The Football Supporters’ Association wants fans to let them know their verdict on match streaming and the performance of iFollow (and clubs’ own streaming platforms).
The FSA has asked Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust to encourage fans to respond as they want the biggest possible sample to be able to influence the EFL.
Before the pandemic the iFollow platform was mostly used by overseas fans and those supporters unable to travel to away fixtures. But this season, without fans in grounds, it now means tens of thousands of supporters are accessing games online every week.
Fan experiences of the system have varied, hence the supporter survey.
The survey will probably run until the end of next week, so there’s not a huge amount of time to gather the data needed in order to provide feedback to the EFL.
Football is being played behind closed doors but the latest magazine for Trust members is being published this month.
The magazine includes a message from our chair Keith Morgan and includes articles on football finance, football without fans and our famous Bluebirds Brainteaser quiz. We hope members enjoy the read.
Thanks to all Trust members for their continuing support. Non-members can join the Trust for just £12 a year at www.ccfctrust.org .
Cardiff City
Supporters’ Trust has expressed strong concern over the so-called Big Picture
proposals for the future of football led by Liverpool and Manchester United.
Trust chair Keith
Morgan, a football finance expert, said: “The game of football is surely about
all fans, not the favoured few top clubs and their billionaire owners. The
lockout of supporters from football due to the pandemic has really illustrated
what we all knew – football is nothing without the fans and they must be
listened to.
“We share the grave
concerns of the Football Supporters’ Association who have spoken out strongly
on behalf of fans. Similar worries have been expressed by Cardiff City fans on
social media on the implications for supporters of clubs who do not feature in
the top echelons of the Premier League.
“While we understand
the financial pressures many clubs are facing because of the loss of income due
to the pandemic, we believe these proposals which concentrate power in the
hands of a few clubs are fundamentally wrong and should be abandoned. Even the
majority of Premier League
clubs think it is a bad idea.”
Trust Chair Keith Morgan has welcomed
a commitment by the football authorities to see a safe return of fans to
stadiums as soon as possible.
Keith Morgan said: “We fully support the
initiative by the EFL, the football authorities and, of course, our club,
Cardiff City. We thank the club’s supporter liaison officer Adam Gilliatt for
his work. We know everyone at the Cardiff City Stadium wants to see fans back
supporting the team as soon as is possible.”
The full letter is below.
To: SUPPORTER LIAISON OFFICERS
Dear Colleague
At 4.45pm this evening (October 6th), an open
letter to supporters signed by the EFL, Premier League, Football Association
and Women’s Super League will be released detailing our joint commitment to see
the safe return of supporters to football grounds. A copy of the letter is
attached for all SLOs, and this has also been sent to Club Chairmen, CEOs, Club
Secretaries and Media Managers.
The letter primarily seeks to assure all fans that together we are fully committed to a safe return to football grounds as soon as possible. Importantly, it also emphasises the need to identify a path forward with Government, noting that their current position of restricting the return of fans is damaging to individual Clubs and the local economies of the communities they represent.
The work clubs have been doing in raising awareness of this
critical issue has been really helpful and there have been further examples of
this in the past 24 hours. It is important that together we continue to show
support in a unified way and we therefore actively encourage all Clubs to
promote the letter across your digital and social channels from 5pm this
evening, and suggest tagging in your local MP’s and other relevant contacts to
ensure the message is both received and understood. On behalf of the EFL, we
will be doing the same across our digital channels.
In an extension of this approach, in your role as SLO, we would
also urge you to continue to keep this topic at the forefront of your supporter
engagement activity and take whatever steps you can to promote the key messages
to your fans and established supporter groups. They may be able to help promote
the positives of a ‘return of fans’ to their members/fellow fans, and this
unified approach may have a significant role to play on a local basis.
We will continue to develop further messaging on this but
clearly any opportunities we have to reinforce our current position with
supporters, and their respective communities will be positive.
Finally, we are currently preparing further communications with
all SLOs to round-up all the latest updates and best practice from across the
EFL in our first newsletter of the season so we will be in touch again shortly.
Until then should you have any queries please get in touch and
thank you for your support.
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