The Government and an experts group are to forge stronger links between supporters and professional football clubs.

Supporters Direct, Government and football authorities will all be represented on a group that will look at removing barriers to community-owned clubs and improving fan engagement.
The government and football authorities are to work together to explore ways in which fans can have more engagement in the running of the clubs they support, Sports Minister Helen Grant announced recently.

The Supporter Ownership and Engagement Expert group, that will have its first meeting in London next month, has representatives on it from Government, the Premier League, The FA, the Football League, Supporters Direct, the legal profession, insolvency and tax experts and representatives from clubs that are run by supporters (Portsmouth FC, AFC Wimbledon and Wrexham).

Areas that the group will look at include seeing what more can be done to help supporters groups have stronger links with the executives and owners running clubs, look at removing barriers to clubs becoming community-owned assets, when opportunities arise for that to be a sustainable and viable option.

You can read more about it from the Gov.uk site here.

This follows on from another announcement recently by the Labour Party. It said that Football fans could have a greater say in the running of their clubs, under radical plans proposed by the Party.  “Supporters would have seats on every board and the right to buy a significant slice of a club’s shares when its ownership changes”.

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Both of these announcements are discussed in articles by Dan Roan, BBC Sports Editor,and you can read them in the links below:

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