Skip to main content

Chelsea fans appear to fall out

A growing sense of division within Chelsea’s fanbase took a fresh twist today with the club’s Fan Advisory Board criticising the letter released by the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust last week.

Chelsea came under more negative scrutiny after the CST put its recent correspondence with the club out into the public domain.

In a strongly worded letter addressed to co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, they claimed the bond between fans and the club was the “lowest since the early 1980s”, that there was “a fast-growing lack of trust due to severely limited communication” and warned it “could result in irreversible toxicity with more targeted chanting and impactful forms of protest”.

FAB, an initiative set up by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium comprising seven lifelong Chelsea fans to improve communication between supporters and the club, has released a statement making it clear it does not agree with the CST’s version of events.

The FAB states: ‘significantly more resources have been allocated to fan liaison than at any point in the club’s history. Before the FAB was created there was one part-time employee devoted to supporter liaison. There is now a department which will number four full-time members of staff. Contrary to what has been suggested, these facts give a full and proper picture of what is going on.’

Fans rarely agree about anything, stating that ‘it’s all about opinions.’   Creating representative structures is not easy, although a carefully constructed opinion survey based on a sample of fans might give a clearer view.   Probably the best antidote would be more success on the pitch.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...

A poor financial record, but new hope at Everton

I recently saw an amusing video online in which a group of Everton fans were rebuked in jest for being hopeful.  Football fans in general tend to swing between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism, but for many it seems that moaning is in their bloodstream (Spurs fans probably take the trophy).  However, Everton fans have had plenty to moan about on and off the pitch.   Let’s hope that a new era is about to begin for this grand old club. Everton’s 2023/24 financial results covered a fairly momentous season, when they ended up 15th in the Premier League, though they would finished three places higher if they had not received an 8-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR). It was a worrying time for Everton fans, as the club faced a “perfect storm” of issues, including large financial losses, an ever increasing debt burden, a challenging stadium build and the tortuous sale of the club. There were eve...