Why Portsmouth opposed moving Wembley final to allow fans in following EFL talks with Sunderland, Tranmere and Salford City

Pompey have outlined their reasons for not moving their Wembley trip to accommodate fans.
Pompey fans inside Wembley stadium against Sunderland two years agoPompey fans inside Wembley stadium against Sunderland two years ago
Pompey fans inside Wembley stadium against Sunderland two years ago

Blues chief executive Mark Catlin believes shifting their Papa John’s Trophy final clash with Salford City would hinder their promotion aspirations if they went into the play-offs.

Some fans were hoping a path had opened up to them attending the final, following Boris Johnson’s announcement spectators would be allowed into stadiums, at a reduced capacity, from May 17.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tranmere, who face Sunderland in this year’s final to be played over the same weekend, requested to push back their game - but it was not a move Pompey were supportive of.

The News understands the revised date forwarded would’ve fallen amid the dates the League One play-off semi-finals are pencilled in to be played.

Catlin explained, from a footballing perspective, it didn’t make sense for the Blues.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘The process was we had the call and opinions - and caveated those opinions with we’d do whatever is best in a footballing sense.

‘The potential dates when it could have been would have had an impact should we have been in the play-offs. They would’ve seriously impacted them.

‘We’re only two weeks out from it, we’re prepared and everything is in place, so we were very much in the camp of playing the game.

‘We respect Tranmere’s views, but we’ve gone through a quite lengthy processes of moving the game and pencilling in new dates.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘So once we came out with a defined date we wanted to stick with that, because who knows what will happen in the future in regards of the pandemic.

‘It was a case of take what we’ve got now, we know the final is in two weeks - so let’s just get this done and move on.’

Pompey had sold 50,000 tickets for the original final with Salford, but under the government’s roadmap to recovery 10,000 fans would have been allowed to attend.

The details of those plans are yet to be defined, however, adding to the uncertainty around a new date.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Catlin added: ‘Financially it wouldn’t have made that much difference.

‘We’ve held on for a year now waiting to get fans back, but it’s such a fluid situation in terms of Covid we didn’t want to delay again only for a spike or new variant to emerge and stop it again.

‘It just felt like the time is now to put the Trophy behind us and move on with the end of the season.’

A message from the editor

Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.