect them and we respect our fans - we’d love to hear from them, no problem.

‘They shouldn’t expect to be treated differently.

‘Everyone is open to talking to anybody, but you have to do it under the guise that we’ve done with every supporter group.’

Pompey director and Tornante president, Andy Redman, believes there is a clear track record of the owners operating with transparency and a willingness to engage with supporters through their stewardship.

He added: ‘Andy speaks to the media all the time.

‘Overall the club is very, very open.

‘There is a set of principles: we have to know who we’re sitting down with.

‘We have to treat them all fairly. We have to treat them the exact same way we treat other supporters’ groups.

‘We have the same rules around the Heritage and Advisory board, the Tony Goodall Fans’ Conference or when Andy travels up to see the Northern Blues.

‘You can’t choose to treat some group differently.

‘That said, there’s also 50 places if they want to join their voices with other large fan groups to get answers.’