supporters direct scotlandwww.scottishfans.orgmay e-mag - #4

Inside this issue:- Season ticket prices- Time for salary caps?- SDS 2014 Conference- could fans have right to buy clubs?- colours of our scarves

OUR Mission sTATEMENT, “TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE SPECTATOR SPORTS CLUBS

BASED ON SUPPORTERS’ INVOLVEMENT AND COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP” HAS BEEN OUR

GUIDING PRINCIPLE SINCE WE WERE ESTABLISHED IN SCOTLAND IN 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON SUPPORTERS DIRECT SCOTLAND, PLEASE VISIT US AT:

ROOM 4,BETA HOUSE,INNOVATION PARK,UNIVERSITY OF STIRLINGSTIRLING,FK9 4NF

T: 01786 845 606

OR CONNECT WITH US THROUGH:

some of the photos used in this magazine were taken for the co-

lours of our scarves project and taken by stuart roy clarke

FACEBOOK.COM/SCOTTISHFANS

TWITTER.COM/SCOTTISHFANS

So the season is over and the roller-coaster that is Scottish Football has come to a grinding halt- until we start all over again in late July. Of course the reality is our teams are releasing players, signing new players, launch-ing new kits, pleading for early season ticket renewals, as well as trying to keep us the fans engaged during this down period.

We at SDS don’t really have much of an off season and our work with club and supporters groups continue to grow and we go into the close season with discussions at several Premier-ship and Championship sides keep-ing us busy. During this season just passed the action off the park for fan engagement and community own-ership opportunities has continue to grow. Out of adversity we have seen Dunfermline Athletic become the 4th club in community ownership and we have also seen Hearts, Motherwell, Annan Athletic and Livingston confirm that they want to go down this path too. Part of this changing dynamic is seeing how success business people such as Ann Budge at Hearts and the Pars United group have seen the ben-efit of working with ordinary fans to try and develop clubs that are embedded in their communities. Of course this has not gone unrecognised elsewhere and last month we have a debate brought to the Scottish Parliament by Alison Johnstone MSP for the Green Party. At that debate, which we at SDS at-tended, Shona Robison Sports Minis-ter and Cabinet Secretary announced that a Working Party would be set up headed by Stephen Morrow from the University of Stirling to look at how the future for community owned clubs in Scotland.

This is undoubtedly fantastic news for

us as fans as we all want to protect the clubs that we love and to ensure that they are run transparently and sustain-ably. Too often we have seen the old model of come unstuck when money runs out or when benefactors just run out of steam. We at SDS believe that it is a privilege for those who run our clubs to have that stewardship and the more they engage with fans the better it will be for the whole game. We have seen great strides at this with some clubs and of course others have been less forward thinking. What we need as an organisation is to have fans learn-ing from each other and for us having a united voice when it comes to the big issues in football that have an impact on all of us. Our conference is start of what we believe is a very exciting time for the further development of the fans community in Scotland and we hope that we will have representation from most of the clubs in the room. If you can’t make the event please follow us on the usual social media channels and spread the word and feel free to contact any of our team if we can help you in any way.

Enjoy your close season and the World Cup.

Paul @PaulGoodwin3

the season that was

Supporters Direct Scotland is delight-ed to confirm that Sport and Common-wealth Games Secretary Shona Robi-son has announced the formation of an “independent working group that will look at how we can increase and improve fans involvement within foot-ball clubs”, on 22 April 2014.

Chaired by Stephen Morrow – a senior lecturer in Sport Finance at the Univer-sity of Stirling – it will have representa-tion from the SFA, SPFL and Support-ers Direct Scotland, with others to be appointed as appropriate.

Community ownership of football clubs and increased fan engagement in Scottish football has made signifi-cant progress in recent months. Several Scottish football clubs have embraced fan ownership in recent years including Clyde, Dundee, Dunfer-mline Athletic, Motherwell, Stirling Al-bion and Stranraer which all now have forms of community or fan ownership.

Hearts FC are on the verge of introduc-ing a similar structure after creditors agreed the sale of shares to chairwom-an Ann Budge, who plans to transfer

ownership to fans’ group Foundation of Hearts.

Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnstone, who was leading the member’s debate on Fan Ownership of Football Clubs, welcomed Ms Robison’s announce-ment can called for an “ambitious mandate” and for the group to look at “radical recommendations”.

Ms Johnstone also pointed to a poll released by the Scottish Green Party which showed 87% of those asked support fan trusts having right of first refusal if their club came up for sale, or when it went into administration.Their research also reports 72% would support a right to buy their local club for a market value at any time.

Supporters Direct Scotland will be represented at these meetings by the Head of SDS, Paul Goodwin and Rich-ard Aitkinson a member of the SDS Council. We will keep members updat-ed on progress.

Sport minister announcing formation of a working party for fan involvement

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supporters direct scotland2014 conference

featuring:kenny shielsgordon waddellprofessor stephen morrow‘no to hull tigers’

Sunday 15th Junestirling management centre

conference tickets available:scottishfans.org/conference

The conference, taking place on the 15th of June at the Stirling Manage-ment Centre, aims to put fans back in the heart of the game and will be cen-tered around the critical role of sup-porters’ future within the game.

Speaking at the Conference will be Professor Stephen Morrow, chair of the independent working group created to examine increased and improved fans involvement within football clubs, Kenny Shiels, journalist Gordon Waddell and representatives from the ‘No To Hull City Tigers’ cam-paign.

Results from the SDS National Foot-ball Survey will also be distributed to all participants at the Conference alongside the presentation of new research conducted by FREE and

Loughborough University on how fans engage with supporter networks and organisations at a club, national and international level. Additionally, the Colours of our Scarves photo ex-hibition will also be on display for par-ticipants to view throughout the day.

Throughout the day there will be the chance to debate and discuss some of the most prominent themes affect-ing football and how fans are at the heart of the nation’s game through Q&As and Focus Groups. Please e-mail andrew.jenkin@supporters-di-rect.org with any questions.

Tickets are available to purchase for as little as £10 from https://sds2014.eventbrite.co.uk and you can connect with the event by using the hashtag #FansFuture

tickets now available for the supporters direct scotland 2014 conference

With the domestic season now coming to an end, it is almost time to focus off the field matters at each of our respective football clubs.

At Supporters Direct Scotland, we continue to focus on having fans’ voices heard around the country. Fans make up only a small por-tion – if any - of the boardroom at the ma-jority of clubs. There are a few exceptions to this rule where fans can voice their opinion on matters concerning all areas of their club; however at the majority of football clubs in the country, fans are not being consulted on matters which affect them directly.

SDS has – and continues to - fight for fans to be given the right to have an opinion at the highest level at their club. Slowly, inroads have been made, but it is a long-term process and one that SDS will continue to be at the forefront of. Last season saw the change in league structure. This season could see new proposals being brought into play – such as financial fair play – but will the fans be asked what they think of the idea? They weren’t given the chance last season, what would be so different this time around?

SDS have knocked on the doors of every club in Scotland at one time or another and have been allowed access to give fans op-portunities on occasion, only to have the door slammed in our faces in others.

The fight for fan ownership has gone on for several years and continues to drag on until some sort of conclusion can be met where fans can actually hear what decisions are be-ing made about their club, as well as being given the opportunity to influence what deci-sions will be made in the future.

SDS believe that fans have earned the right to have a say on what their club decides. Through their continued investment over many years and continued support of their club; they are any football club’s constant – head and shoulders above the short-ter-mism that has plagued professional football for years.

SDS will be holding their annual conference on June 15, at the Stirling Management Cen-tre. There will be a number of guest speakers at the event, including Kenny Shiels, Gordon Waddell and Professor Stephen Morrow as well as the results of the National Football Survey which was conducted earlier this year.

The conference gives fans and supporters’ groups alike the opportunity to have their voices heard, and discuss how they can help make an impact on the future of Scot-tish football. Furthermore, it gives fans the chance to have an opinion on their respec-tive clubs and on the issues that matter the most to them.

SDS will continue to promote greater fan engagement and involvement in Scottish football. Events like this give supporters the chance to come along and interact with oth-er fans; to discuss and debate on what is im-portant to them and to help strengthen the supporter movement in Scotland.

Now is the opportunity for football support-ers to make their voices heard. To come to-gether and take advantage of an open forum where they can ask the questions that are important to them. SDS implores all fans, from every club, to come along on June15th and enjoy our annual conference.

make your voice heard at the sds conference

Photo by Stuart Roy Clarke for Colours of our Scarves Programme

This week saw the latest initiative by Albi-on Rovers to increase their home attend-ance for next season and make their club more financially sustainable.

Following the success of their “Pay What You Can” campaign earlier in the season, the club have now applied the same of-fer for next year’s season tickets, with a minimum price of £10 to get your seat for every home league game. The club chair-man, John Devlin, insists that he is taking a gamble, but a full stadium on match day would be worth it. Should this prove to be successful, the Rovers fans could attend every home game for 55p each game.

Following on from the initial scheme, which saw the club gain its highest at-tendance for the season – 718 attended the fixture against Montrose, almost dou-ble what the average attendance was for the rest of the season - the club hope they can replicate that over the course of a full season.

Already, another club is following suit. Livingston are offering fans the chance to pay £180 for their season ticket – which will include home games against Rangers

and Hearts, and could also include home ties against Dunfermline and potentially another Premiership side pending the play-offs.

This staggeringly low price would be seen as a bargain all over the country, where several clubs were offering their season tickets at over £200 for the current sea-son. This all sounds like a great deal, es-pecially when you consider Premiership clubs charge over £300 a season ticket, for arguably a less competitive division. In addition to these adult ticket prices at Liv-ingston, concessions can get their ticket for £90 and children’s are priced at £54.

In addition to the low Season Ticket price, another great offer at Livingston is that if this is still too high a price for some fans to afford, they are offering a £10 raffle ticket, with tickets to home matches for the winners and a one-off prize of a Sea-son Ticket. Livingston chairman, Gordon McDougall, is hoping that the scheme his club are of-fering will fill seats and double the home attendance, something which could be crucial to a club currently in a transition period to a community ownership struc-

ture. Value for Money

So, is the Scottish game currently good value for money? A poll on Scottishfans.org found that 91% of respondents did not feel that our game was value for money. How accurate is this of the wider consen-sus? Are these new initiatives by Albion Rovers and Livingston the way forward for all clubs in Scotland?

If the initiative can prove successful on a long term basis – rather than just for a couple of games – then this has to be the way forward. Clubs in the top tier have seen their attendances dwindling, some-thing which has become something of a trend over the last few seasons.

When compared with ticket prices from over Europe, the Scottish game is par for the course when looking at the paper value of prices. However, can the cost be justified by the level of skill and general standard of football in Scotland?

Taking Arsenal for example, they have the highest Season Ticket price in the Premier League, more than double what Celtic fans pay for their season ticket. However, compare the two footballing standards. Arsenal play a high level of football on a regular basis, whilst Celtic show a rare glimpse of what football they can play only a few times a season. Furthermore, Arsenal provided fans with several local derbies this season, as well as home ties against Liverpool and both Manchester clubs. Celtic? Well were there really any big home league ties for them this sea-son?

Another aspect to look at though, is how expensive Arsenal tickets are. The club haven’t won a major trophy since 2005, albeit they have a FA Cup final this season against Hull City, the fans aren’t seeing their money paid back on the pitch. But are Scottish football fans? Some clubs would argue yes. Celtic fans got to see Champions League football earlier in the season. St Johnstone fans have overseen their clubs run in the Scottish cup. Aber-deen supporters witnessed the club win

their first silverware in almost 20 years. However, Hibernian and Kilmarnock fans have watched their club flirt with relega-tion all season, and Hearts fans have seen their club relegated, whilst Rangers fans don’t know who to trust in the running of their club’s finances.

Not only throughout Scottish football, but the sport in general, fans can never truly know how good the value for money is in their club. Some fans can argue that they have been paid back what they put in with trophy wins, but others may argue that the style of football isn’t giving them enough excitement and entertainment when they go to games. On the flip side, fans that pay less for their season tickets may never win any tro-phies, but might be getting the adrenaline rush associated with supporting a foot-ball team; getting pleasure from watching their club perform on the park, although not winning much in terms of silverware.

Arsenal fans fall into this latter category. Each season they fork out over £900 a Season Ticket, to turn up and watch their club mount a title bid before capitulating in the second half of the season. Whereas Celtic fans pay half the price, make a sac-rifice in the standard of football, but usu-ally win at least one trophy per campaign. At the lower levels, fans pay much less than this, the football in some places is just as good as at the top – perhaps not in England, but in Scotland certainly – and not everyone is pleased.

Finances in football are a tricky business. It is difficult to satisfy everyone, but at least clubs are finally making inroads at some level to try and do this.

By Blair Condie@BCondie92

Albion Rovers and Livingston lead the way in ticket-ing revolution

Blair Condie believes inancial fair play is a great concept and asks whether it be im-plemented at a Scottish league level?

Over the last few days, the Russian Foot-ball Union has been discussing plans to put salary caps in place within their top di-vision – the Premier League. The National Football League – which is the equivalent of the Scottish Championship – have put strict salary caps in place on their clubs, which means that all staff at the clubs can’t earn more than $8,370 per month, excluding bonuses, which the club are free to hand out without facing a back-lash from the government.

The idea was spoken about by the Hon-orary President of the Russian Football Union, Vyacheslav Koloskov, who is be-hind plans to implement financial fair play at a domestic level, as well as a European one.

He firmly believes that this will help the

long-term sustainability of every club in the country. Currently, Russian clubs have to have at least four Russian footballers on the field of play at any one time, which means that if a club has many foreign players and few Russian ones, these na-tive footballers can demand higher wages to keep the club within the rules set out by the League. However, Koloskov is in favour of having the rules relaxed on this rule, as this would mean that the less than average play-ers who demand extremely high wages could be forced into having lower wages so the club meets the criteria. Many clubs are expected to oppose the idea, as this could restrict their future signings as they may be unable to fulfil the wage cap with their current squad and then their future signings.

What about in Scotland?

Currently, the majority of Scottish clubs need not worry about wage caps which

could harm any future signings or their current squads. However, what should be noted is the recent decline in Scottish club finances.

Many clubs in Scotland – through all lev-els – have faced financial ruin, or have done in the last few years. Could a wage cap relative to the level of that club be of benefit to that side?

Looking at Rangers, it is well documented how staff throughout the club are receiv-ing a vast amount of money – something a Championship side just simply can-not control. If a wage cap was in place throughout the SPFL, surely the club would be better off for it?

Although there is a lot of debate around what money is being spent where at the club, and where it is being lost, it is cer-tain that the club is not making enough money to keep afloat.

If a wage cap was in place at the Glas-gow side, then less money would be lost – perhaps no money would be lost at all – something which is of obvious benefit

to the club.

Although Rangers is a high profile case, there are a number of smaller clubs which could also benefit from this. Right through the divisions in Scotland, clubs are being swallowed up by their wages and running costs. It is very difficult for clubs to reduce their running costs as many of them are out with their own control, but the wages are something the clubs can control.

If clubs had lower wages, which were put in place by their own governing body, then the clubs would have to make changes which would be of clear benefit to that club.

Granted, the clubs would have to vote to make these changes, and it would face the same problems as in Russia, but it does seem to be of clear benefit to the clubs and for course it could have the added benefit of making the league more competitive.

However, the prospect of losing several of the club’s star players would be a bit of a deterrent. No club wants to lose its best

is it time for a salary cap in scottish football?

players. This could have repercussions in terms of ticket sales, shirt sales and oth-er players who the club had intended to bring in.

The whole idea of sustainability in Scot-tish Football is a tricky concept. Look at Formula One. The sport looks to maxim-ise the skill of the driver and the aerody-namics of the car; they all have the same sized engine which effectively makes it a level playing field.

If clubs were given level budgets at which they all had to adhere to, then the playing field would be much more even and the league would be much more competitive. Celtic are dominating the Premier League because they have the money to do so. Give the other clubs in the division a similar budget then the chances of Celtic dominating the League would be much slimmer.

This idea is similar to the draft system in the National Football League. The teams which finish with the worst regular season record get the first pick of players avail-able to draft for the following season.

It’s a similar programme in The National Hockey League, again in America. The teams which have the worst season are given the best possible chance to get first pick when it comes to their draft, while the teams who had better seasons have the lowest chances in their lottery.

Even in Basketball, in the NBA in America, the players have taken wage cuts to try and make the sport a more level playing field. Although many argue that the NBA is no less dominated by a few teams than it was 10 years ago, at least it can be seen that the authorities, franchises and even the players were willing to make changes to try and make the sport more exciting for fans.

I’m not looking for football to become like American sports – filled with franchises, excited for advertisements just as much as the sport – but owners, players and the authorities need to try and make change. Celtic are dominating the Scottish Pre-

mier League, usually 3 or 4 sides domi-nate the English Premier League, Bayern Munich dominate German football and it’s usually Real Madrid and Barcelona fight-ing it out in Spain, Athletico Madrid have been an exception this season, but will it continue? Even if it does, the top leagues are always going to be won by only a few sides. Before the sport became commer-cialised - where it would often just be local lads who would don the jersey - any side could win the League. Look at the English Premiership – Manchester United hold the record number of wins – 20. Rangers hold the record in Scotland which is more than double that. Football doesn’t need to revert to this style completely, but per-haps there were some good points here which made the game more attractive to the fans.

The possibilities – however good and bad – go on and on. On one hand, a wage cap could be good for the long term sustaina-bility of the club, but on the other the long term pleasure could suffer. The fans obvi-ously want to see their club live on, but do they want that to come at a cost such as losing big name players?

Of course they don’t. Whatever happens when it comes down to finances in foot-ball is always a touchy subject, there is al-ways a negative with a positive. Although there are no plans in place to move this concept to Scotland, it is just another thing that the SPFL board can consider.

It’s time that football caught up with the rest of world sport, strides are being made into technology, it is only natural that fi-nances and competitiveness are the next things to follow.

By Blair Condie@BCondie92

While the past season provided much in the way of entertainment on the field, off the field there has been enough evidence to suggest that a tide is turning within the game.

We as an organisation have made plenty of tracks in the past 12 to ensuring that supporters are firmly at the heart of the game and not only have a say, but are lis-tened to on the most pressing matters.

The recent news that the Government will be establishing a working group to look at further fan involvement within the game was met with much encouragement by all at the organisation and we hope is the start of more clubs recongising the im-portance to the game supporters have.

It’s been a busy few weeks for us all with our Conference coming up on the 15th of June. I cannot encourage fans enough to sign up for a ticket (just £10) via our EventBrite page (click here to go to the site). Speaking at the event will be a range of excellent speakers, emphasising how important supporters are to game. This includes former Kilmarnock and Morton manager Kenny Shiels, Professor Ste-phen Morrow, representatives from ‘Hull City Till I Die’ and Borja Garcia of Lough-borough University. It promises to be a very informative and interesting day. I’m

genuinely excited to hear from all the speakers as I believe they all truly under-stand and believe in the work we do as an organisation

We’ve also been busy developing re-search around a range of topics within the game which will be distributed at the Conference. Included within the publica-tion will be research on the alcohol ban, safe standing and what fans think of gov-ernance within the Scottish game. We’re also honoured to be presenting research on the future of fan ownership in Scotland at the ‘Football & Communities of Resist-ance’ Conference on the 12th of June in Manchester. We’re happy to say the pa-per makes a positive prediction on the future of community owned clubs within Scotland.

For Supporters Trusts, we’ve been busy picking up new skills and information to best help you with your own objectives and feel free to get in touch at any point if you require support or advice from us. I’ve been happy to attend many Trust meet-ings and so many of you are doing excel-lent work and I look forward to hearing from more of you in the coming months.

I would like to congratulate fan owned Stirling Albion on their recent promotion to the SPFL League One. It’s a great club who deserve to be heading in the right direction and I believe they’re starting to benefit from a stable ownership and man-agement model. On a similar note, I prom-ised a friend at their Supporters Trust I would promote his fundraising efforts for the John Hartson Foundation. So please check out Mattie Hollingworth’s 100 mile bike ride around the London and Surrey area here.

I look forward to seeing some of you at the our Conference and continuing to support many of you in your efforts and objectives.

Best wishes,AndrewProject Manager@AndrewJenkin

A good time for scottish football & fan owned clubs

The ‘Colours of our Scarves’ Pro-gramme has kicked into gear over the last four months working with over 2200 participants, taking part in a cross section of workshops, fo-cus groups and facilitated discus-sions. In addition to this, we have also visited Falkirk FC, Dundee Utd FC, Hamilton Accies FC and Hiber-nian FC for Matchday exhibitions, which were received very well by the club’s players, staff and supporters alike.

The ‘Colour of our Scarves’ pro-gramme will interact with football clubs, football supporters and resi-dents of communities around foot-ball stadia to gain a unique perspec-tive on the issue of sectarianism nationwide, whilst exploring and at-tempting to gain more knowledge and research on the differentiation and geographical anomalies in the

prevalence of Sectarianism that may currently exist in Scotland. In addition to this the programme will also give the participating individu-als a knowledge and understanding to better address and change the existence of sectarianism locally.Over the next fourteen months it is our intention to visit all the other sen-ior football grounds in Scotland and take the programme nationwide.

For more information on the pro-gramme please visit here.

colours of our scarves update

St Johnstone owner, Geoff Brown, has this week hit out at the idea of fan ownership being the way for-ward in football.

The businessman, whose family have ran the Perth side for almost 30 years argues that his club have benefitted from a stable owner who has run the club, while many of their rivals have flirted with the prospect of administration, with some clubs actually finding themselves in that predicament.

Brown maintains that a one man owner is the best, and believes clubs which are run by committees can’t be held to account over their demise.

In the last few seasons, Rangers, Hearts and Dunfermline have found themselves almost begging fans for

their additional investments to keep the club afloat, and now each club is at the mercy of the fans.

The fans care about their clubs, they want what is best for them. At both Hearts and Dunfermline, as well as a number of clubs further down the divisions, fans have taken control of their club in a committee formed ba-sis – and each of these clubs, given time, have begun to turn their for-tunes around.

Stirling Albion – the club who be-came the first League club in the UK to be entirely fan owned – have now gained promotion to League One, and have amassed a squad which many are of the belief that they can challenge again for Championship promotion once again.

Hearts too, have only recently found themselves in a position where fan ownership is coming into play. To-wards the end of the season, the club begun to turn their fortunes around, however it was a little too late and they were relegated to the Champi-onship.

Although it could still be another couple of years before a fan com-mittee take control at Tynecastle, the foundations have been built for this move to take place. The same is at Motherwell. Fan ownership is be-coming a possibility at this club, and despite reports this week, the fans still maintain the ambition to seize control of their club within the next year or so.

Although fan ownership in football is a relatively new concept – certainly in Scotland anyway – but the concept is proven elsewhere. German clubs have shown that they can thrive with the fan ownership concept. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dort-mund have shown that they both can challenge on the European stage, whilst Barcelona is also ma-jority owned by the fans. Arguably the most successful club in Europe in the last 8 years, the Catalan club are run as a democra-cy, where fans vote for changes at the top and all can make their own votes on every decision the club take. Even Real Madrid have a simi-lar ownership model to their rivals!

Fan ownership is proven at the high-est levels in European football. Al-though Scottish football is not once what it was, our clubs are still being given the opportunity to compete on this stage. With patience and contin-ued investment from fans, Scottish

football can compete at the highest levels of football. Many argue that it is not competing right now, so surely this shows that there could be something wrong with the way it currently operates?

Clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have – at least for the last 20 years – played a ma-jor role in the Champions League, and Dortmund have re-emerged from their ‘90s participation in the competition to once again become a contender amongst Europe’s elite.

Fan ownership in these clubs works because of the continued support each member gives to the club, which is something that Scottish football fans do have in them when it is required.

If and when fans are called upon to save their club, they turn up with the goods when no one man investor does. Clubs can’t rely on someone who has no passion for the club, no affiliation and is only looking to re-coup the money they put in with a tidy profit. The fans don’t want this. Fans want to see their club survive. They want their club to succeed. They don’t want to lose part of their community, part of their heritage. If all goes well, they’d be ecstatic should the club even manage to win a trophy along the way.

Change is required in Scottish foot-ball. It may take time, and it may be a bumpy road, but the way things are currently set up, the passion is being overruled by profit.

By Blair Condie@bcondie92

a response to geoff brown’s comments regarding ownership structures

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 na-tional game, and urged fans to attend the Supporters Summit on the 26th 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 Com-mittee reports – the fifth report in forty years demanding big changes to the way the game is run in England. In his message, Collins said:

“Football is nothing without the fans and any reform of the sport must in-clude 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 grass-roots, in non-league, and across foot-ball. 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 oppor-tunity on the 26th July, and help us to create a real manifesto for change that we can all campaign on together.”

You can get tickets for the event here.

Damian Collins MP: “Get to the Supporters Summit and get your voices heard”

Supporters Direct and the Football Supporters’ Federation will host the joint annual Supporters Summit in London at Wembley Stadium on 26th July, 2014.

The event brings fans together from across the UK and Europe from clubs and supporter organisations to debate the issues at the heart of the game.

Last year’s Supporters Summit, held at St. George’s Park, included debates on Governance, Ownership, Transparency, Ticket Pricing, Discrimination and Safe Standing.The full programme for the Supporters Summit 2014 is currently being final-

ised and will again include high profile figures from football, sport, media and politics.

The AGM’s of both organisations will be held the evening of Friday 25th July.To enquire about opportunities to get involved either as a delegate, spon-sor or supporter group, please contact Mark Bullock/Victoria Goodfellow on events@supporters-direct.coop or call 020 72731592

supporters direct summit 2014 - at wembley stadium

Being a member of a supporters’ trust is about more than just loving sport. It’s about being involved, having your say, listening to others and working together as a community to secure a sustainable future for your favourite team. In short, it’s about fair play.

You may not think sport has much in common with your gas and electricity bills, but at Co-operative Energy, we’re motivated by the same values as the trusts you work so hard to support.

Sport is steeped in history, full of winners, pioneers and athletes who went the extra mile for their teammates. In a similar way, the Co-operative movement has been holding the torch for communities, ethical trading and honesty since the Rochdale Pioneers opened the doors of their first shop in 1844. A real alternative In 2011, almost 200 years later, Co-operative Energy – part of the Midcounties Co-operative - was founded on the same principles. We wanted to

offers consumers an alternative to the Big 6 energy suppliers - a different choice based on fair prices, transparency, renewable energy sources and a commitment to customer service and Co-operative members.

Three years on, we’ve gained plenty of supporters and 200,000 customers. And, although we’ve grown fast, we’ve kept our promises to them, offering consistently fair prices and a strong set of values.

When some energy suppliers were hiking their prices by as much as 11%, we decided to absorb rising energy industry transport and distribution costs and raise ours by a modest 2.5% on average. Our range of fixed price tariffs is designed to offer flexibility, value for money and complete peace of mind - without any early exit fees. A rallying cry for renewables We’ve sourced our energy responsibly (the carbon content of our electricity in 2013 was less than half the national average), hosted the UK’s first Community Energy Conference and worked with renewable energy

communities across the UK. In fact, you could say we’re team players.

Our goal for the future?

To grow without losing sight of what makes us unique, to continually offer our customers a fair energy deal and to put the ball back in the energy consumer’s court is our goal.

We’re very proud to be working with Supporters Direct, because your hard work, true dedication and team spirit are exactly what the international Co-operative movement is all about. You’ll support your team for life.

And, as your energy supplier, we’ll be here for you for life.

Always fair energy pricesBecause that’s our goal too

For more information please visit:www.cooperativeenergy.coop/sports

Or call 0800 093 7535 quoting 'Supporters Direct'