Last week, the Board of Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust asked the Board of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club for a meeting to discuss the Club’s medium to long-term strategy. The Club has decided it does not want to address the questions many fans are asking. It has declined to speak to the Board of its official Supporters’ Trust.
The recent missteps of the Club’s Board have been well-publicised and resulted in fierce criticism not just from THST and other Tottenham fan groups but from wider football authorities, the media and government. The mixed start to the season has led many to question the focus of THFC’s Board, what its objectives are and how it measures progress. And while individual decisions on players and tactics are not within the Trust’s remit, it is our job to question wider strategy when performance on the pitch falls short.
While we have continued to work with various Heads of Department at the Club, the Club Board has refused to communicate, despite saying in public that its door remains open. Now our latest request for the Club’s Board to address legitimate fan concerns has been rejected.
With the government’s fan-led review into football governance about to publish its recommendations, the actions of the THFC Board provide the evidence of why change is needed. The Club Board wants to choose what it talks about, when it talks about it, and who it talks to. It’s a stark example of the reality of grace and favour relationships, and it’s why we worked so hard to develop proposals that could bring real change. The kind of historic change we hope the review takes the chance to deliver for all fan groups across the country.
THST is not the only representative of fan views at Tottenham Hotspur but it is the only truly independent, democratic, formally-constituted organisation of Spurs fans, and for those reasons it is essential that there is genuine engagement between the Trust and the Club’s Executive Board.
We continue to argue for a pragmatic approach that puts constructive solutions before merely expressing anger. But we need to go back to our members and see if they agree.
An emergency meeting of THST’s Board will be held in the coming days to discuss options and we will convene a meeting of our members shortly afterwards to agree next steps. It may well be that the recommendations of the fan-led review are published as we go through that process and, if so, we will take them into consideration.
THST Board
7 October 2021
While we have continued to work with various Heads of Department at the Club, the Club Board has refused to communicate, despite saying in public that its door remains open. Now our latest request for the Club’s Board to address legitimate fan concerns has been rejected.
With the government’s fan-led review into football governance about to publish its recommendations, the actions of the THFC Board provide the evidence of why change is needed. The Club Board wants to choose what it talks about, when it talks about it, and who it talks to. It’s a stark example of the reality of grace and favour relationships, and it’s why we worked so hard to develop proposals that could bring real change. The kind of historic change we hope the review takes the chance to deliver for all fan groups across the country.
THST is not the only representative of fan views at Tottenham Hotspur but it is the only truly independent, democratic, formally-constituted organisation of Spurs fans, and for those reasons it is essential that there is genuine engagement between the Trust and the Club’s Executive Board.
We continue to argue for a pragmatic approach that puts constructive solutions before merely expressing anger. But we need to go back to our members and see if they agree.
An emergency meeting of THST’s Board will be held in the coming days to discuss options and we will convene a meeting of our members shortly afterwards to agree next steps. It may well be that the recommendations of the fan-led review are published as we go through that process and, if so, we will take them into consideration.
THST Board
7 October 2021
RSS Feed
