Statement on Football Authority Rulings Against Hull City AFC Friday 8th September was not a great day for Hull City AFC. Quite apart from the result on the pitch at Derby, both the Premier League (PL) and the Independent Football Ombudsman (IFO) issued damning verdicts on our club’s policy on concessions, or the lack of them, and the clubs failure to offer promised “rewards” for supporters under the Membership Scheme. Firstly Hull City Supporters Trust would like to thank the PL for continuing to proceed with their action, via the Commission, despite Hull City being relegated from the top tier last season. HCST had pressed the PL to take action over our club’s clear breach of PL Rule 8 in both written requests and two meetings backed by the Football Supporters Federation (FSF). Whilst we are pleased by the ruling that (should the club return to the PL) concessions must be reinstated, we do however have to express disappointment that a minimum of only 10% is stated in the ruling. This is inadequate. HCST will continue to press the football authorities, including the English Football League (EFL), to tighten the rules on concessions and to police them adequately. Although PL Rule 8, which was the basis of the ruling, specifically mentions only junior and senior supporter concessions, HCST are also continuing our call for Hull City to restore disabled concessions, which were removed by the club in 2012. The second damning report on Friday was the Independent Football Ombudsman’s findings on the mis-selling of the Membership Scheme due to the lack of promised “rewards”. We specifically note the IFO statement that “it is unacceptable and unprecedented for a club not to cooperate with the IFO”. This stance once again demonstrates the contempt which Hull City’s current ownership shows to both the football authorities and supporters alike. Finally the attempt by the club to communicate with supporters in Friday’s video message from Hull City’s Vice Chairman was ill-timed, misjudged and the claims he made inadequate. If the Vice Chairman is honest in his claims that he will improve communication with supporters this should involve meeting supporters rather than issuing scripted video messages which fail to address the issues frequently raised by supporters. http://hullcitysupporterstrust.com/...ngs-against-hull-city-afc/?platform=hootsuite
For those that maybe interested, here is the annual report by the Football Ombudsman, which does mention Hull City on pages 14 & 17 for those that don't want to read the whole thing. http://www.theifo.co.uk/docs/IFO_Ann-Rep_2016-17(web).pdf
It seems the club have again made false promises about member benefits. This season saw us promised Tigers Rewards including: - Earn Rewards points on retail and home match tickets (10%) - Earn Rewards points with matchday codes and competitions - Quarterly Rewards Boost (£2.50/£4/£6 depending on stand starting in July, so two missed already) - Can enter monthly points lotteries to win £200 in rewards points (none yet so 4 missed) - Tiger Travel Bonus (10%) - Spend points back on retail and home ticket None of these have happened again. I emailed about it in September they said it would be up and running by end of October and back dated. I emailed at the end of October. They've ignored me. Why promise these schemes if they have no intention of putting them in place? I've emailed the ASA and Trading Standards.
This from June says it's coming soon: https://www.hullcitytigers.com/news/articles/2017/201718-tigers-rewards-launch/ This has a list of rewards: https://www.hullcitytigers.com/media/4456/tigers-rewards-august-2017.pdf This says it apparently did launch in Tiger Leisure in July and then in a couple of weeks would extand to tickets, then they'd be merged and they'd start doing competitions. https://www.hullcitytigers.com/news/articles/2017/201718-tigers-rewards/ This shows them using the benefits to promote sales of memberships: https://www.hullcitytigers.com/news/articles/2017/201718-membership-available-now/ I can't find where it says the first boost would be in July but I know it did somewhere.
I've said this before but these flase advertising things have bitten the club in the past, and because it was a first warning they got off lightly, but they've now done it twice again since. They really haven't got a leg to stand on with this.
Here's the original brochure which also says you get points on concourse spend. https://www.hullcitytigers.com/media/1064/updated_membership_brochure116-3649565.pdf
Did anyone complain to trading standards last season and get a response? I emailed and had an acknowledgement of complaint but nothing with regards outcome.
I kept getting advised of other places to complain (such as advertising standards) and then the person I was speaking to did say he'd put suggestions to his manager and get back to me.
If you haven't already, the person to speak to is Ian Mattinson at Hull Trading Standards. He took on my complaint a couple of years ago regarding their mis-selling and it was taken seriously. It took time, almost a year in fact, but they found against the club and they were warned they could be prosecuted if it happened again. On top of that, I didn't even buy a pass in the period I made the complaint about, so I had no grounds personally, but I put some other supporters in touch with him who had bought a pass and he still got it sorted on that basis.
Ditto, my brother and I will also complain, I was asked about this the other day by somebody sitting near me. I couldn't give them an answer as it should be in place by now.
So trading standards said that I was correct to send to the ASA and that they will monitor the situation. ASA yet to come back to me. Club just replied saying they are having trouble with the points system but points will be backdated.
