Copy of email sent to our members.

16th July 2024

WHUST and other fan groups on the Independent Supporters Committee (ISC) have been negotiating with the club on a new fan engagement body called the Fan Advisory Board (FAB). West Ham has now published the details of its FAB. WHUST must now decide whether or not to apply for a seat on the FAB. That is your decision. This is your opportunity to vote.

Please read the documentation relating to the establishment of the FAB here:

· Terms of Reference (TOR)

· Code of Conduct

· Confidentiality Policy

Context

In 2022, the Fan-Led Review of Football was held in response to a series of scandals affecting football clubs, particularly the proposed creation of a European Super League. The main recommendations of the Review were that an independent regulator should be established to regulate the football industry through a licensing system. One proposed condition of the new licence was the creation of a Shadow Board, which would scrutinise club decisions and hold them to account. The previous government introduced legislation to introduce the independent regulator, but the Bill did not get through all its parliamentary stages before the general election. The new Government is committed to the implementation of the fan-led review, and we await new legislation.

In anticipation of the Fan-Led Review, the Premier League adopted Fan Engagement Standards (FES) which its members are contractually obliged to uphold. A key tenet of the FES is the establishment of a Fan Advisory Board (FAB) for each club. You can read the Premier League Fan Engagement Standard here.

West Ham United must establish a FAB as part of its commitments under the FES.

Our red lines for participation in the FAB

From the outset of discussions regarding the FAB, the board of WHUST has been very clear regarding its negotiating position with the club. We published a document on supporter consultation back in October 2023 and also sent it to our ISC colleagues so they were also aware.
Fair and Independent Fan Engagement

To be clear: we do not see the FAB as the end of the process, but rather the beginning of the journey towards proper fan consultation. We are recommending that you as our members vote in favour of joining the FAB for two reasons:

· We have succeeded in arguing the vast majority of our red lines, and

· From a pragmatic viewpoint, we feel it is better to have a direct channel of communication with the Club than no channel at all.

In the section below, we will describe both the areas where the proposed FAB meets our negotiating position as well as where it falls short.

Areas where the proposed FAB meets our negotiating position

WHUST requirement	Explanation
On the record meetings with the club should take place on a regular basis having board involvement	“A digital transcript of the meeting will be kept and stored securely for record. The transcript will be shared no later than seven days following the conclusion of the meeting”. See “Guiding Principles, Clause iv, p. 5 TOR
Meetings should be recorded and the recordings stored for later scrutiny	“A digital transcript of the meeting will be kept and stored securely for record. The transcript will be shared no later than seven days following the conclusion of the meeting”. See “Guiding Principles, Clause iv, p. 5 TOR
An agreed number of meetings should be face-to-face	See “Meetings”, p. 3, TOR
Relevant key senior club personnel should attend all meetings	3 seats on the FAB are reserved for Club representatives (p. 2, ToR)
Agendas to be shared ahead of all meetings with the fanbase	See “Guiding Principles”, Clause ii, p. 5, TOR
The minutes should list attendees as well as detailing actions and timescales and identifying the person or groups responsible for each action	See “Guiding Principles”, Clause vii, p. 5, TOR
Where possible, measurements of success for each action should be listed	See “Guiding Principles”, Clauses ix and x, p. 5, TOR
Minutes to be taken by fans and published	There will be no restriction in the taking of ‘independent minutes’, provided they are published after the official minutes – See “Guiding Principles”, Clause xi, p. 5 TOR
Where it is necessary to share confidential information, that confidentiality must be respected by all parties. Confidentiality extends to all meeting attendees.	“This document informs Club and Supporter Representatives regarding their responsibilities around confidentiality…” See “Introduction”, Confidentiality Agreement
The reasons why confidentiality is required must be proven	See “Confidential Information”, Clause 3, Confidentiality Agreement
The rationale for decisions and positions taken by supporters and clubs should be shared	See “Guiding Principles”, Clause xiv, p. 5, TOR
Supporter reps to be consulted over strategic priorities of the club	See “Responsibilities”, Clause i, p. 5, TOR
Agreed timescales for responses each way must be clearly communicated	See “Guiding Principles”, Clause xiv, p. 5, TOR
Relevant documentation must be agreed by supporters and the Club. Documents should be jointly reviewed at least once per season and must be published	See “Review”, p. 6, TOR
There must be frequent fan representative feedback, independent of league assessments, to measure fans’ satisfaction with how engagement is working in practice.	WHUST Board to report back regularly to our members and solicit feedback regarding the FAB.
A system for supporter feedback/sharing of concerns/thoughts/issues should be in place to fast-track issues that arise between meetings.	“Meetings of sub-groups should take place throughout the season as deemed relevant. The FAB may choose to request additional meetings with the Club Co-Chair over and above the formal meetings”. See “Meetings”, p. 3, TOR
Fans should independently appoint members to the supporter involvement body and any subcommittees or working groups, not the Club	See “Reserved Supporters Group Representative Seats”, p. 1, TOR
Both fans and the club may appoint different people to different workstreams so the burden of work is shared among the members and expertise can be brought in	See “Appendix 2 – Supporters Group Representative Seats”, Clause 3, p. 9, TOR
The supporter involvement body should seek to represent the diverse nature of the fanbase.	See “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement”, p. 5, TOR
Fan representatives should commit to key standards of professionalism, confidentiality and a commitment to work together and to achieve consensus where possible.	See Code of Conduct
There must be an agreed code of conduct for all reps and a mechanism for monitoring compliance and dealing with any breaches of the code	See Code of Conduct
Agreed routes for issue escalation and dispute resolution	See Code of Conduct

Areas where the proposed FAB falls short of our negotiating position

In the section below, we will provide an explanation of where the proposed FAB falls short of our negotiating position and why this should not detract us from applying for FAB membership.

WHUST requirement	Explanation
The Supporters’ Trust to be the primary supporter group, as per the recommendations in the Government White Paper.	While WHUST will not have an automatic place on the FAB, we are confident that the new Government will re-introduce legislation implementing the Fan-Led Review and therefore the new licensing system will require the Club to include the Trust on the FAB or whatever succeeds it.
Minutes of all meetings should be shared within seven days of each meeting with the fanbase	We have been able to secure a commitment to publishing minutes no later than 14 days after the meeting took place via Club channels. We believe this compromise balances the need for transparency with the need to give the Club time to get approval for the minutes and any amendments. The recording of minutes will help with the approval process.
The minutes should include a brief description of the nature of confidential information shared and the reasons for its confidentiality	Confidential information will be redacted from the published version of the minutes, but it will be possible for confidential information to be shared with the executive board of the individual fan groups, which used to be a point of contention and prevented fan reps from reporting back effectively.
Consultation should take place before decisions are made, particularly if it is relevant to fans	As the relationship between the Club and the FAB develops, we will expect meaningful consultation on a range of topics.
Veto over decisions concerning core heritage items via a golden share	While there will be no right of veto or a ‘golden share’, we are confident that the new Government will re-introduce legislation implementing the Fan-Led Review and therefore the new licensing system will require the Club to include a system of veto over heritage items.
Intellectual property is the property of the fan group not the Club	The FES states that any IP created during the FAB’s existence is owned by the Club.

Questions:

What is happening to the Independent Supporters’ Committee (ISC)?
Once the FAB is officially established, the Memorandum of Understanding between the club and the ISC will be void. However, the existing fan groups on the ISC have agreed that a forum is needed in which fan groups can meet independently of the club. The ISC will therefore develop into such a forum so that fan groups can continue to meet irrespective of their membership of the FAB.

What is the timeline for establishing the FAB?
·       July: The appointment panel will review all applications as they come through. Specific timings will be confirmed in due course.
·       August: The FAB membership is announced with a dedicated section on the club website. Informal meeting to agree the first agenda.
·       September latest: First FAB meeting.

Is the FAB Independent of the club?
The FAB is not independent of the club. This was a major issue for Hammers United and to present a united front in negotiations we backed that call. The club insisted the FAB is its own body and not independent. However, the independence of the fan engagement body has never been an issue for the WHUST board. The proposed regulatory regime included the possibility of a shadow board, a golden share giving fans a veto on certain decisions, and even fan groups having main board positions. All of these would put fans at the heart of their clubs. Insisting on being independent would prevent WHUST from such core positions.

Does the FAB guarantee fans will be listened to and have real influence or power?
Sadly not. The FAB standards were drawn up by the Premier League. They are inferior to those set out in the Fan-Led Review of football and fall short of our definition of proper fan engagement. There is a very real risk that the club will use its FAB as a tick-box exercise to show it is engaging with fans when not really listening or responding. But we don’t know. The FAB may be the start of the club behaving in a more positive manner. But there is no guarantee.

When will the new regulator and fan engagement standards come in?
We don’t know how soon the regulator will be up and running or what the fan engagement standards will look like. The Conservative Bill had watered down some of the recommendations of the Fan-Led Review. The newly appointed Sports Minister, Steph Peacock, had proposed amendments to toughen them up (to include ticket pricing, for example). She may now influence the new Bill. It could be a year or more before the legislation is passed and another year or so until club has to comply with any new standards. In the meantime, the FAB is the only game in town.

The WHUST board is recommending that our members vote yes to apply for a seat on the FAB and do the best we can to make it work.

Members will have been emailed details of how to cast their vote.

Fan Advisory Board - Membership