Sunderland fan group Red and White Army are calling on supporters to help them set the agenda ahead of a meeting with Black Cats chief executive Martin Bain.RAWA will sit down with Bain and club chiefs next month, where they hope to discuss the club's financial position, ownership situation, struggles on and off the pitch, and increased fan involvement. The independent supporters group have called an open meeting for next Tuesday (March 20) where fans can come along and offer ideas and feedback on what they'd like to see RAWA raise with the club, as well as 'air their frustrations' about the Black Cats' plight. Chairman Andrew Hird and other representatives will then take that feedback to the meeting with Bain on April 4. Hird said: "We're very keen to be as representative as possible of supporters so we decided that as well as seeking feedback online we would hold an open meeting before we meet again with the club. "We want fans to help us set the agenda for when RAWA meet with Martin Bain and some of his colleagues at the club on April 4." The open meeting will be upstairs at The Peacock, High Street West, on Tuesday, March 20 at 7pm. Supporters can attend by registering for free at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/red-white-army-open-meeting-tickets-44137590722 Register for the event here "We have no doubt supporters will have some tough questions for us to put to the club, but we also hope the meeting will also act as a platform for supporters to air their frustrations at our current situation," Hird added. "We want to talk about the current ownership and also how fans should position themselves if/when a new owner comes in. "We believe supporters should have more influence. We're not talking about deciding formations or setting transfer budgets but there are lots of other aspects where fans should have more involvement. "There has been a lot of talk about apathy and at the same time many supporters have shared ideas about protests. Fans care deeply about our current plight so we hope a few will come along on the 20th and help us in our efforts to have dialogue and transparency between SAFC and its disillusioned supporters." A petition was launched by Red and White Army last month calling on owner Ellis Short to sell up. It has since topped 10,000 signatures.
Someone should suggest moving the away fans back to where they were. Is it just me or did that mark the moment that we stopped winning games and the atmosphere went flat ? I can't remember when we did it.
Yes, I agree that moving them up there was a shyte idea. The away fans singing used to gee up the home support and vice versa. It also made the stadium look fuller aswell with fans surrounding the whole pitch. Whose idea was it to put them up there aswell without any netting so they are free to throw objects and spit Greenys on the home fans below ?
Yeah it seems that when things aren't going our way, which is almost always, we aren't capable of generating our own atmosphere of support and do actually need the away fans close to get us going. When they're taunting us and I look at them so far away and tucked up in the rafters it feels like there's no point responding so I just sit and take it. The back and forth is part of football, it's two tribes going to war with each other and you shouldn't try to dampen that.
Wasn't the idea to stop the away fans from influencing their team through distance and poor views? Seemed to negatively affect our supporters' views at st jaimee's but not the results.
Although the fans meetings always seem like a good thing to do, I see a couple of fundamental issues. One....the owner is not there. This is nothing more than pacifying a group of people who shout the loudest. It strikes me that Short is sending Bain out to try and empathise with a fan group and hopefully make them feel better.......though nothing will actually change. Two...until someone comes in and actually owns at least 51% of the clubs shares, diddly squat will change. Good luck to them, though, cos at least they are trying something.
I've been tweeting on at them since they've formed. They've done **** all apart from retweet bollox and type their minitues for their little meetings nice and neatly despite nothing happening worth writing down. Pathetic they are. They get feedback and ideas on a daily basis but just ignore it Don't pin out hopes on this shower of ****. They don't have it in em.
That reply from Bain said nothing to me other than 'lads, Short has gone and he's never coming back, so anything that you say or do is futile.'
