Monday, April 15, 2002

Ten handy hints to get rid of your club chairman

  1. Identify the exact nature of the problem. Find qualified accountants and solicitors from your fans who will happily transcribe accounts and legal jargon into understandable language.
  2. Unite the wide range of supporters into a broad alliance with a broad leadership. The talents of the most vociferous supporters and the usually silent seated season-ticket-holder are equally valuable.
  3. Debate the developing situation openly at public meetings (as well as in smaller supporters' groups in pubs and on the phone). Try and keep the inevitable rumours to a minimum and learn to spot false information.
  4. Communicate your concerns clearly to the press, media, politicians and the FA. Make friends with journalists.
  5. Allow imaginative ideas for protests to develop from all sections of the support. Violence against people is bad - and bad for your cause! It is a fact that 'illegal' forms of protesting often gain the most publicity, but if you are involved with illegal action, don't get caught!
  6. Use every conceivable means of communication including the Internet, pen and paper, posters, petitions, leaflets, slogans, radio, TV, chanting, photographs, poetry, songs - and books!
  7. Enlist the solidarity of other fans, especially fans who have had/are having problems with their chairmen or board. Phone a Seagulls fan!
  8. Be prepared to make large personal sacrifices and be prepared for your relationships to suffer. (We never said it was going to be easy!)
  9. Never take the word of your enemy for granted - it's not true until the document is signed.
  10. Never give up. Be brave. Whatever form of action you take you may well feel stupid and intimidated; but it's better to do than to sit and worry. Remember the spontaneous chant from supporters of a hundred different clubs standing in Brighton's North Stand on Fans United Day: 'Football! United! Will never be defeated!

From: Build a Bonfire: How Football Fans United to Save Brighton and Hove Albion (Available from Amazon)

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