Supporters Direct Scotland
Furthering supporter involvement
within Scottish football
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Supporters Summit Round-up

We spent the weekend at Wembley Stadium at our colleague’s in England and Wales Supporters Summit, held jointly with the Football Supporters Federation. While we have our own Supporters Summit in Scotland, it is always good to hear more about the work and supporter involvement movement across the border.

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Our Head of Finance, Thomas, mans the SD stall at the Supporters Summit.

The event was kicked off by Supporters Direct’s Head of Club Development James Mathie who paid special tribute to Brian Lomax, founder of the Supporter Trust movement, in a moving speech.

Then the new Chairman of the rebranded EFL took to the stage to share the League’s ‘Whole Game Solution’ while also shedding some insight into the rumours Celtic and Rangers would be part of the 6 teams asked to make up the revamped League structure.

We then headed for a workshop outlining the progress SD England and Wales had made with the Government’s Expert Working group on fan involvement. This session was particularly relevant to us given our own involvement in a similar Working Group in Scotland. Most of the agreed outcomes from their Group focused on structured dialogue and engagement between clubs and supporter groups with clubs now being required under league regulation to set out a format the ways in which they will consult with fans. This includes clubs (particularly senior representatives) being required to meet twice a year with a representative supporters group (with it being with a Supporters Trust, if there is one at that particular club). 

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We then headed to a Club Kitemark session, asking what a good club looks like in terms of its governance, engagement and transparency. This was an open forum for attendees to share their experiences and what may be realistic to achieve. In terms of transparency, in order to attain the Kitemark, clubs would be required to share the following information (potentially through a page on the club’s website):

  • Revenue split in appropriate major categories.
  • Expenditure split in appropriate major categories.
  • Outstanding debtors and creditors.
  • Director’s remuneration and rewards.
  • Related party transactions.
  • Significant capital expenditure.
  • Compliance with Financial Fair Play.

An interesting session which will feed into some plans and thoughts we’ve got about developing something similar in Scotland. We’d be keen to hear what our members in Scotland think should be part of an Kitemark or ‘index’ of club’s governance, transparency and involvement with supporters (please email ). 

At lunch time, a Google Hangout with Jon Darch of the Safe Standing Roadshow was established. Jon was live at Celtic Park for the first game in the UK with a safe standing area. We know from our recent SLO Development Day the impact the SLO and engagement with supporters had in making that become a reality at Celtic. 

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The live stream with Jon Darch at Celtic Park before the club’s game against Wolfsburg.

We returned to Wembley on Sunday for a Community Owned club network meeting around what further role Supporters Direct can play in driving the Supporters Trust and fan ownership movement for the betterment of the game and its supporters. 

Part of the session was led by our new legal partners Gateley who we have a legal help line with for our members. 

In the final session of the weekend we attended a workshop on raising capital for Trusts and the steps we as an organisation have taken to help groups. We detailed our most recent development, the establishment of our own crowdfunding platform for Trusts. 

Overall, the event was very useful to help with the work we’re continuing to push forward in Scotland – and congratulations to our colleagues in England and Wales and friends at the FSF for their hard work and organisation of the event.

 

 

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