Alone among the six clubs who tried to break away and form a European Super League, the THFC Board has yet to acknowledge the scale of its error, or to apologise to its fans. Our Club has sustained heavy damage to its reputation and may yet face further repercussions from attempting to break away. The Executive Board that sanctioned this decision must take responsibility and be accountable for the damage caused to the Club.
This is why, following consultation with our membership last week, we called for the immediate resignation of the Executive Board. The attempted breakaway is the latest and most damaging example of the Club’s Board at best misreading, at worst disregarding, fan opinion. Anger with the direction in which the current Board is taking the Club is now being widely voiced. But that anger needs to be focused if we are to achieve real change, and to prevent situations such as the breakaway league ever happening again.
While we are continuing to work with Club staff to ensure fans’ interests are taken into account on such issues as ticketing and the return of supporters to grounds, there has been no communication with the Club’s Board. Part-owner Daniel Levy has offered a full Board-to-Board meeting, but we have made it clear that business as usual is not an option. We want to meet with the Club’s Owners, and to clearly establish the basis for any meeting before it takes place. So we want to explain here the basis upon which we would approach any meeting.
We believe that the ESL incident demonstrates that the current Executive Board has lost sight of the fundamental fact that Tottenham Hotspur is a football club first and foremost. It is clear that the only way to ensure football is at the heart of everything we do is to embed fans in the decision-making structure of the Club.
That’s why we are working with the government to reform the way football is run, and to secure a meaningful voice for supporters at Board level. The actions of a few owners have threatened the fabric of the game. Left unchecked, they will destroy the sport and the business. So we need supporters to have a voice alongside others on the Board of every club, because only supporters put the interests of their clubs, and the game, first.
We would like to see THFC embrace the changes that will come. In order to repair the damage done to the relationship between the Club and its fans, we must see those responsible for the decision to establish and join the breakaway league held to account by vacating their posts. This call for accountability is now supported by the Premier League itself.
We have called for the Owners to work with us to constitute a new Board that could lead us into a new era. We are reiterating that call now and setting out the first steps in how we see that happening.
1. Put distance between the Club and the decision to break away by replacing the current Executive Board. This will be the first step towards rebuilding trust between the Board and the people it has to work with in the game, with supporters and to repair the reputational damage done to our Club.
2. The Owners to make a public commitment that any costs or fines incurred by the decision to either join the ESL or subsequently to withdraw from it will be paid directly by the Owners and not be drawn from Club funds.
3. Create a new Club Board that includes independent directors whose sole purpose is to protect and promote the interests of THFC as a football club, not its shareholders or owners.
4. Proactively and positively engage with the government’s fan-led review to rebalance the current ownership structure in favour of supporters.
5. Commit to full prior consultation with supporters on key non-playing/coaching decisions, and to introducing a system that requires the consent of supporters for those key decisions. The scope and range of these key decisions will be agreed by the new Club Board and a supervisory Board of elected and accountable fan representatives drawn from across the supporter base, including but not limited to Official Supporters’ Clubs, Season Ticket Holders, and One Hotspur Members, alongside recognised fan groups such as THST, and would be the mechanism for granting supporter consent for key decisions.
6. Commit to the creation of a share ownership structure that broadens ownership of the Club and could potentially provide an injection of cash.
We must do more than just voice our opposition to the current Board and ownership. This six-point plan gives supporters of Tottenham Hotspur something to unite behind, and a clear objective. It proposes solutions that are achievable.
We invite the Club’s owners to meet with us to implement the six-point plan above. We believe successfully making these changes will enable us to secure the future for the Club and the game that we all want to see.
In the words of our greatest manager, Bill Nicholson: “We must always consider our supporters, for without them there would be no professional football. It would be better to have more fans watching football the way they like it played, rather than have a few fans watching football the way we would like it played.”
THST Board
4 May 2021
While we are continuing to work with Club staff to ensure fans’ interests are taken into account on such issues as ticketing and the return of supporters to grounds, there has been no communication with the Club’s Board. Part-owner Daniel Levy has offered a full Board-to-Board meeting, but we have made it clear that business as usual is not an option. We want to meet with the Club’s Owners, and to clearly establish the basis for any meeting before it takes place. So we want to explain here the basis upon which we would approach any meeting.
We believe that the ESL incident demonstrates that the current Executive Board has lost sight of the fundamental fact that Tottenham Hotspur is a football club first and foremost. It is clear that the only way to ensure football is at the heart of everything we do is to embed fans in the decision-making structure of the Club.
That’s why we are working with the government to reform the way football is run, and to secure a meaningful voice for supporters at Board level. The actions of a few owners have threatened the fabric of the game. Left unchecked, they will destroy the sport and the business. So we need supporters to have a voice alongside others on the Board of every club, because only supporters put the interests of their clubs, and the game, first.
We would like to see THFC embrace the changes that will come. In order to repair the damage done to the relationship between the Club and its fans, we must see those responsible for the decision to establish and join the breakaway league held to account by vacating their posts. This call for accountability is now supported by the Premier League itself.
We have called for the Owners to work with us to constitute a new Board that could lead us into a new era. We are reiterating that call now and setting out the first steps in how we see that happening.
1. Put distance between the Club and the decision to break away by replacing the current Executive Board. This will be the first step towards rebuilding trust between the Board and the people it has to work with in the game, with supporters and to repair the reputational damage done to our Club.
2. The Owners to make a public commitment that any costs or fines incurred by the decision to either join the ESL or subsequently to withdraw from it will be paid directly by the Owners and not be drawn from Club funds.
3. Create a new Club Board that includes independent directors whose sole purpose is to protect and promote the interests of THFC as a football club, not its shareholders or owners.
4. Proactively and positively engage with the government’s fan-led review to rebalance the current ownership structure in favour of supporters.
5. Commit to full prior consultation with supporters on key non-playing/coaching decisions, and to introducing a system that requires the consent of supporters for those key decisions. The scope and range of these key decisions will be agreed by the new Club Board and a supervisory Board of elected and accountable fan representatives drawn from across the supporter base, including but not limited to Official Supporters’ Clubs, Season Ticket Holders, and One Hotspur Members, alongside recognised fan groups such as THST, and would be the mechanism for granting supporter consent for key decisions.
6. Commit to the creation of a share ownership structure that broadens ownership of the Club and could potentially provide an injection of cash.
We must do more than just voice our opposition to the current Board and ownership. This six-point plan gives supporters of Tottenham Hotspur something to unite behind, and a clear objective. It proposes solutions that are achievable.
We invite the Club’s owners to meet with us to implement the six-point plan above. We believe successfully making these changes will enable us to secure the future for the Club and the game that we all want to see.
In the words of our greatest manager, Bill Nicholson: “We must always consider our supporters, for without them there would be no professional football. It would be better to have more fans watching football the way they like it played, rather than have a few fans watching football the way we would like it played.”
THST Board
4 May 2021
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