Aston Villa Supporters TrustAston Villa Supporters TrustAston Villa Supporters TrustAston Villa Supporters Trust
  • Home
  • About
    • About AVST
    • Our Objectives
    • Our Achievements
    • Your Representatives
    • Our Patrons
    • Our Partners
    • Club Liaison
  • Join Us
    • Join AVST
    • Become A Partner
    • FAQ’s
    • Member Zone
  • News
  • Campaigns
  • Community
  • Media
    • AVST in the Media
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Meetings & Events
  • Contact

AVST Join Parliamentary Debate on Empowering Fans and Football Governance

    Home AVST News AVST Join Parliamentary Debate on Empowering Fans and Football Governance
    NextPrevious

    AVST Join Parliamentary Debate on Empowering Fans and Football Governance

    By AVST | AVST News | Comments are Closed | 18 August, 2014 | 0

    At the start of July the AVST was invited  along with other club supporters trusts and groups to meet the Shadow Minister for Sport, Clive Efford MP at Parliament.

    Essentially it was a brainstorming session to access the changes needed to help increase supporter involvement in the governance of their clubs and to safeguard supporter interests in the club. The meeting would “help formulate Labour’s policies ahead of the 2015 Election”.

    The agenda was as follows:

    1. Fan Groups and Football Authorities

    a) Transparency

    b) Grievance procedures

    c) Football Authorities communication with fans

    d) Are fans listened to enough over major decisions?

    2. Fans involvement with Clubs

    a) Should rules require clubs consultation on major issues (Ticket prices, Club identity and sponsorship)

    b) What form should fans involvement with clubs take?

    c) Open meetings to question boards (How often?)

    d) Fans and boards

    e) Right to acquire shares

    3. Labour’s policy to protect football stadiums

    a) Presumption under palnning use to remain as stadiums

    b) Recognised fan groups can register as a consultee on any changes of use

    c) Development may be permitted where it meets local priorities and there is like-for-like replacement

    d) Partial development to improve what remains

    4. Other issues

    AVST Survey Example

    If you want a example of why such concern is being shown by politicians about football, look no further than the detailed survey of Villa fans undergone by the Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust (full results to be published soon), which indicated that only 16% answered ‘yes’ to the question: ‘Do you believe the club listens to its fan’s views and takes their interests into account when making decisions?’ (59% answered ‘no’, with 25% ‘undecided’).

    The feeling of the disconnect between supporters and the Villa board was also shown with 79% of Villa supporters stating there should be a supporter-elected director on the board (like Swansea has). Only 8% disagreed.

    In terms of the bigger picture, 72% of fans thought there should be some form of mechanism to allow supporter involvement in the ownership structure of AVFC (11% said no, with 17% undecided).

    Such sentiment pretty much reflects the nationwide supporter discontentment that is boiling up; take the recent battles Cardiff City and Hull City supporters have engaged in to protect their club’s basic identity and heritage. Or, the recent battles our neighbours Birmingham City and Coventry City have had to contend with in terms of their owners behavior.

    The Discussion

    Fundamental Safeguards

    Using the above agenda as a rough guideline in the meeting, the practicalities of football governance was discussed, although supporter influence on that level in the top-flight at least, seems a long way away in terms of being regulated. Certain legal protections to basic heritage – whether it be the club’s name, colours, stadium – also seemed to be in the forefront of Labour’s thinking. In other words a basic set of laws to protect a club’s historical identity is to be considered.

    Supporter Empowerment and Solidarity

    The notion of empowering supporters was also proposed.  When you have numbers, people listen and football supporters are one of the biggest consumer groups there is. The organisation of those numbers to represent themselves more effectively is of paramount importance to increasing football supporter’s standing in their own game.

    Supporter solidarity also is a necessity and Villa fan have started to get involved in that as our participation in the two Football Supporter Federation marches in London has shown.

    SLO

    Another key to an increased supporter voice is the formalisation of the role of Supporter Liaison Officers (SLO) at football clubs, that if undertaken properly could potentially lead to much improved communication links between clubs and their fans. And importantly, communication on an equal footing.

    The role of the SLO seemed to be news to the Shadow Minister and is very much still in its infancy at clubs.

    German Success

    The German success story of supporter ownership and influence in their clubs through the ’50 + 1′ rule in DFB and DFL statutes that means supporter ownership (or majority control) is enshrined in German football, was also mentioned throughout the discussion in Parliament. As was the unlikelihood of a full overhaul of English game and  football governance to  get to the level of supporter influence that German fans enjoy.

    For more insight and thoughts on the matter check out an extended article on My Old Man Said

    avfc, AVST Survey, football governance, parliament, SLO

    NextPrevious

    Legal Stuff

    Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust is the trading name of the Aston Villa Supporters’ Society Limited, a registered Industrial and Provident Society (29250R). We are also governed by the Financial Conduct Authority.

    Privacy Policy

    Donate to AVST

    Help us achieve our community objectives by donating below.



    Recent Posts

    • Ticket Prices

      We acknowledge the recent announcement about the ticketing details for the 2025/26

      1 June, 2025
    • Ticket Prices: An Open Letter to the Club

      This is an appeal to Aston Villa Football Club, from the Trust,

      27 February, 2025

    Membership

    Copyright 2019 Aston Villa Supporters' Trust | All Rights Reserved
    • Home
    • About
      • About AVST
      • Our Objectives
      • Our Achievements
      • Your Representatives
      • Our Patrons
      • Our Partners
      • Club Liaison
    • Join Us
      • Join AVST
      • Become A Partner
      • FAQ’s
      • Member Zone
    • News
    • Campaigns
    • Community
    • Media
      • AVST in the Media
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
    • Meetings & Events
    • Contact
    Aston Villa Supporters Trust
    Manage Cookie Consent
    We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
    Functional Always active
    The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
    Preferences
    The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
    Statistics
    The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
    Marketing
    The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
    Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
    Preferences
    {title} {title} {title}