Blog

As many of you will be aware, Supporters Direct are working on a project with UEFA to implement a requirement for all clubs that are eligible to compete in European competition to have a supporter liaison officer (SLO). The introduction of the new UEFA licensing system from the 2012/13 season, and its requirement for an SLO, marks an important new chapter in club-supporter relations and emphasises the importance of good communication between all parties.

City Fans United are delighted to announce that following meetings with representatives of Cheshire West & Chester Council, the lease to the Deva Stadium, will now be assigned to City Fans United. This will enable Chester Football Club to use the ground from a date to be confirmed.

Congratulations from all at Supporters Direct!

More supporters' trusts are grilling their candidates as part of the General Election Campaign. Following a explicit pledges in the Labour manifesto to 'Develop proposals to enable registered Supporters Trusts to buy stakes in their club'; and Conservative ones to 'Reform the governance arrangements in football to enable co-operative ownership models to be established by supporters' (the Lib Dems have made no specific proposals on this area), trusts have been busy pressing candidates on this vital issue.

Barry from Watford (on Twitter @barryfromwat) is continuing his 'Silent Protest for fans with no voice', looking now at who owns your ground, and who's got a mortgage out on it (the big debt question that many clubs are facing the length and breadth of the Country).

Who owns your ground?

Who's got a mortgage on your ground?

Apologies for those from clubs outside the English Premier and Football Leagues, as it only covers those.

Pass it on.

Reports in The Guardian today (more detail from Owen Gibson and commentary from David Conn) suggests that the Government are looking at radical proposals to give fans a right-to-buy their clubs and enabling them to take a 25% stake in the club. They also say that the government wants to see the powers of the football authorities beefed up to give them more power to veto takeovers of clubs which are not in the club's interests nor that of the supporters nor the wider game.

È dura la vita dei tifosi di calcio in Italia. Già severe e spesso assurde, le misure restrittive che regolano l'accesso agli stadi italiani sono state ulteriormente rafforzate di recente, ed ora perfino gli striscioni precedentemente autorizzati possono essere rifiutati. Un esempio illuminante: uno striscione con scritto "Genoa for children" (un club di tifosi rossoblù che lavora con bambini e giovani) è stato vietato in occasione di una partita del Genoa.

It's a very hard time to be a football fan in Italy. Evelina Pecciarini, who provides support for the nascent supporters' trust movement in Italy, tells us why, and why as a result of their poor treatment fans have decided to turn their backs on hosting the World's second biggest football tournament.

Already rigid and often absurd, the restrictive measures that rule the access to Italian stadia have been recently further increased, and even previously ‘authorised' banners are now not allowed, for example: a banner that said "Genoa for children"  (a supporters' club that works with kids) was prohibited at a Genoa match!

Reading the headline might make you fear for the future of one of the two Glasgow giants (and let's face it, we all need to be wary about the future of our clubs in the current climate), but it's actually Farsley Celtic of the Conference North who have bowed out of football. That makes it the third club in the top three tiers of non-league football, and the second in the Blue Square (Football) Conference to go bust this season.

Lord Triesman, Chairman of The FA, has come out in favour of supporter-ownership - reported widely in the media on Monday.

Two clubs that haven’t yet resolved their differences with the taxman are AFC Bournemouth and Cardiff City, and both of them are still fighting off winding up orders. Mark Murphy has been taking a look at both clubs, and finds a bit of a high risk strategy taking place at each.