|
|
|
|
Fanzone is all about fans from all clubs, if you run or know of a supporters club or website let me have the link
and I will get it in the directory.
Just e-mail me
harry.bragginton@btinternet.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brighton & Hove Albion FC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Colchester United Supporters Association |
|
|
|
Huddersfield Town Supporters Association |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Newcastle United Supporters Club |
|
|
|
Notts County Supporters Club |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Mission & history “Through
establishing supporters’ trusts, our aim is to deliver responsible, democratic representation at football clubs to help
promote the highest standards of governance, financial accountability and community re-orientation.”
We
are an Industrial and Provident Society, owned by our members, and funded by the Football Stadia Improvement Fund - the partner
organisation of the Football Foundation - and in Scotland by the Scottish Government. We are not a Government organisation and we retain our independence through ownership by our members,
and are grateful to benefit from cross-party support. What is Supporters Direct? SD provides advice to trusts on how to organise and acquire a collective shareholding in their clubs
on a not-for-profit basis for re-investment. Our role is
to secure greater level of accountability and deliver democratic representation within football clubs and within the game's
governing structures. We deliver advice and guidance on
governance and financial accountability to our members and to ensure they play a valued and responsible role in the running
of their clubs, improving communication and building a better relationship with the local community. Key objectives Promote
the responsible voice of supporters in the running of sports clubs through securing democratic representation. Deliver advice and guidance on corporate governance and financial accountability
to trusts that have secured board representation, ownership or control of their local club. Influence or change ownership structures so that the Club, supporters and local community share the
same purpose. Promote the use of sports and other facilities
of professional sports clubs by their local community and to create community activities in order to cement their position
as a focus for civic and community life. Raise the standard
of training, expertise and service delivery to the volunteer membership base of trusts. Deliver an improved level of succession planning for trusts with a substantial share ownership through
identifying the necessary expertise, local fundraising and investment opportunities and providing by improved levels of governance.
Build on the success of Supporters Direct (SD) to provide
the opportunity for trusts to help re-orientate clubs into becoming community hubs/delivery partners. This can equally apply
to clubs in trust ownership/control or trusts working in partnership with clubs in private ownership.
|
|
|
Dear Coventry City fan
We're runnning a series of surveys on football sponsors
for the 2008-2009 season.
The first survey is in two parts and will only take
a few moments to complete.
Click here to take part
As ever FFC Rewards members will earn points for taking
part. |
|
|
|
Many thanks for your support
The FFC Team |
|
UK FOOTBALL FINDER
- Find players
for your team.
- Find teams to
play for.
- Organize pre-season
friendlies.
- The UK's premier
amateur football site is FREE to join.
- Click Register to join and you could be playing tonight!
www.ukfootballfinder.co.uk
|
Clubs In Crisis
This website came into being
following the troubles experienced by Brighton & Hove Albion in 1996 when, without the mobilisation of fans across the
country using the Internet, the football club would have gone out of business. The aim of this site is to ensure that when
any other football club comes into a crisis, then we can generate support and help from fans around the world.
If the football club you love
and support is in financial trouble, has directors with dubious intentions, or if your home ground is being sold from under
your feet, let us and everybody else know so we can raise the profile of your plight and generate support. Where possible
and where needed we will try to give advice or help on some of the ways to unseat your particular tyrant.
This applies both to league
clubs and non-league clubs, in any country.
Please note - a Club In Crisis
is not a club where your chairman won't put his hand in his pocket for another £10m player!
www.clubsincrisis.com
|
STAND UP
SIT DOWN
Do
you prefer to stand to watch football?
Do
you want to sit and object to your view being blocked by others standing?
Are
you concerned that capacities may be reduced?
Does
it worry you that away ticket allocations may be halved?
Are
you concerned that sanctions against those who stand my lead to crowd disorder?
Do
you want your club to lose income?
Do
you want the implementation of safety measures to be based on objective risk assessment?
Stand Up Sit Down has been set up to campaign for a solution to these issues.
The aim is to restore supporter’s choice as to whether they stand or sit to watch football, by agreeing areas
where standing will be accepted.
We want
at least one area of each ground to selected for supporters to be allowed to stand in front of their allocated seats. Our proposals will actually improve safety over the current
situation by restricting standing to the most suitable areas.
News
We're
in the very early days of planning a SUSD trip over to Germany to sample their "match day experience" which of course allows
standing and beer on the terraces!
Subject to getting a cheap flight, the cost of of the trip - less beer & food
money but including a hotel and match ticket - would work out at less than £50!
We could get really good media coverage
if enough of us travel over there... as I say, it is early days, but if you're interested, subject to the date, then please
either post on the thread on the forum or let me know by email if you'd like to be kept advised of progress.
Lots of
other debates going on on the forum - it seems that policing is getting heavier game by game and stewarding at some grounds
getting even more heavy handed!
Hope you'll come and join in the debate!
Stand Up Sit Down are interviewed for a web based sports programme that
goes out to Sweden and Norway and has
around 200,000 viewers a week. The Swedish journalist tells us that he contacted us after he was at Ashburton Grove in the
week for Arsenals Champions League game and could not believe how stewards treated fans and how they had to sit down, hence
their planned feature.
All of Blackburn 's almost 3000 fans stand as their team play at Feyenoord in the UEFA Cup.
Stand Up Sit Down's online petition
reaches 8000 signatures, showing the strength of feeling of supporters on this issue
Stand Up Sit Down obtain a copy of a paper from the German Football Association,
which outlines their conclusions that after carefully considering all the relevant issues, standing areas should be retained.
The paper says:
‘…..In the recent period, many people with an
interest in football have been asking the DFB to lend their support to the concept of standing areas of a particular size
for home and away fans in our stadia: in total no more than 20% [of the ground capacity], with variable capacities for home
and away fans. After carefully considering all the relevant issues and the DFB's own concept and holding numerous meetings
with representatives of clubs and councils, senior police offices and stewards, representatives of supporters clubs and fan
projects, and sociologists and educationalists, we have come to the conclusion that a certain number of standing places should
be retained for the following reasons:
1. Safety inside grounds is already guaranteed for the most part by a variety of
structural and organisational measures.
2. Violent incidents in standing areas can mainly be attributed to the particular
idiosyncrasies and the composition of the spectators there rather than the physical configuration of these areas. The majority
of these spectators will not behave any differently in an all-seater stadium.
3. In the long run, abolishing standing
areas would make it considerably more difficult, if not impossible, for socially disadvantaged football supporters to attend
their team's matches. Football, being a people's sport, should not banish the socially disadvantaged from its stadia, and
it should not place its social function in doubt itself.
4. For several years now, self-regulating processes have been
in evidence amongst fans in standing areas. These processes seldom render it necessary for the police or stewards to intervene.
5. The climatic conditions in northern, eastern and western Europe are different to those in southern Europe ; spectators
are much less willing to use uncovered seating when it is raining or snowing than they are to stand in wintry weather conditions.
For economic reasons it will not be possible in many countries to furnish grounds with roofed accommodation in the foreseeable
future.
6. Football is culture. It involves not only the spirit of fair play but also the solidarity inspired by a sense
of community. For young people, fan culture is an important factor in the development of their personality on the path to
gaining independence in an increasingly complex society. From the socio-pedagogic point of view, it is essential that areas
where young people can interact are maintained and safeguarded. These include standing areas in football grounds.
7. The
young fans on the terraces embody the vibrant world of football. It is here where the atmosphere that attracts millions of
people all over the world to our sport is created. It is here where the fans who are the first to cheer their team on and
the last to whistle are to be found. Young people live with the emphasis on the physical. They seek and require direct (and
physical) contact with their like-minded peers. The terrace is their own miniature world, a place where people from all sections
of society meet. Those who do away with standing areas take away a part of these people's lives.
8. In the unanimous opinion
of many experts the rigorous removal of all standing areas will lead to many ‘adventure-seeking' young people joining
the hooligan scene, with the consequence that the violent clashes outside grounds will continue to increase in both number
and brutality. The success of our varied efforts to contribute to a positive change of consciousness in the long term by improving
the way in which we look after fans will be placed in serious doubt by this unjustified (from the fans' point of view) intervention
in their world.
9. We are now witnessing more and more cases of spectators ignoring seats, which were installed at great
expense, and simply standing on them. This is a very dangerous practice, especially in view of the steepness of the terracing
often encountered in the bigger grounds.
Based on these considerations the DFB has concluded that for its domestic competitions
standing areas for both home and away fans may be retained in the grounds used by professional clubs in the capacity recommended
by the DFB Safety Committee in each particular case.
The DFB will continue to pursue and lend its support to this aim.'
Stand Up Sit Down welcome this paper and urge the UK football authorities to
adopt a similar common sense approach to standing.
email: info@standupsitdown.co.uk
www.standupsitdown.co.uk
|
|
|
