Portsmouth eye building Australian market with transfer business on radar this summer…
The transfer window is open and Pompey will continue to look to the Australian market for players, as interest grows in the Blues on the other side of the world.
Pompey are weighing up further moves into the Australian transfer market this summer.
And Blues chief executive Andy Cullen has outlined the ‘huge opportunity’ which lies in building the club’s standing on the other side of the world.
The Blues are pushing on with their transfer business, with the first section of the transfer window now open.
That is the case for six more days for an ‘exceptional registration period’, before closing and then reopening on June 16 until September 1.
Pompey are looking overseas for a fair amount of that work in the months ahead, as they build for their second season in the Championship.
Value on the continent is behind the work being put in, with greater fees than seen in recent years potentially available to bring in targets.
Pompey’s work in Australia has been a hallmark of sporting director Rich Hughes’ 33-month tenure overseeing the club’s recruitment strategy.
That started as Kusini Yengi arrived from Western Sydney Wanderers in July 2023, with Aussie Sammy Silvera joining on loan from Middlesbrough the following summer.
Jacob Farrell then came in on a four-year deal from Central Coast Mariners, before the Australian links were deepened with Thomas Waddingham joining from Brisbane Roar and then £1.27m shelled out to land Hayden Matthews from Sydney FC.
That move was a record fee paid for an Australian defender, with Pompey’s pathway in the A-League now well established.
The News understands that is something the club will look to build on moving forward, with other opportunities in that market potentially presenting themselves.
With Antipodean links built over the past couple of years, interest in Pompey has grown among Australians as the progress of their players in the Championship is followed.
That has been reflected in Australia now being the largest market when it comes to overseas matchday subscriptions to Pompey+, the club’s in-house streaming and video-on-demand platform.
Cullen sees that as an obvious area where the Blues can build their standing, as they boost the club’s reach worldwide.
Pompey chief: ‘Australia is our biggest subscriber’
He said: ‘There’s a huge opportunity in Australia, notwithstanding the fact we’ve got a growing audience there.
‘In terms of our international matchday subscriptions Australia is our biggest subscriber.
‘That has obviously been built on the fact we’ve had four Australian players in our squad.
‘The awareness of Portsmouth is growing and there’s interest there as well, so there’s strategic work there that we can continue to deliver.’
Pompey’s growth of young Australian players has been as a result of the club fully utilising changes to Home Office rules introduced in the summer of 2023.
That allowed player outside of the Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) criteria, who are usually established internationals, to gain visas.
A maximum of four players can join Premier League and Championship clubs via an Elite Significant Contribution (ESC) exemption, who wouldn’t have hit the Home Office’s 16-point threshold on the points based system.
Matthews and Farrell were recruited in such a fashion, though Yengi, Silvera and Waddingham didn’t need visas because of their dual nationalities.
Pompey have then been able to transition players from ESC to full GBE status, freeing up available slots for further players to arrive as a result.
Farrell and Austrian Nico Schmid were upgraded in such a fashion, with Matthews and Guinean Abdoulaye Kamara able to do likewise this summer – potentially leaving four slots clear for new faces in the ESC category.
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