Fan Led Review of Football Governance

The Government’s review of football governance led by Tracey Crouch MP and supported by the Football Supporters’ Association, published its final report today. 

Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust advocates the key recommendations in the report and urges SWFC to take a positive and pro-active approach to change how the club operates in line with them.

The SWFC Trust is a legally structured, democratically run and accountable supporters’ organisation and stands ready to help.

Specifically, we believe it would be to SWFC’s advantage to not wait for legislation and/or new regulations to be established by an Independent Football Regulator, but to take actions now by:

• Ensuring that Wednesday fans, via a legally structured, democratically run and accountable, body hold a ‘Golden Share’ in SWFC. This would mean fans have the right of veto changes to the club’s name, club colours, club badge, location of the club stadium and any sale or transfer of ownership of the club stadium. 
• Establishing a Supporters’ (Shadow) Board to represent the interest of fans at the club. The Board should have a detailed and structured constitution that specifies its role and purpose. It should be the vehicle via which all non-football matters regarding the club are subject to consultation with supporters. It should be a body that can influence real change, not just be a talking shop and it should be democratic and be accountable back to supporters. We outline below a suggested model for such a body. 
• Appoint a group of non-executive directors to the club board, whose role will be to bring a fresh perspective and independent challenge on all matters concerning the running of the club. The new non-executive directors should be specifically tasked with reporting back to supporters on their work. We would support a process that elects good candidates who have the right skills, knowledge and values to do the job well – this is not about seats on the club board for the Trust.
• Establish a new transparency charter that will set out how the club will share information on the running of the club (with suitable protections for business confidentiality) so that supporters are regularly and accurately kept informed of what is happening at the club via the Supporters (Shadow) Board.
• Produce an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan setting out what the club wishes to achieve in improving equality, diversity and inclusion leading towards a more diverse and growing supporter base and within the club’s operations.

The Trust will be formally writing to the club to request that the above are implemented as soon as possible.

Steve Walmsley, Chair of the Trust Board said “For too long now Wednesday fans have been in the dark and kept at arms-length about the running of their club; establishing an Engagement Panel that has no structure or teeth did not meet the challenge before and will certainly not do so in the new landscape following the FLR Review. 

Without fans football is nothing, they are the lifeblood of any club, they are not customers, they are stakeholders in the history and the future of the club. 

SWFC now has a real opportunity to make a major change to how it operates and engages with, and is accountable to, supporters. We strongly urge SWFC to get ahead of the game and build a wholly new approach in response to the FLR.”

Supporters (Shadow) Board Role and Purpose

Sheffield Wednesday Supporters (Shadow) Board Remit/MOU

Definitions

“The Supporters’ Board” is the body established by Sheffield Wednesday Football Club according to the terms of an agreed MOU.

“The Club Board” is the Board of Directors of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club

“The Club” is Sheffield Wednesday Football Club

Mandate of the Supporters’ Board

The purpose of the Supporters’ Board is to strengthen the structured relationship between the football club and its supporter groups, its supporters as a whole and other community representatives. As well as to enhance the club’s profile as a model of transparent and sustainable governance and to ensure the club actively listens to supporters and takes their views into account at all levels of decision making.

Remit of the Supporters’ Board

The Supporter representatives will provide a regular channel of communication and consultation between the Club and its fan/community base. It is designed to be inclusive and to represent the full demographic range of the Club’s supporter base, to whom it is accountable. 

The Supporters’ Board should be consulted on a wide range of matters relevant to fans, examples are covered in this MOU albeit topics are not limited to those listed.

The Supporters Board will expect the club to provide relevant staff to cover the agreed agenda topics at each meeting, and may on occasion, request the attendance of relevant stakeholders.

Issues for the Supporters’ Board’s Agenda. 

These may include, but are not confined to: ·

• Club stability and sustainability for the benefit of current and future generations (including the club’s strategic vision and objectives, short, medium and long-term plans)
• The clubs financial and operational performance 
• The matchday experience of home supporters and Season Ticket holders, travelling and geographically distant supporters, the fans of visiting clubs, and supporters travelling to away games
• Communication between the club and supporters, including publicity and information exchange 
• Ticketing proposals and issues
• Community engagement, and contacts with local institutions (eg schools), local communities and community groups; 
• Protection of the club’s heritage and brand
• Location and ownership of the club stadium

Information to be Shared

This will include, but is not confined to: 

• Periodic financial update, to include annual review of accounts
• Significant items that may affect the future financial situation of the Club, such as the disposal of assets, change in the level of debt, significant share transaction, or related party transactions
• Club colours and kit designs
• Significant changes to matchday arrangements that have an impact on match going fans
• Matters related to marketing, merchandising and sponsorship 
• Stadium issues and plans that would impact supporters

NB: It is recognized by the Supporters Board that certain information e.g. financial may be better dealt with in detail by a sub- committee with the relevant experience and thus report back to the Committee in summary.  

Suggested issues for mandatory consultation:

‘Mandatory consultation’ includes those matters that it believes the club should recognise why engagement of the SAB is crucial to ensure success. The SAB consider these of such importance that it strongly encourages the Club to consult the Supporters Board in discussions regarding these matters. 

These include:

• Key heritage matters to include any changes being considered to Club name, colours, crest and kit designs
• Items that significantly impact fans in relation to matchday arrangements.
• Pricing, format, terms and conditions and availability of tickets, both matchday and season
• The club stadium ownership and location

Issues Excluded from Discussion. 

The Supporters’ Board will not be concerned with team matters such as player recruitment or selection, or the details of personal employment contracts entered by the club, or with football management appointments.

ACTIONS FROM HERE REGARDING THE FLR

1. The Trust will be writing to the Club to formally request that the actions set out above are implemented as soon as possible.
2. We will be writing to all Sheffield MP’s to request that they publicly set out their support for the Review recommendations and to vote for the legislation that is needed to put all of the proposals into effect.
3. You can help by writing to your own MP to ask them to do the same. The text of the Trust letter to MP’s is here please feel free to adapt this for your own letter.

The key now is to build momentum for the changes proposed by the Review to be fully implemented.