Andy Cullen explains why Pompey match with Millwall was called off

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey chief executive Andy Cullen on why the Millwall game had to be abandoned.

Transcript

00:00Andy, thanks for coming out to explain tonight. There's still a bit of confusion about why

00:05the game was called off. Can you clear that up, please?

00:08Yes. If I go through the circumstances and the facts as I know them, we had it just after

00:147.35pm, we lost power within the stadium. We lost the floodlights. We lost a lot of

00:19lighting in the stands. We lost everything in terms of CCTV. So, we had a major power

00:25failure within Framton Park. Obviously, then, you kick in all your contingency measures

00:31to work out what was happening. We got to a stage by 8 o'clock where we were able to

00:35restore the floodlights. But we got to a point where a lot of lighting came back in some

00:42of the stands. We had the north stand throughout. We had the back of the stands throughout.

00:46But what we didn't have was sufficient lighting inside the other major stands of the ground.

00:52That was obviously an impact on everybody's safety to be able to watch the game. We got

00:58to a point just after 8 o'clock where the power came back on. Some of the lights started

01:03to come back in the stand. But we still didn't have the full capacity that we felt we would

01:07need to run a football match in front of a capacity crowd at Framton Park in a safe manner.

01:13So, the decision, I think, was then made to give us as much space as we could in time.

01:17I'm incredibly grateful to the match officials who gave us that space to be able to give

01:22us as much time as we possibly needed. We were in touch with Southern Electric Board

01:26throughout. They were able to get somebody out here just after half-eight and that was

01:30quickly identified that the substation which serves Framton Park, which then comes through

01:36two feeder parts into parts of the stadium, that we'd had a blowout out in there. Now,

01:41what we don't know yet is why that happened and why that's too early to state. But that

01:45will be something we will need to understand in the next few days, working with everybody

01:49to understand why that might have happened or why that occurred. I think we got to, as

01:55we're getting closer to half-past eight, it was getting quite, to be honest, I'd say quite

01:59tense because we were at that stage uncertain how much time we literally had. But then at

02:05that point, there became an additional safety issue. And that was the fact that people getting

02:13back on trains, the game would not have been finished until well after half-ten, after

02:18which the last trains had left to go back to London. And that would have left a lot

02:21of people stranded. So that was an extra consideration that came into play that I think we got beyond

02:27that point. And whilst we're doing everything we possibly could, who knows, we might have

02:31got the game on by ten to nine, nine o'clock, but that would have been too late for everybody

02:34to be safe. The other thing I was conscious of as well, the safety team were conscious

02:41of is within the stadium, did we have sufficient power with all the backups that we have to

02:47last for another two and a half, three hours? It may well have been, we might have had,

02:51but we weren't entirely confident in that happening as well. So that then gave us an

02:55entirely different issue to consider. And as I've just said, people, the most important

03:01thing of coming to a football club is crowd safety. It's the number one, I think. And

03:05we come to watch our teams win football matches. We come to watch entertaining games of football.

03:10Those are all important. But the most important thing is that everybody who comes to a football

03:14match should have the confidence that they can watch the match in safety and they get

03:20home in safety. And I think once you have any doubts in that, you have to make the right

03:24decisions by everybody. So it's frustrating. It's disappointing. I'm really upset. A lot

03:31of people here are upset tonight. We haven't got the game on. The groundsman had a deluge

03:36of rain last night and they've worked tirelessly on this pitch to get it ready. We could have

03:40a situation like we had on Saturday at Blackburn in terms of water logging, but they've worked

03:44hard and the pitch is in great condition and that wasn't a doubt. But that was due to their

03:48hard work. We've had, obviously, the players and the coaches have prepped extremely hard

03:53for this game as well. And then, of course, we have supporters who have made, whether

03:58they're from Portsmouth or from Millwall, a number of them have made long journeys tonight

04:01to come to the game. And so it's really upsetting that we've not been able to get the game on

04:06for them. We will come back. We'll play another day. But as I said, tonight, it's one of disappointment

04:13and I'm really sorry for everybody who's gone home disappointed tonight that they've not

04:17seen a game of football that they were very much looking forward to.

04:20It appears when the lights came back on, it was a bit misleading because I heard some

04:23of the lights. To me, electricity wasn't even working. The Fratern M, the toilet lights

04:27weren't on. Is that the case as well?

04:30It was sporadic throughout the ground. So the emergency lighting was fine, but not the

04:34essential lighting that you need throughout the stadium.

04:37So without that essential lighting, you couldn't play the game?

04:40Yes, the emergency lighting will stack you to a certain point. But that's basically for

04:44getting people in and out of the ground. To rely on that emergency lighting throughout

04:49the ground is not what it's there to do. It's effectively that you've got to make sure that

04:53you've got full capacity. And it may well have been by 10 to 9, 5 to 9, with, as I said,

04:58the electricians coming in, that we might have been in a really good place. But we got

05:04past that point by about just after half-past eight. It was a dreadful call to make for

05:11everybody and I won't hide from that. I can only say that we come here to support games

05:18of football on and we haven't been able to do that tonight. And that's upsetting.

05:23Do you feel there was sufficient communication to the fans through that process?

05:27I think we have to review that. What we can't do is give out misleading information. We

05:32can't give out false promises. And because we weren't aware of all the facts at the time,

05:36we didn't know what had caused the lighting. We couldn't put pressure on the referee or

05:42anybody else in terms of, we need to make a decision by quarter-past eight, half-past

05:46eight or whatever. I have to say, we were given every opportunity by the match officials

05:50to put it on. They gave us the time and space to do that. So the communication we gave up

05:56is as soon as we got further information, we'll continue to update you. But it was that

06:00we didn't have necessarily much more than that in terms of what to say, mainly because

06:04everybody was working so hard to get the lighting back on and try and understand when we could

06:10get people out, the electricity board to come out and what time they would arrive to get

06:17here to try and identify the problem. But like any major incident that you have in any

06:24walk of life, particularly at football matches, we'll understand, we'll look back at it, we'll

06:31review it and then you can always learn from it. You can always do better. You can always

06:36improve. And that's what we're here to do. But tonight, we're in a situation where we

06:41tried to do our very best, but we haven't delivered a football match.

06:44What was the source then of the shortage? Was that in club land? Was that down to the

06:49football club external? Anything you could do about it?

06:52Well, as I said, the power comes through a substation, which is to behind the North

06:58Stand and the Milton End. And as you will see, that substation is completely fenced

07:03off and sealed off. And that's where the problem, what we understand, we haven't spoken to Southern

07:09Electric Board, that's where we understand the problem took place. So we now need to

07:15understand why that trip took place, whether it was anything to do with the football club,

07:19was it elsewhere? And it's too early to speculate what that might be.

07:22And you don't have access to that?

07:24We have no access to that at all, yeah. I think as people will see, you'll see that's

07:28completely, for safety reasons, it's completely sort of fenced off. And I'm going to have

07:33a look at it outside and you'll see exactly where it is. So we do have another sort of

07:37substation panel outside, but that wasn't the problem. If it had been, we could have

07:44done something about it in a far more effective and speedier manner. But no, at that point,

07:50we have to wait for, obviously, the situation to come through. So I think everybody's left

07:55the ground safely tonight. That's the main thing. Everybody will get home tonight safely.

08:00And we have, as I said, that's the most important thing. And, you know, the lighting,

08:08we just couldn't give that guarantee that if we could play the game up, kicked off at

08:12quarter to nine, that by quarter to 11, 11 o'clock, floodlights would probably still

08:17have been on. But we weren't sure that we'd have that confidence throughout the ground.

08:20And it's got anything to do with the new fan zone lights?

08:22Nothing at all. It's actually on a separate circuit. And in fact, they were fine throughout,

08:26as was the North Stand. I think if you were in the South Stand, you could look across,

08:29the lights were all on the North Stand. And that's because they're served by a totally

08:33separate circuit to the rest of the stadium, which was impacted and affected, separate

08:37to the floodlights, separate to the Frack and South Stand and Milton End. So no, no

08:41impact on there. I know people have all sorts of conspiracy theories on that. And that's

08:46most unfortunate that it's happened on that particular evening that we have switched those

08:50lights on. But no, they don't draw that much power. And it's nothing to do with that,

08:55with that at all, because it's on a separate circuit. If those had gone, there might have

08:58been a different question to answer, Neil.

09:02Thanks for sharing that with us. Thank you very much.

09:03Cheers. Thank you.

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