Fanning the flames for REAL supporter representation

Fanning the flames for REAL supporter representation

Rich Clarke

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You have to hand it to those clever rascals behind the European Super League.

During one week in April, they managed to turn the world’s game entirely against them. Everyone from Canberra to Catford via California saw through this shameful money grab and registered their displeasure in the most vocal terms. In the fractured, tribal and selfish world of association football, this was some feat.

Though the English clubs quickly backtracked, the anger of their fans has barely dissipated. It led to the postponement of the game between Manchester United v Liverpool, serious unrest at Arsenal and, just this week, Tottenham fans stayed behind for an hour after the final whistle singing “60 quid, you’re having a laugh” after being overcharged on their long-awaited return.

We live in a world of protest these days - in sport, in politics and in life. Part of this is the pent-up anger at the gradual erosion of important shared values. We shrug away all those small, daily knocks to our sense of integrity then, out of nowhere, something shines a harsh, unwavering light on the issue. Finally, we stop and look at ourselves in the moral mirror, only to discover our soul has been permanently bruised from the slow, continued assault on everything we hold dear.

It was two decades of lunchtime kick-offs 200 miles away, £10 pints, £90 shirts every year, constantly being told to sit down, ticket hikes and rising satellite subscriptions that created the tinder-dry conditions ready to be sparked by the stupidity of the ESL.

The greedy clubs ended up being burned by the one stakeholder that, despite the rhetoric, they never truly considered – the supporters.

The followers of English county cricket are rarely so vociferous in their reaction to change. In recent years, they have seen ‘their’ forms of the game shunted around the outskirts of the calendar, tinkered with for no good reason, ignored by the media and outshone by the introduction of T20, yet they never raised their voice much above the low, persistent grumble they always emit cum rain or shine. There is a similar inclination from the powers-that-be to pay scant regard to their views, especially as they are mostly older and therefore worth little to advertisers or sponsors. In fact, the only time you truly heard fans in recent years was when former ECB chairman Colin Graves told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee back in October 2019 that fans had been consulted over the introduction of The Hundred. The laughter could be heard from Chester-le-Street to Taunton.

The concept and communication of the new tournament has created more division between the supporters and governing body than anything I can remember in almost 50 years of following county cricket.

However, quite rightly, Becky Fairlie-Clarke, CEO of the Cricket Supporters Association (CSA), began the new season trying to move that debate forward while turning fans from outsiders to stakeholders and feeding off that new mood of representation.

The organisation has been running since 2017 and boasts 6,500 members. Their annual survey drew 2,700 responses from fans aged 16 to 80 across a wide number of areas. The full findings are yet to be published but many of the headline numbers were positive. They found more than 40 per cent of players intend to play more cricket than in 2019 and 33 per cent of fans said they are more engaged with the game. There was also a slight increase in county membership compared to two seasons ago.

“I was encouraged by the results,” she told The Cricket Paper. “After the pandemic you assume there is a pent-up demand but also people might have found other things to do on the weekends.

“There were concerns about scheduling in county cricket and, obviously, the Hundred was not very popular in our survey. But I think we need to move on from thinking about whether it is happening or not. Now, we need to understand how it is going to actually benefit cricket. The rationale has been that it is going to bring a new audience and grow the game. But there has been little clarification on what that looks like. What are the bridges between The Hundred and the counties and the participation side? How is it being measured? How are we going to understand if the Hundred is doing what it set out to do? That needs to be made clear sooner rather than later so it can be evaluated independently.”

Having seen off the ESL for now, fans of the major Premier League clubs are looking to lock in lasting change by getting supporters in the boardroom. Chelsea and Liverpool have already taken significant steps. It has always been top of the agenda for the CSA.

“Our goal is to have fan representatives at governing body-level,” said Farlie-Clarke. “We believe there should be fan representation when decisions are made and they should be part of the process of making them.

“We are not set up just to criticise the ECB and its stakeholders, you do not get very far with that approach. We have a good working relationship with the ECB, however, we are here to hold them to account.

“In general, the role of fans is changing in sport these days. They are now being understood as a key part of everything. We have always been in this for the long term and right now we are focussed on giving fans a voice and fighting for what is important.”

Hopefully, like those ESL protestors last month, they will be heard.

* Join the Cricket Supporters Association for free at www.cricketsupporters.com

This article first appeared in The Cricket Paper, get it every Sunday or subscribe here

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