Michael Eisner: Portsmouth owner would 'delete' offers to buy the club

Former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner purchased Portsmouth back in 2017

Portsmouth owner Michael Eisner has said his family intends to run the club for many years to come.

The 80-year-old former Walt Disney chief executive bought Pompey in 2017 and set out a long-term plan to lift the club out of the football league.

"We will not be sellers in my lifetime," Eisner said in a rare interview with BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator Andy Moon.

"I have three sons that don't intend to be sellers either.

"No one has made an offer for the club since I've been owner and there really is no offer that I would entertain.

"Emails about sales or propositions will be deleted."

The Pompey Supporters Trust owned 48.5% of the club's shares with the rest shared among 16 'presidents' when Eisner came along.

When the American billionaire and his investment company Tornante offered £5.67m to buy 100% of the club, with the promise of investing another £10m, the Trust voted to sell in 2017.

Eisner and his three sons, Breck, Eric and Anders, then set about turning the club around.

"I think we've invested four times more than we committed to back when we made the deal five or six years ago," Eisner said.

"We are investing capital in the future. I look around Fratton Park and everything is the right colour, it's safe and the pitch is beautiful - we're going in the right direction.

"We will invest as needed, not invest like crazy. We have not borrowed a dime for investment and we don't plan to. We don't want to have a bad season and have that season end in a financial catastrophe."

Michael Eisner says he is committed to building Portsmouth in a sustainable way that does not break the bank or see the club flip-flop between leagues

"I like the idea of competing with Southampton"

Portsmouth, who spent the summer rebuilding their squad, have only lost twice so far this season and are currently sixth in League One with two games in hand on the top four teams.

But they have failed to make the League One play-offs the past two seasons - the last time they qualified was in the 2019-20 season under the previous manager Kenny Jackett, who was sacked the following year.

"I'm very happy with the coaching and the management," Eisner said.

"As a fan it's frustrating that the club is still in League One. As an owner, we said when we acquired the team that we were going to go at the right pace.

"We weren't going to throw pounds against the wall, we were going to do it in a sustained way so we didn't become a yo-yo club in the future.

"Promotion will happen in a natural way and [we] will not be relegated when we get there."

"I like the idea of eventually competing with Southampton and I can't wait to get on the pitch with them and that will happen - we will go up before they come down hopefully."

Portsmouth host mid-table Shrewsbury Town at Fratton Park today knowing a win could move them into the top four in the table.

"In five or 10 years the club will still be under our ownership and I hope we will not be in League One.

"In 10 years, I don't know, maybe we'll be in the Premier League? Who knows - hopefully."

Eisner has heavily invested in developing Portsmouth

Analysis - BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator Andrew Moon

"It was obvious from our 20-minute chat that Michael and the whole Eisner family are very committed to Portsmouth and have grown a real fondness for the club in their five years in charge.

"While the day-to-day running of Pompey is left to chief executive Andy Cullen, the Eisners are in very regular contact with Cullen and head coach Danny Cowley, and are directly involved with the key decisions.

"Michael Eisner is a huge fan of Fratton Park, there were some at the club in years gone by who thought moving to a new stadium might have been an easier option given the investment required (more than £11m) just to bring capacity up to twenty thousand.

"The Pompey Supporters Trust voted to sell the club to Eisner back in 2017 and the former Disney boss said he felt he had 100% delivered on the vision he presented them at the Portsmouth Guildhall.

"He clearly has come through on many of the points covered that night, however a strong academy hasn't come to fruition as yet with the category three youth setup unable to deliver a significant number of players to the first team. Eisner says he believes the academy is now moving in the right direction."

You can listen to Michael Eisner's full interview with BBC Radio Solent's Portsmouth commentator Andrew Moon on BBC Sounds here.