Be interesting to see how many have registered so far?
As of last night, we had over 300 members. We'll be sharing another update later today, which I will share on this thread.
@Alex - The Citizens Trust
So what is going to be the difference between City Matters and the Citizens' Trust? Are you going to meet board members and help sort out all the issues with the club?
At the moment, if you email the club, you get nothing back.
There are loads of people out there with good ideas on how to improve things, but they feel let down by the club
Good question.
@Mon Autre did a good job earlier on this thread, and I know that
@Prestwich_Blue is really articulate in setting out the differences between a supporters' trust and other groups. The Citizens Trust isn't designed to replace other supporter groups, and we recognise the wealth of experience out there and the valuable role that they play. With that said, we think that there is a gap to establish an independent, member-led, democratic body that solely exists to represent the views of supporters. As
@BertM19 suggested, I am not sure that has ever existed for City fans before.
We absolutely appreciate the role of City Matters as the Club's designated Fan Advisory Board. This is something that the Club have to maintain under the Premier League Fan Engagement Standard, and representatives can do a lot of good in their roles. For instance,
@CityMatters-LeeB is doing a really good job as the current chair.
@Alex - The Citizens Trust, apart from you and Mark how many others on the interim board had a stint on City Matters?
Presumably you will start to liaise with other trusts and see how they go about things especially when it comes to dialogue with the club.
As much as I loath them, the likes of The Spirit Of Shankly appear to represent the fans well and I know they have had joint protests with us, Neverton and the rags over ticket price increases etc. A 5% ticket increase on a SC means a lot to each individual supporter but in the grand scale of things very little to the club, they can get that back very easily through increased sponsorship, paying agents and players slightly less (I think we shelled out £40m in the last 12 months) etc. The club also has the current disconnect with the fans and I hope that is an issue you will bring to the table. So many blues who are local to the area as well as those further afield have been mightily pissed off these past few years and have turned their backs on the club, it's a huge issue moving forward to try and win those fans back. Good luck to everyone involved.
Alongside Mark and I, Dan Bowdler and Simon Walker both have experience from City Matters. In addition, we also have those with experience from the 1894 Group, and MCFC Fans Foodbank Support on the Interim Board.
We couldn't have got to this stage without the support of the Football Supporters' Association, and a range of existing supporters' trusts and other groups. The past few seasons have demonstrated a growing amount of solidarity across Premier League clubs (and beyond), as demonstrated by the letter produced by a number of West Ham groups earlier today in relation to Liverpool's latest issues with pricing. As we have set out in our mission statement, we are really keen to work with other groups across the football family - particularly where they have best practice and learning to share.
Thanks for your support, too. As a member-led organisation, we are only as strong as those who join-up and take part in the Trust. We are really grateful for the level of support in the first day or so, but I think that speaks to the appetite amongst City fans for something like this.
