Penny Mordaunt sends special message to Portsmouth fans after what happened in UK Parliament
Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt has thanked Portsmouth fans for help shaping the Government’s new Football Governance Bill after it was announced on Tuesday.
Portsmouth chief executive Andrew Cullen has already shared his support for the legislation, which will grant powers to a football regulator to oversee men’s clubs in the Premier League, English Football League and National League.
EFL chairman Rick Parry is also thrilled with the news, which will hopefully see the football regulator stop clubs from going down the same route as Pompey did during the late 2010s and what clubs like Bolton, Bury, Coventry, Macclesfield and Reading have been through since.
Mordaunt, who has been MP for Portsmouth North since 2010, played a role in Pompey’s survival during her start to life as a Member of Parliament and she has expressed her gratitude towards Blues fans for helping make the Football Governance Bill happen.
“When our city was told that Portsmouth Football Club was going to have to shut for good, we came together, we rallied and we said, ‘no it’s not’,” said Mordaunt via her personal Instagram account on 19 March.
“We got the administrator changed, we raised money, we campaigned, we kept playing and we ended up in the High Court and we won our case and we saved Portsmouth Football Club.
“That was one of the most proud moments that I have had and it is down to the Pompey spirit.
“And we didn’t just save our club, we inspired a whole group of people to come together and think about how we could protect these valuable community assets – our wonderful football clubs.
“My brilliant friend Tracey Crouch did a fan-led review into football governance and today, we’re introducing this. This is the Football Governance Bill and Pompey didn’t just inspire this bill, you actually helped shape it.
“Many of the people that we worked with to save the club have come to Parliament on many occasions to shape the work around the fan-led review and this landmark bill. It’s introduced to Parliament today and it’s going to protect the whole of the football pyramid.
“So I want to say today, thank you, Pompey. Thank you for inspiring this, thank you for helping create it.”
Portsmouth – out of the dark and into the light
There’s no denying that it’s been a tough decade and a half for Portsmouth.
Since winning the 2007/08 FA Cup, finishing eighth in the Premier League and playing against AC Milan in the Europa League, the Blues have suffered administration and found themselves pretty much trapped in League One and League Two.
Despite 15 years passing since those terrible events, they have still had a lasting effect on the south coast club, who are now only just looking as though they’re about to step foot back in the Championship with John Mousinho at the helm.
Portsmouth have been outside of the top two tiers in English football for way too long and hopefully, this new legislation from the government will stop inadequate businessmen from doing what they did to Pompey to other teams.
In other Portsmouth news, this Pompey ace has been unexpectedly called up to international duty.
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