Andy Cullen

Pompey CEO Andy Cullen is talking about Pompey's future.

He's confident the club's future is safe under the Eisners, and welcomes the arrival of an independent football regulator, whose role is to rein in some of the dangerous excesses of many clubs, particularly in the Championship.

Cullen is all for clubs being able to sustain themselves within their own budget, budgets funded by real income, namely gate receipts, broadcasting fees and merchandise.

He's fearful for clubs whose owners promise huge loans to spend on transfers and inflated wages before folding and taking the club down with them.

He says, 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 anytime soon in the championship.

With the new licensing regime from the 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.