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Pompey's fan funders see where their money went
Thursday, 17th Aug 2017 21:32 by Steve Bone at the Pompey training ground

Three years on from a fundraising campaign that saw Pompey fans contribute £270,000 to pay for new pitches for the club's academy, the fruits of the grand effort can be seen.

Manager Kenny Jackett, Academy boss Mark Kelly and CEO Mark Catlin were among guests who spoke at an official opening ceremony for the pitches at the club's Copnor training ground.

And one of the messages all conveyed was how grateful they, the club as a whole and the Academy's players were to have the pitches to train on.

The pitches may have taken longer than all parties would have liked to have been put in place, but they look like being worth the wait, an important addition to the impressive facilities in place for the whole Blues family off Copnor Road.

It was in 2014 that the likes of Andy Awford, Paul Hardyman, Alan Knight and Linvoy Primus helped front the campaign, held together by Tifosy, to raise the money needed.

With a big push they gathered the £270,000 required with hours to spare - and the pitch plan was under way.

At Thursday's opening ceremony Tifosy said they had been involved in fundraising for numerous other English clubs but none of the reward-only based schemes, rather than investment schemes where donors potentially get a return, had netted more cash than the Pompey effort.

Jackett told guests of the importance of a solid youth set-up and good-quality training ground to any football club, and said the Academy pitches now in place helped progress the club's development on both those scores.

Kelly explained how and when the pitches would be used, while Catlin praised everyone who was involved in getting the campaign off the ground and seeing it through.

Guests, who included a number of fan funders and invitees from Portsmouth City Council, watched Pompey's scholars put through their paces by coach Mikey Harris, with Jackett and Kelly also among those looking on.

The event was hosted by Pompey's Colin Farmery, who was instrumental in getting the fundraising drive off the ground back in 2014.

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