Portsmouth film ‘Our Club’ given 12A age rating by city council

Portsmouth-made film Our Club was given a 12A rating by members of the council's licensing committee last week, meaning children under the age of 12 can still watch it if accompanied by an adult.

The movie, which has been five years in the making, follows the events after Pompey’s 2008 FA Cup win when the club faced going out of business.

It documents how members of the Pompey Supporters Club then raised enough funds to take ownership using interviews and clips taken from match days, away trips and club events.

Councillor Claire Udy, who acted as chair on the licensing committee, explained that the decision was reached due to one use of 'strong' language.

She said: 'It was given a 12A rating because there was one F-word in it.

'In the BBFC guidelines for language it says that a PG films contain "mild" language and 12A films contain "bad" language, and as a committee we decided that use of language was bad.

'The other option would have been to make them cut it out to turn it into a PG.'

She added: 'The film is pretty family friendly but I don't expect that there will be loads of seven-year-olds going out of their way to see it. It is full of context with what happened to the club, if you don't know much about it it is a good explainer.

'It also shows how quickly a club can get into debt these days. It can easily happen to smaller clubs that end up in the Premier League and find they have to spend thousands a week on individual players' wages. It's just unsustainable.'

Councillors were shown an almost finished version of the film, with some further sound editing needed. They gave delegated authority to the council's licensing manager to amend the classification if appropriate once the film is completed.

Speaking to The News previously the film's executive producer, Colin Farmery, said: ‘Its theme is around community and what a community can do.

‘It’s an inspiring story about Portsmouth, about the football club and what it means to people.

‘The film tells the story of how the people of Portsmouth effectively saved our football club. It is a hugely important story not just for the people of Portsmouth but it has wider appeal.’

An invitation-only premier of Our Club is scheduled for May 15. Two public screenings are also planned at No6 Cinema in the Historic Dockyards on May 22 and 29.