Welcome to the Fan Engagement Pod.  Don’t forget the first event of the Fan Engagement Network is on the 26th July at Bristol Rovers. It’s a joint event with Rovers and CEO Tom Gorringe will be speaking. If you work or volunteer in a fan engagement role at a club, a CEO, MD, director or owner and want to attend, drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll reserve you a place. This episode is with the aforementioned Tom, Liam Scully, CEO of Lincoln City, and Ryan Sparks, CEO of League...

This episode is with Aaryaman Banerji, author of the Civitas report, Governing the Beautiful Game, The Future of Football in Civil Society. Aaryaman produced the report as Lead Football Analyst at Civitas, a political think tank based out of Westminster. Civitas is an independent think tank which conducts forensic research and analysis into critical topics within the British political ecosystem, in order to instruct government policy and shape public debate. He has a widely respected FIFA...

This is our first face-to-face recording, done at the RSA in John Adam Street, just off the Strand in London, where I’m a fellow. Apologies for some background noise at times. This episode is with Kat Law and Martin Cloake, who until last year were co-chairs of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust, and who formally stepped down from the board this year.  If you want to know what meeting with Spurs CEO Daniel Levy & the rest of the executive board was like, how they dealt with the...

This episode is a chat with Deborah Dilworth, Head of Women’s Football at the Football Supporters Association.  Our paths very nearly crossed, as she joined Supporters Direct not long after I left, though then working in the men’s game with supporters’ trusts. She took up a role post-merger of SD & the FSF, and now leads on The FSA’s work in the women’s game. She meets with The FA and other key stakeholders regularly, and supports and advises the new slew of supporters organisations in...

This episode is a chat with Gerard Lawlor, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Football League. Gerard has been CEO since 2021. Professionally, he was in the hospitality industry as a chef for years, but crucially, always a fan and latterly director and chairman of Cliftonville FC.  He has clear understanding of the needs of his member clubs both as institutions but also as businesses that need to satisfy fans both as customer and stakeholder, whilst building new loyalties amongst...

This episode discusses policing, at risk fans. We look at how to change the approach of dealing with anti-social behaviour and problem fans from one of removal and banning, to education and helping them to become better citizens.  Guests Owen West, former Chief Superintendent at West Yorkshire Police and now Senior Lecturer in Policing at Edge Hill University: https://research.edgehill.ac.uk/en/persons/owen-west Amanda Jacks, Caseworker at The Football Supporters Association:...

Part one As we head towards a new season, I lay out the position we appear to be in when it comes to Fan Engagement as part of the government’s Fan Led Review. This is after all the context for every discussion about reform of Fan Engagement. I look at where The Premier League are and where The EFL are on this critical issue. Part two The main part of this episode is where I try to get my head around a major recommendation of the Fan Led Review’s proposed reforms - and a major plank of the...

It's a Fan Engagement Index 2020/2021 season special. As well as running down the table from 92 to 1, we chat with special guests including club CEOs, directors, supporters' trusts and fan groups, and experts in the field. Find out the full results at fanengagement.net/fan-engagement-index Please like, subscribe and share. It really does help our visibility. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/fan-engagement-pod. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode takes a stark look at what it's like in the middle of a crisis with Adam Keely from Oldham Athletic activist group, Push The Boundary. It was recorded in mid-December, before the owner, Abdallah Lemsagam, publicly declared his intention to sell, though given the litany of broken promises, I suspect fans are holding their breath. Adam talks us through what it's been like organising against the club he loves, why he fears managed decline, and what it's like trying to unite the...

This week we’re chatting with Geoff Wilson, expert in engagement at a strategic level across sports businesses and organisations. He’s the owner of Geoff Wilson Consultancy, which focuses on Sports Organisations/NGO's, Businesses involved in Sport, Community and Government organisations across the world. This includes FIFA, UEFA, The Asian Football Confederation, and other sports including work in basketball with FIBA, netball, motoracing with the Ulster Grand Prix, and countless other sports...

This week we’re chatting about access to and diversity in football with Anwar Uddin, who heads up the Fans for Diversity project for the Football Supporters Federation. Anwar’s one of the few people with his perspective, having played and coached before he went into the side of the business he’s in now. He was part of the Dagenham and Redbridge side that won promotion to League One in 2010, their highest ever position. He also played for Barnet, and several other League clubs including...

This week we’re stepping back into the sport of Rugby League, in a chat with fan activist and Bradford Bulls fan, Andrew Foster.  Andrew is a keen student and lover of the game, and has for some time been very concerned about the near permanent state of change and crisis that things appear to be in. Think Fan Engagement carried out an extensive survey in the summer of this year about the state of fan engagement in Rugby League, and it’s safe to say that the picture painted by fans wasn’t a...

Marco Sansoni is an expert in the role of spectators in sports events, steeped in expertise in both Fan Experience and Fan Engagement. He’s a former Senior Advisor to the World Cup in Brazil, worked in senior spectator roles in some of the biggest sports events in the World including the Summer and Winter Olympics, for FIFA advising on spectator services, and now teaches at the prestigious Luiss Business School in Rome.  He’s doing a lot of thinking about the role of fans and spectators,...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Pod. This is the Fan Engagement Chat, where we hear about someone’s approach to Fan Engagement. This week we chat with Leigh Pomlett, Chairman and owner of Walsall FC. Leigh has a long career in business, working in freight and logistics, and remains Chairman of the Freight Transport Association. I can imagine he’s busy enough with that, but he’s also a progressive thinking Chairman of Walsall, and he explains more about how he does things at his boyhood club in...

Seb White is from Mundial. Seb is a fan and director of Hampton & Richmond Borough FC, but also still holds a candle for Yeovil Town FC, the club he was born into supporting. Go to mundialmag.com to find out more about Mundial, the sometime magazine, full-time agency and consultancy celebrating football and fan culture.  Go to fanengagement.net to find out more about the work of Think Fan Engagement. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Surveying & Questionnaires: How to do it Definition: a method of data collection where a sample is taken from the population and researched via a standardized questionnaire Uses:  Post match Fan ExperienceAnnual or mid-season Fan Engagement/Fan ExperienceAnnual fan survey by a league or FA/federation Done before season ticket campaigns  Step One: Preparations 1. Decide what you want to measure. What is it you’re trying to understand/get insights about? Which departments/teams/staff...

This week it’s Labour Party General Secretary and Chester fan and activist, David Evans. He tells us all about how he fell in love with the club off the back of a 0-0 draw at Aldershot, goes into his personal journey as a fan - including the Terry Smith era, the US owner who famously had Chester players chasing imaginary balls. David was involved in the reformation of Chester back in 2010, sat on the board, and has also been a trustee of their Community Trust for a number of years. It’s a...

Episode 61 is with Stuart Dykes from SD Europe’s Supporter Liaison (SLO) Project. SD Europe is one part of the legacy of Supporters Direct, and works across Europe with clubs, fans, leagues and federations on how to implement the role. Go to sdeurope.eu for more. The SLO role was first seen in German football, but can now be seen across all of UEFA’s member associations, including in men’s professional football in England in the top-four divisions. From the perspective of us at Think Fan...

Episode 60 is a Fan Engagement Chat with Steve Wignall, Chair of Marching Out Together, the group for LGBT+ fans of Leeds United. You can find them at ​​https://www.marchingouttogether.co.uk Although I had some conversations with members of Spurs group Proud Lilywhites some years back, it’s an area I’m not that familiar with and wanted to find out more about.  It’s easy to presume that being fan is a very democratic exercise - that all fans are welcomed - but we forget that’s not always the...

We’re taking a break until 7th September. You can catch up on 59 episodes of the Fan Engagement Pod, including Did They Ask The Fans, and Bas Chat via your favourite podcast app, search Fan Engagement Pod.  Or why not head to fanengagement.net where you can listen to the Pod, and also find out more about our work on the Fan Engagement Index, our new work in Rugby League, sign up for the Fan Engagement Network, and more.  We hope you have a safe and restful Summer. See you on the 7th...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Chat, the episode of the Fan Engagement Pod where we hear about someone’s approach to Fan Engagement.  This one’s with Ryan Sparks, CEO of Bradford City AFC We’d already interviewed him back in Episode 11, but decided to have a second chat with Ryan after he was appointed as the youngest CEO in the country. He was appointed in November 2020, and this interview was done in March 2021. Ryan's background is in Rugby League, having worked for both Featherstone Rovers...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Chat, the episode of the Fan Engagement Pod where we hear about someone’s approach to Fan Engagement.  Abhishek Singh runs the Arsenal Naigpur Supporters Club, and is based in Naigpur, India. He works for Think Fan Engagement, and also runs his own business, Sport Ed India, working with sports organisations including football clubs, in India, on social media and other communications & engagement strategies.  Abhishek tells us what it’s like for the...

This is a chat with Ryan McKnight, CEO of the North of England Football Academy, former Stockport County CEO and adviser to a whole series of clubs, and ex-editor of FC Business Magazine. Ryan has been thinking a lot about the relationship between fans and clubs, and how that manifests itself in the practical - as well as emotional - sense. We talk about the mistakes clubs make in marketing, how loyalty is always defined by a negative experience, and why season tickets are outdated. As Ryan...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Chat, the episode of the Fan Engagement Pod where we hear about someone’s approach to Fan Engagement.  Recorded in March 2021, this is a chat with Jonathan Bradley from Bang The Table. Their mission states that ‘Robust democracy requires real public participation. Our mission is to enable this participation as a fundamental pillar of well-functioning 21st century democracies by forging constructive relationships between communities and the institutions of...