Introducing The Citizens Trust - Manchester City Supporters' Union

Alex - The Citizens Trust said:
As of last night, we had over 300 members. We'll be sharing another update later today, which I will share on this thread.

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.

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.
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Thanks for the explanation.

The way i see it, City matters is l largely a box ticking exercise by the club. A small amount of disquiet can be voiced by them, and the club may/may not take on suggestions as they see fit, but Cuty Matters lack any real teeth.
The osc seem more about regional like minded folk who gather under one banner and predominantly about the social side of things, and regional fundraising.
I think 1894 group initially started as a group determined to improve the atmosphere at the ground and bring together like minded fans. Recent seasons have seen them take on more pertinent issues re ticket prices etc, and of the 3 groups seem more pro active and dare I say it more prepared to upset the applecart with the club instead of of twing the line.

Im not a member of either of the groups listed but will be signing up for this. The recent ticket prices/Spirit of Shankly stuff at Liverpool highlight how as supporters we need to stand up for ourselves.
 
I've just joined
Pains me to say it but the Scousers do an excellent job with SoS and this is long overdue for us so whilst it'll likely be in the background to a large extent, am very happy to support it
Congratulations for getting this off the ground, and national exposure with the Beeb/Henry Winter etc
 
kippax_blueboy said:
I have signed up and donated but still don't understand why our supporters voices on City Matters, Supporters Clubs and 1894 have not been heard enough by our chairman and Execs regarding the issues listed by Henry Winter on X and why another group will make any difference. We need a heavy hitter who has the ear of the chairman to change anything.
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That's my concern too, and the potential issue that if you end up with too many fans groups they just get fractured, i.e. you'll get supporters joining up with one or the other without really knowing it properly researching what each one does, thus instead of having one large fans organisation with 100% following, you get several with a small percentage each. To a lot of fans this is just going to be just another supporters group.

I would also respectfully ask what happens to the money, if, for example, you get tens of thousands signing up that's the potential for quite a decent revenue. I'm not suggesting for a moment it's about the money (and I do fully understand and appreciate the time and effort that goes into this sort of thing, totally unpaid), but £10 (after the opening offer) seems a bit steep to me. It's also likely to put a lot of people off given that we already pay for club membership, City+ and so on.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I likely will be signing up once I've looked at it in more detail, just asking the question.
 
RegMuffin said:
Glad this is up and running and will happily join.

City Matters has for too long been the mouthpiece of bad news and puppets of the club hierarchy. Fan representation has to be independent of the club, not set up and facilitated by it.... so well done to all concerned.

Over to the club now, good times are over and time to take us seriously again.
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I think you'll find you have a long way to go before you can make that claim. A healthy membership will be required for starters, and the club isn't likely to take anything seriously until a track record has been established.

Not knocking it, just making the point. These things are never quite as simple and straightforward as they first seem. One of the first things you will find is not everybody will agree with the policies presented by the board so while I'm sure the major issues will be voted on, you can easily end up with a very splintered group of fans who can't agree on anything.
 
coolcity said:
I think you'll find you have a long way to go before you can make that claim. A healthy membership will be required for starters, and the club isn't likely to take anything seriously until a track record has been established.

Not knocking it, just making the point. These things are never quite as simple and straightforward as they first seem. One of the first things you will find is not everybody will agree with the policies presented by the board so while I'm sure the major issues will be voted on, you can easily end up with a very splintered group of fans who can't agree on anything.
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I can't see if 30000 join the trust why they would take notice. Unitl the Chairman understands the issues nothing will change. Also every fan has a different view of what is wrong.
 
RegMuffin said:
Glad this is up and running and will happily join.

City Matters has for too long been the mouthpiece of bad news and puppets of the club hierarchy. Fan representation has to be independent of the club, not set up and facilitated by it.... so well done to all concerned.

Over to the club now, good times are over and time to take us seriously again.
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Always makes me laugh when muppets like you, who have never been in the room, make stupid statements like this. City Matters exists because of PL rules requiring structured fan engagement but I can assure you they aren't puppets. There were some very robust and heated exchanges in my time.

However they can't stop the club doing what they want to do. All they can do is provide input and challenge, but that doesn't stop the club ignoring them and doing something stupid, as they've done on more than one occasion. But by being in the room and having access to senior managers, they can also do things for individual or small groups who can't get any sense out of Customer Services or other departments.

However we do need a properly constituted mass fan group. The OSC is not set up as a campaigning group and was never intended to be. I would have liked 1894 Group to have formed the Trust but that was something they weren't comfortable with and that's fine, as it isn't something you do lightly. They're fully behind this and do a great job organising displays and trying to improve the atmosphere. Hopefully all their members will join the Trust.

There are great people in the interim leadership team, including three of my former City Matters colleagues, 1894 Group and Foodbank representatives. All of them have got off their backsides and put a lot of time and effort into representing their fellow blues, whether that's via City Matters or the other groups. But there's always some muppets who want to snipe from behind their keyboard.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Always makes me laugh when muppets like you, who have never been in the room, make stupid statements like this. City Matters exists because of PL rules requiring structured fan engagement but I can assure you they aren't puppets. There were some very robust and heated exchanges in my time.

However they can't stop the club doing what they want to do. All they can do is provide input and challenge, but that doesn't stop the club ignoring them and doing something stupid, as they've done on more than one occasion. But by being in the room and having access to senior managers, they can also do things for individual or small groups who can't get any sense out of Customer Services or other departments.

However we do need a properly constituted mass fan group. The OSC is not set up as a campaigning group and was never intended to be. I would have liked 1894 Group to have formed the Trust but that was something they weren't comfortable with and that's fine, as it isn't something you do lightly. They're fully behind this and do a great job organising displays and trying to improve the atmosphere. Hopefully all their members will join the Trust.

There are great people in the interim leadership team, including three of my former City Matters colleagues, 1894 Group and Foodbank representatives. All of them have got off their backsides and put a lot of time and effort into representing their fellow blues, whether that's via City Matters or the other groups. But there's always some muppets who want to snipe from behind their keyboard.
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Hi just to clarify it’s not that 1894 don’t “feel comfortable” setting up a trust - as we have helped set this up and even took names on one of our previous mailers -we have been helping on it behind the scenes for 18 months - but we can’t run a trust at the same time as organising displays and campaigning on the atmosphere and other issues. We’re already working basically full time second jobs for free running 1894 and so having a second unpaid job is impossible. That said we have seconded on one of our leaders into the interim board.

The trust is full of very passionate people who all want it to work and have a bit of vision.

1894 are also joining Citymatters (although we will still reserve the right to join or organise protests - given there is already a precedent here , half of Citymatters went on strike previously and joined the protests…)

The club wouldn’t expect us to water down our views or change the way we campaign just because we would also be in the room negotiating.

So both of the things you said should happen have happened.

Where I slightly disagree with you Col is on every group should come under one banner. No one will ever agree on everything all the time and sometimes it’s hard even getting joint letters off the ground behind the scenes as you can’t always agree on points or on how to relay those points. I think the reason there are now so many voices is a result of how football has gone and the need to bring it back to a place where it is recognisable as the sport we all grew up with.
 
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kippax_blueboy said:
I can't see if 30000 join the trust why they would take notice. Unitl the Chairman understands the issues nothing will change. Also every fan has a different view of what is wrong.
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I think most City fans will agree that ticket prices are too high, ticketing partners are a disaster, club is disconnected with the fans (note not customers) and half and half scarves should be banned.
 
What a great effort lads and lasses.


£10 is fuck all in the scheme of things and the club needs a nudge from those who have been here a lot longer than them. The other voices have their role and place, like City matters, supporters clubs and 1894 but a trust like this fills a gap that needed filling.

Like others have said this will be for the future generation as us old cunts have had our time and enjoyed era's of attending City totally different to todays game and fan experiences, not all good.
 
wearethesouthstand said:
Hi just to clarify it’s not that 1894 don’t “feel comfortable” setting up a trust - as we have helped set this up and even took names on one of our previous mailers -we have been helping on it behind the scenes for 18 months - but we can’t run a trust at the same time as organising displays and campaigning on the atmosphere and other issues. We’re already working basically full time second jobs for free running 1894 and so having a second unpaid job is impossible. That said we have seconded on one of our leaders into the interim board.

The trust is full of very passionate people who all want it to work and have a bit of vision.

1894 are also joining Citymatters (although we will still reserve the right to join or organise protests - given there is already a precedent here , half of Citymatters went on strike previously and joined the protests…)

The club wouldn’t expect us to water down our views or change the way we campaign just because we would also be in the room negotiating.

So both of the things you said should happen have happened.

Where I slightly disagree with you Col is on every group should come under one banner. No one will ever agree on everything all the time and sometimes it’s hard even getting joint letters off the ground behind the scenes as you can’t always agree on points or on how to relay those points. I think the reason there are now so many voices is a result of how football has gone and the need to bring it back to a place where it is recognisable as the sport we all grew up with.
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Didn't mean to imply you bottled it but I meant it took you away from what you did best. It's a big commitment.

And while a Trust can act as a rallying point for disparate groups, those groups should definitely maintain their own objectives and characteristics.
 
Alex - The Citizens Trust said:
As of last night, we had over 300 members. We'll be sharing another update later today, which I will share on this thread.
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Apologies that I didn't get round to this. However, I wanted to share that we have reached over 500 members of the Trust. This is an incredible achievement, and again, I think it speaks volumes about the appetite for this sort of organisation amongst the fanbase.

That said, having members is one thing, but we know that comes with a responsibility. We will be looking to share more information soon on what exactly comes next, and how members can take part in the Trust.

500 members in three days! – The Citizens Trust

thecitizenstrust.org thecitizenstrust.org

@Ban-jani
 
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