We have recently been involved in exchanges with the club on details of the commitments made by Joel Glazer at the recent emergency Fans Forum.
The changes announced by the club today here are a step in the right direction. The new Fan Advisory Board will allow direct engagement between the board, senior management and supporters which is a move towards better accountability. But it is vital these bodies have meaningful influence over the direction of the club. They cannot and must not simply be talking shops.
The club is not currently willing to consider the appointment of supporter or independent director appointments to the main plc board so it is essential that the new Fan Advisory Board is able to exert maximum input into strategic decisions. To that end we pushed for the broadest possible remit for it, including on key business decisions, and for strong fan representation through MUST and other independent supporter appointments.
We now want to engage fully through the new bodies, as well as our direct dialogue with club executives. We’ll only be able to judge whether they deliver on what is promised when we have seen it working in practice. We will also continue to press for more significant change, so that supporters have more influence over how their club is run, through the next stage of the government’s Fan-Led Review.
Update on Fan Share Scheme
We continue to discuss proposals for a Fan Share Scheme. There are significant challenges in terms of how this can be delivered and it is important to set realistic expectations. A Fan Share Scheme is not going to change the majority ownership of Manchester United – at least not in any short timescale. Rather it is the start of a journey building a mass fan shareholder movement. If fans are to build a meaningful ownership stake over time we first need to get as many fans as possible to participate. That’s why the Sign For United campaign is key and we need your help to reach out to fans outside of MUST’s existing membership. Please invite fellow fans to register here: www.SignForUnited.org
We should also reiterate our commitment to put any fan share scheme proposals to a vote of approval by our full members if/when we are in a position to present the details of such a proposal.
The Government’s Fan Led Review:
Last week Tracey Crouch MP published the initial findings of her Fan Led Review of Football Governance in the form of a letter that you can read here.
We particularly welcome her acknowledgement of the case for fans to be able to buy shares in their club. We will be offering our experience and expertise on this to explore the challenges that have been identified.
The report also commits to the principle of golden share powers held by a democratic supporters group, stronger business and financial controls, new ongoing tests for owners and directors and a new requirement for genuinely independent directors – again all changes that we had pressed for in our own panel hearing and submission. Hopefully you added your voice through the DCMS fans survey that we circulated. You can read our full submission here.
The next phase of the review, due to report in the autumn, will be critical but we can be hopeful that it will result in early legislative changes that will further limit and control the actions of owners, and lead to a new ownership model with fans at its heart and the interests of our football club put before those of shareholders.
M.U.S.T – the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust
www.imust.org.uk
0161 872 3300
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