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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.

 

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