MP leading Football Governance reform campaign in Westminster calls on fans to get involved on July 26^th

Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, and the man responsible for the cross party supported Football Governance Bill has come out strongly in favour of Supporters Direct and the FSF’s call for proper consultation with supporters about the future of our national game, and urged fans to attend the Supporters Summit on the 26^th July.

His Bill is designed to tackle some of the issues long campaigned on by SD and the FSF, including the most recent Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee reports – the fifth report in forty years demanding big changes to the way the game is run in England.

Much of the recent focus has been on the widely panned proposals for B-Teams and ‘Strategic Loan Partnerships’. The deeply unpopular ideas were tabled by Greg Dyke’s FA Commission on the ‘Future of the England team’, with the response summed up in grassroots #SayNoToLeague3 campaign.

Despite Dyke’s Commission claiming to have ‘engaged widely with football’s stakeholders’, SD only had their submission acknowledged days after the report had been published, the FSF merely had their submission ‘acknowledged’, and neither were invited to give evidence formally to the Commission. This is despite both representing a combined membership/activist base of some one million fans, members of supporters’ trusts and other supporters’ organisations.

More recently, the way that important decisions are being made across Leagues and governing bodies has moved into sharp focus, particularly in recent days.

In his message, Collins said:

“Football is nothing without the fans and any reform of the sport must include consultation with supporters including representative bodies such as Supporters Direct and the Football Supporters’ Federation. I would urge fans to attend the upcoming SD/FSF Summit and have their voices heard.”

Robin Osterley, Chief Executive of SD, commented:

“We welcome Damian’s work on the running of the game, which is a continuation of the work done by John Whittingdale’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Fans need to unite on the big issues, along with our other allies in the game – at grassroots, in non-league, and across football. So many of us share a desire to see the way the game is run changed to benefit the fans and all those who care about it, and not just a privileged elite. We urge you to seize the opportunity on the 26^th July, and help us to create a real manifesto for change that we can all campaign on together.”

Five things you can do

1. You can sign up for the Supporters Summit via a specially dedicated website: www.supporterssummitt.co.uk

2. You can watch a video about Damian’s Bill via his You Tube Channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8QonHpu9s  and ask for your MP to support it via www.writetothem.com

3. You can sign and share the #SayNoToLeague3 petition via: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/football-association-say-no-to-b-teams

4. You can read SD’s submission to the Dyke Commission www.supporters-direct.org/homepage/research/policy/response-to-the-fa-chairmans-commission

5. You can read the FSF’s submission to the Dyke Commission www.fsf.org.uk/assets/Downloads/Misc/2014/England-Commission-FSF-evidence.pdf

QPR1st Supporters’ Trust has welcomed the willingness of Chairman Tony Fernandes, CEO Phillip Beard and COO Mark Donnelly, alongside Rodney Marsh, to respond to questions from supporters at last night’s fans’ forum.

We welcome assurances given that the club has a plan for next season’s player wages bill, the support expressed for youth development, pledges for further consultation on the new stadium, to support former players, and to help fans with a disability to enjoy the away play-off game.

We also welcome confirmation that QPR will own the new  stadium.

We hope this forum was a first step to an ongoing dialogue between the club’s owners and management with supporters. In particular, we hope there will be more information on the plans the club has to manage its debt. Plans were referred to, but not their possible implications for purchasing players, ticket prices or other aspects of club development.

To build on the success for the fans’ forum, we ask that Tony Fernandes takes part in a similar meeting at least once a year, and look forward to meetings between ourselves as the Supporters’ Trust and the chief executive.  Together, the club and its supporters can build the strong culture for QPR that the chairman has said he wants to achieve.

A member of QPR 1st will be attending the Fans Forum on Thursday. If you have a question you would like to have raised please let us know at info@qpr1st.com  we will put forward the question that is most popular that isn’t being asked by somebody else. all questions submitted by Monday 28th at 17:30 will be collated and considered

QPR1st urge all fans to complete the new Stadium Survey

Following consultation with fans about what could be included in a stadium survey, QPR1st is very pleased that the official survey launched today addresses many of the issues and areas we felt needed to be highlighted. We feel that the club has taken note of our consultation exercise and should be congratulated for doing so. We hope that the Club will follow the example set by Bristol City and issue a second survey after the initial stadium designs are published to test whether fans feel their views have been taken into account.

We respect that the survey is limited in scope in dealing with initial design considerations. Nevertheless we have been reassured by Mark Donnelly that together with the transport survey this is merely the start of a thorough consultation process.

Certainly the feedback the supporters trust received from our consultation exercise was that fans welcome the idea of having past players being honoured by having sections of the stadium named after them or through statues or murals. This is of something we hope that the club will address with fans at an appropriate stage because these are the very details that will make the stadium a distinctive home for the club.

Please do complete the survey. The more fans that do the greater the accuracy in terms of the Club determining our wishes and aspirations.

Link to survey http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/220414-qpr-new-stadium-fan-survey-1493592.aspx