The Blues’ spending power for their Championship return is untouched by Pompey Women’s ambitious promotion to full-time status.
That is the guarantee of Andy Cullen, who is sure that Tornante’s decision to enhance funding in Jay Sadler’s team will have no impact on the men’s side.
Pompey Women will operate full-time for the first time in club history in 2024-25, employing about 22 professional players and up to nine members of staff. The move is intended to ensure that they can compete in the Championship next season, following an amazing title-winning performance that matches the men’s exploits.
And Pompey’s chief executive argues that their women’s enhanced funding has no bearing on John Mousinho’s budget or transfer kitty.
Cullen told The News: ‘It is a tremendous commitment, but it has no effect on the men’s team, as we stated quite clearly last year.’These are two independent corporations and organizations, each with their own registration and boards. It is not a case of males subsidizing women; rather, it is about Tornante’s investment.
‘It is completely autonomous and operates as a different firm, with its own set of management accounts, a separate registration at Companies House, and its own board and articles. It is a completely independent firm.
‘Without going into statistics, it’s an increase over what we (Pompey Women) had previously, but the main point here is that we want to run this in a very, very sustainable manner.
‘There is clearly some more funding that comes in centrally. In the women’s game, there is no investment in the third and lower tiers, although broadcasting and central sponsorship monies are available in the top two divisions.
‘But it still requires some greater investment from the ownership to make it all work in terms of professional contracts and the full-time workers we needed.
Sadler was hired full-time last summer as the Pompey Women went semi-professional, and additional jobs are now set to be elevated to full-time.
These will mostly include the positions of general manager, assistant coach, physio, sports science, and goalkeeper coach.
A full-time protection and welfare officer, as well as sales and marketing professionals, will be hired. Cullen added: “We will be looking to operate a squad of about 20-22 players, some of whom will be on loan, as you have in the men’s game.”
In addition, there will be approximately nine employees, the bulk of them will be full-time, with others working part-time.
‘We get some support from the FA because it’s a huge shift to hire full-time employees and offer them contracts, so there are grants available to help us with some of those positions.’
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