Enhancing that Community Spirit

The final Fair Game principle calls for clubs to realise their full potential through the community and social role they play.

Adam Harwood

When Bury FC in 2019 became the first team since Maidstone United a generation earlier to be expelled from the Football League, it sent not just the club’s fans into mourning but the whole town.

Hundreds of jobs – not just those of players and management but of receptionists, administrators, chefs… vanished overnight. There was a huge knock-on effect to external partner companies – many of which were local to Bury FC – including caterers, kit suppliers, club sponsors, all of whom saw a significant element of their business cease to exist. Children in the area no longer benefit from an academy presence, or the soccer schools holiday clubs ran between school term times.

The empty spectre that is Gigg Lane still looms large in the town. Pubs, cafes, and takeaway shops in the area have lost their most significant form of revenue – that of spectators both local and from further afield.

It’s for these reasons and a thousand more that our football clubs are a beacon, often the centre-point, of their local communities, and the game should do everything within its power to protect them.

Given that players, managers, owners, even sometimes stadiums come and go, the one true constant is the fans. The demise of Bury was immediately followed by countless tales of supporters who had followed the club for 70 or more years, suddenly deprived of their main source of entertainment and fulfilment every other Saturday afternoon.

The final Fair Game principle calls for clubs to realise their full potential through the community and social role they play. We wish to see bonds tightened between the fan who ultimately helps pay the bills and the top levels of every club in the country, however large the fanbase. Fan engagement and liaison with owners should be structured and properly embedded into a club’s DNA, with directly-elected fan representation present on club boards. 

We will analyse in depth the success of the ’51% model’ in Germany not necessarily with a view for it to be implemented, but with lessons learnt from it that can enhance our own game.

Clubs are also well placed to help local communities in other ways. For example, they can be leaders at local and national level in tackling discrimination in all its forms. Bonds can be strengthened with local politicians and other leading local stakeholders to help and protect local clubs and their community foundations.

All of which will help clubs become even more of a local force and strengthen their identify within the area which they represent. That may well in turn lead to more people within their community coming through their gates on a regular basis. And for most sides, that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Fair Game is holding a open panel and discussion on community and fan engagement. The discussion is an essential part of Fair Game’s process in developing real and long-lasting solutions to the problems facing football. You can register to take part in the sessions by visiting the events section of our website www.fairgameuk.org