I wrote a while back that football is in for, and in fact going through, a culture shock as a result of a number of major changes to the broad governance and running of football, and specifically fan engagement: ‘the coming culture shock‘ is how I’ve already described it.
Nothing has changed my view on that. If anything I’ve become more certain. Whilst there is a significant group of people who are preoccupied with ensuring that one of the major change agents – the Independent Regulator – has all the competencies it needs from day one to ensure a real impact, I have always been convinced that the big impact of the independent regulator is much less about the actual things it does, rather than the fact that it exists and requires clubs to be answerable to it.
I have always been convinced that the big impact of the independent regulator is much less about the actual things it does, rather than the fact that it exists and requires clubs to be answerable to it.
That’s not it either. The more conversations I have with clubs, activists, those in the industry and on the fringes and people in other sectors who provide a different perspective, the more I’m clear that the combination of the regulator, the changes already in place (Fan Advisory Boards for example), and the other forms of structured fan engagement, particularly with activists and organised groups, is creating the conditions where clubs will have to embrace these changes, or risk endless, needless conflict and upheaval.
When we look back at the wild-west industry of the early 2000s and compare it with now, it’s transformed in so many ways. We’ve gone from a single rule on finances and governance in the EFL handbook to a multitude of self-imposed financial and administrative regulations, and a welter of provisions for structured fan engagement.
Though some clubs are still contorting themselves to try and pretend that football clubs aren’t the complex and multi-layered sporting and community institutions that they are, there’s a general acceptance that at the very least, ‘it’s complicated’.
Now that clubs and fans are now in the room together as part of the internal structure of engagement with fans, the sky is not now thick with Russian paratroopers (maybe not the most appropriate analogy for our times!), and the roof hasn’t caved in. For me, now, the question is about the speed and extent of the change(s). The impacts of this shift will vary from club-to-club, and the speed of change will happen dependent on the dynamics internally and externally, but all these different dynamics will impact and change the sector, I’d argue for the good.
I think we’re in the process of seeing prolonged and sometimes painful, challenging and difficult birth of a different version of the football industry than we’re used to seeing. One that places fans in a potentially much more influential and elevated position, allowing them to have much greater impact on the critical decisions clubs – and by extension the game more widely (leagues, the regulator).
It’s better to embrace it rather than resist it.
If you’re wondering how, and to what extent will regulation change will football consultation and fan engagement, Think Fan Engagement and Consultation Guru, Rhion Jones, the UK’s expert in consultation, are running the first public seminar/workshop on the new statutory duty to consult as proposed in the Football Governance Bill, as well as how fan engagement is going to change football.
We expect to be joined by industry experts and will share our ideas with all those likely to be affected by the ‘fan engagement’ and ‘fan consultation’ provisions.
Full details available soon; to register your interest – without obligation – email hello@fanengagement.net