A message to ALL football fans, regardless of which club you follow; Blackpool Supporters Trust has recently created a government petition with the following aim; The Government must introduce an independent regulator for English football. We urge the Government to introduce an independent regulator for English football, charged with ensuring the highest possible standards of governance for all clubs. The troubles we have endured at Blackpool FC during the Oyston ownership are well documented and make unbelievable reading, which has culminated in the Oystons being made to pay Valeri Belokon over £30m. Blackpool FC has become a by-word in the football community for mismanagement and crisis, and yet after a period several years, nothing has been done. The EFL shows no sign that it understands what its leadership role in this area should be, and as it clearly can’t - or won’t - rise to the challenge, then we feel that the Government must step in to lead the process of fundamental reform that is clearly needed. Blackpool is not the only club in such circumstances. Other 'crisis' clubs include AFC Wimbledon, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Fulham, Leyton Orient, Leeds United. Football clubs are too precious and too much a part of the fabric of our national life, to be left to the mercy of unregulated and often unscrupulous ownership. They need the protection of a robust regulatory framework that offers a range of sanctions against wrongdoers, mechanisms that allow problems to be confronted before they become deep-rooted and a governing body that has the desire to use it. As football fans, I would ask that you join us in trying to bring about change within the game and hopefully prevent future owners from loading clubs with debt, asset stripping and running clubs into the ground. We are all fans and we should stick together to ensure the clubs we love are owned and managed properly. The petition can be found here – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/213108 Thank you all for your support and if you have Twitter, please feel free to tweet this or add on Facebook - get this message out there!! If you are a member of any other of your club's fans forums, please post this on there to spread the word – we, as fans, are all in this together. Please let us know if you sign it, or even disagree with the petition by adding a comment/thumbs up. You can also sign the petition if you are browsing as a guest on this forum. MODS: please could you make this a sticky for us, we need all the support we can get
English football fans 'clients', says Borussia Dortmund chief Hans-Joachim Watzk By Simon Stone 1st March 2018 BBC Sport please log in to view this image 30,000 fans snubbed Borussia Dortmund's Monday night game against Augsburg English football fans are "more clients than members" of the clubs they support, says Borussia Dortmund's chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke. Watzke expects Germany's experiment with Monday night fixtures to be scrapped following fan protests. English fans have complained about the timing of some games, but are at the mercy of the TV rights holders. "The Germans don't want to have the circumstances like in English football," Watzke told BBC Sport. Watzke said 30,000 of his club's fans snubbed Monday's game against Augsburg, even though they had paid for their tickets. This week's fixture was the second to be played on a Monday as part of the new TV deal that runs to 2021. Watzke estimates 80% of fans in Germany are against Monday games. He said: "The TV contract is not done again until 2021. Maybe something happens before then but 80% of the football fans in Germany don't want it and you can't do anything against 80%. No chance." 'Special spirit in German football' Frankfurt supporters threw hundreds of tennis balls on to the pitch during their Monday night game against RB Leipzig The Bundesliga sold its domestic TV rights from 2017 to 2021 to Sky Deutschland and Eurosport for £4.1bn. For the first time, it made available the potential for five Monday night matches, commonplace in England since the Premier League was launched but never trialled before in Germany. At the first, on 19 February, Frankfurt supporters threw hundreds of tennis balls on to the pitch, delaying the start to both halves of their game against RB Leipzig. Watzke observed the vehemence of the protests at the Westfalenstadion at close hand and was not surprised. He said: "In English football, the fans accept, mostly, that they are more clients than members or pieces of the club. "We have 154,000 members. Everyone wants to be a part of the club, not a client of the club. That is a big difference. That is the special spirit in German football." 'We don't want owners from America, Arabia or Russia' Watzke believes the protests were the result of Germany's rigid 50+1 ownership limit. The 50+1 prevents individuals or groups getting control of individual clubs and operating them without recourse to the fans, which is completely different to England, where the only rule is a requirement to pass a 'fit and proper person's test'. There have been discussions in Germany about scrapping the system to allow clubs the opportunity to attract outside investment in an effort to become more successful, of which Manchester City and Chelsea are obvious examples. Watzke does not see it happening, even if it means clubs such as his own, who have one of the biggest average attendances in Europe, are now lagging behind almost the entire Premier League. He said: "Numbers 18, 19 and 20 in the Premier League has the same financial situation as Borussia Dortmund. That is not so easy for us. "For us, the nearest step to go to someone in the USA, or China to get one big investor. That is not our way because our people, our members, don't like it and if someone tried to change the 50+1 rule in Germany, they would get a fan reaction the type of which they could not imagine. "We have 81,000 spectators every match - apart from Monday. But we have 28,000 standing places, where the cost of tickets is between 11 and 14 euros. That is the Borussia Dortmund way. "At the moment there is more money in England but maybe, in 20 or 50 years, we will, perhaps, be able to say our way was the better way. "It is important what your fans think." The last qoute sums up what it's all about. Without real fans the clubs are nothing.
Unfortunately this sort of thing has been going on for years, have a read of this about Doncaster Rovers 1997/98, there but for the grace of God and all that.... http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journa...g-in-south-yorkshire-doncaster-rovers-1997-98
Brilliant, I love everything about German football. Wunderbar! He’s wrong about English fans though, we are not clients, we are hostages. As for the petition, I’m afraid it brings out the contrarian in me. Do we really want an OffFoot? What has happened to Blackpool is disgusting, but why hasn’t normal company, commercial and probably criminal law been enough to provide some respite?
Thamks guys. Tell yer mates and get them on board as well. We need to at least make a decent stab at getting change into the system for the sake of all clubs.
For info, a quick update from BST;s website; BST’s petition went live on the parliamentary website last week and will run for six months to 22nd August 2018. It has gained 5,000 signatures in the first week but requires 100,000 people to sign to trigger parliamentary action. What is it that most annoys football supporters? It’s not necessarily a draw or a defeat when they might have hoped for a victory. It’s under-performance, when players don’t give their all to try and turn a situation around. By extension, as fans we all have it in our power to try and make a positive difference in the way our game is run. We can all step up to the challenge. It takes just a few minutes to overcome the apathy, log on to the website and support a petition that could start to turn our situation around. This is the link to the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/213108 Please support it today and encourage everyone you know to do the same. In parallel with that parliamentary petition, and in addition to our formal communications with the League, the Trust is also supporting the public campaign to put pressure of the EFL to act in regard to fans’ concerns. The EFL has indicated in the last 24 hours that it is willing to hold a meeting with Blackpool fans’ groups, Blackpool MPs and the Gazette newspaper during March to discuss the situation. Apparently ‘attendees will be given the opportunity to raise their concerns and EFL officials will endeavour to provide answers wherever possible and explain its position on a number of matters that have previously been raised in the public domain.’ Today’s planned demonstration outside EFL headquarters in Preston is intended to reinforce for the EFL the principle that fans are vital stakeholders in the game and to show the strength of our dissatisfaction with their response to date when it comes to dealing with rogue owners.. BST encourages all who are available to join this protest against the way that football is currently governed. It is important that the protest is peaceful and law-abiding, that it should make its legitimate point without intimidating either members of the public or EFL employees. There is a train from Blackpool South at 13:48 (the ‘EFL Special’ to Preston) but for those who can't make that train, the plan is to meet at Preston Station for 14.30pm and then to march down Fishergate for the Fans United protest outside EFL House. BST has agreed to be a point of contact/liaison for Lancashire Police, who are happy with the arrangements. BBC TV’s Question Time was broadcast from Blackpool last night. BST members were in the audience and hoping to pose a question about the state of affairs at Blackpool FC and its impact on the town, to get the thoughts of the panel and to give the issue of rogue ownership some national exposure. By the time you are reading this we will know if they were successful. Finally, the Trust is pleased to announce that BST committee member, Tony Wilkinson, has been elected to the board of the Supporters’ Direct England and Wales Football Council for a 3 year term. Congratulations go to Tony. He will do a wonderful job representing football fans everywhere as well as being a great ambassador for BST. Things are starting to move
