EISNER’S TEN-YEAR PLAN TO GET POMPEY BACK ON TOP
EISNER knows it will take more than the wave of a wand, but his plan for Portsmouth Football Club is no Mickey Mouse one.
Known as Pompey, the club spent seven successive seasons in the Premier League from 2003 – now he wants to stage a return.
‘My son said to me that we ought to find a very famous team that had fallen on hard times and build it back,’ says the former Disney boss.
After scouting the US, Europe and other English clubs, they arrived in Portsmouth. Heritage is clearly fundamental – one that could resonate globally. The first floodlit Football League match in England was at Portsmouth.
‘The Queen christened the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier in Portsmouth. It’s the second most bombed city in the Second World War after London. It’s been a naval centre since Richard the Lionheart. It’s a very important city,’ said Eisner.
The club’s fall from grace was rapid. It was relegated three times and forced into administration twice due to debts.
It was acquired by the Pompey Supporters Trust in 2012 who sold it to Eisner five years later when the club was promoted to League One.
In March a crowd of 85,000 saw Portsmouth win the EFL Trophy at Wembley. In his first major interview since buying the club, Eisner says: ‘I guess you could say we have a ten-year plan which would be to end up back in the Premier League.
‘I know that buying your way in doesn’t work. That’s never been my strategy in business. I just have never heard of a business where the goal was to lose money.
‘The British football reality is not a reality that I accept. The strategy is development. It’s all about talent. We want to run it so that they do not get into the situation that they got in before. We are all right having a lot of testosterone on the pitch but in the boardroom we have got to control ourselves. It’s about being sensitive to the fans but not over-reacting to any individual loss.
‘At Disney we ran the Anaheim Angels baseball team that was in trouble and we ended up winning the World Series.
‘Portsmouth, over the next decade, if we do it well, will hopefully be a team appreciated globally.’