- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Communicate your concerns clearly to the press, media, politicians and the FA. Make friends with journalists.
- 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!
- Use every conceivable means of communication including the Internet, pen and paper, posters, petitions, leaflets, slogans, radio, TV, chanting, photographs, poetry, songs - and books!
- Enlist the solidarity of other fans, especially fans who have had/are having problems with their chairmen or board. Phone a Seagulls fan!
- Be prepared to make large personal sacrifices and be prepared for your relationships to suffer. (We never said it was going to be easy!)
- Never take the word of your enemy for granted - it's not true until the document is signed.
- 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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