T.S. Eliot was wrong; April isn’t the cruellest
month, January is. Just look at the fortunes of Newcastle United in the opening
weeks of 2015: inactive in the transfer window, disinclined to appoint a permanent
successor for Pards and displaying our trademark indifferent form on the pitch,
whereby the only chance we deluded Geordies had to jump for joy was that wholly
undeserved point at home to Burnley on New Year’s Day. We’ll not even mention
the annual FA Cup third round surrender away to Leicester, or the fact that the
squad was rewarded for securing the requisite abject defeat at the earliest
opportunity with a week’s warm weather training in Dubai. This is the banal,
depressing reality of life under Mike Ashley.
Let’s look on the bright side eh? While the
players enjoyed their sporting sinecure among the beautiful dentists of the UAE,
supporters were left to kick over the bones of a dismal 2-1 home loss to
Southampton and speculate that the future promises no better as the U21s, as we
must now call the Reserves, went down at home to Blackburn Rovers the Tuesday
after. Bookending these two games were a pair of meetings that should have been
of interest to all followers of Newcastle United who seek to do more about the
state of our club than simply whine and grumble about the owner on a variety of
social media platforms.
On Thursday 15th January, the vibrant
and inclusive independent supporters network NUFC Fans United (@NUFCFansUtd),
created out of frustration with the inert and ineffectual Newcastle United Supporters’
Trust (NUST), hosted a meeting at the Tyneside Irish Centre on Gallowgate where
the keynote speaker was David Goldblatt, academic, football fan and author of Game of Our Lives: The Cultural Politics of English Football, which is the first essential
book I’ve read in 2015. Those who filled the upstairs concert room on a
bitterly cold evening were rewarded with an inspirational talk, whereby David
outlined a draft manifesto for footballing change, demonstrating the cause and
effect of the rotten core of our national game, the inability of current
legislation and legislators to actively challenge these problems and a series
of suggestions, both practical and theoretical, that could help us to reclaim
football for the people who really matter; the fans. I’m sure the details of
the manifesto will emerge soon, but suffice to say, no-one who cares about the
game can fail to respond to suggestions that ticket pricing, the match day
experience, especially as an away fan, institutional racism, chronic
underfunding of the grassroots game, the refusal of many clubs to pay all
employees a living wage and the lack of effective regulation of clubs, owners
and supporters’ trusts, need thorough examination and, in several instances,
legal intervention.
As part of a fact finding tour to take the temperature among committed
activists up and down the country, David had already hosted a gathering in
London before Christmas in conjunction with Stand fanzine and, having
flown up at his own expense (we did treat him to a curry in Café Spice on
Chilli Road afterwards though), was off to Manchester the day after to attend a
similar event, with meetings in other cities in the pipeline. The purpose of
David’s visit was to listen, to learn and refine the 11 point manifesto that
will hopefully, in advance of the May election, provide a coherent document to
encourage politicians to think seriously about our national game. For more than
2 hours, debate was maintained on a wide range of issues with supporters, not
just us lot but those of Middlesbrough and Hull City, a pair of whom had driven
120 miles to be there. Everyone present was able to contribute positive suggestions
in an atmosphere of mutual support and admiration. As the meeting drew to a
close, NUFC Fans United resolved to work hard to ensure that this
appetite for structural change is channeled positively, by holding future
monthly planning meetings for the purpose of organizing an event related to the
launch of the manifesto at a game in April. The Popular Side is fully
behind this and will give any meeting or event maximum publicity, both in print
and on Twitter.
On Wednesday 21st January, NUST held its Annual General
Meeting at The Mining Institute on Neville Street. Created by the storm of
righteous supporter anger at the disgraceful treatment of Kevin Keegan in 2008,
it seems to me that NUST has subsequently lost its campaigning zeal and
stagnated to the point of ossification from 2010 onwards, to the extent that the
wider support, if they even recognise its continued existence, view the Trust
with either indifference or disdain verging on contempt. At the meeting, there
were no apologies asked for or taken and only those NUST board members who
spoke announced their names; consequently I am unsure exactly how many members
of the elected 12 member NUST board were actually present, but certainly
several were inexplicably absent. In addition there was no representative in
attendance from either the Football Supporters Federation or Supporters Direct.
If there had been, one wonders exactly how they would have reacted to the
unequivocal announcement by one member of the NUST board that “public meetings
don’t work.” This statement was not a point for discussion; it was presented as
a desperately depressing fact. Frankly I find the suggestion that a supporters’
trust would no longer seek to provide a platform for all fans to attend and
give their opinions quite staggering and another reason why, as much as owners
and boards of directors should be subject to regulation as to their activities,
we need the regulation of supporter organisations. If NUST were an effective
vehicle for fan interaction and representation, there would be no need for NUFC
Fans United to exist.
I do accept that supporters’ trusts are to an extent hampered and
hidebound by their constitutional requirements, but NUST’s future plans for
contact with members by inviting a select few to attend board meetings or to hold
“surgeries” seemed to me akin to the activities of a constituency Labour Party
in the 1980s; regulations, rules and procedure being more important than activism.
The irony being that during the 46 minute AGM, several NUST board members
recognised the need for campaigns about ticket pricing and the need to pay a
living wage, not to mention calling for an agreed national political strategy
in advance of the election. Unfortunately the seemingly endless round of
committee meetings with other trusts will no doubt result in any enthusiasm
being squeezed out of a project that should run in conjunction with the
visionary work of David Goldblatt that will undoubtedly empower and inspire
fans across the whole country.
I make no bones about the fact I feel that the attempt to ride the
zeitgeist of spontaneous fan activism as espoused by David Goldblatt has far
more chance of capturing the imagination than the meticulous paper-shuffling of
supporters’ trusts. However, here is a reality check. NUFC Fans United attracted
31 to the David Goldblatt talk-in and the NUFC Trust AGM was attended by 23 of
the 769 fully paid-up members. Meanwhile, 49,307 watched the Southampton game
and even 509 frozen human peas rattled round the St James Park pod for the
Under 21s game. That is what we are up against; the seeming indifference,
cynicism and despair of 99% of NUFC supporters. The choice is clear; we either
throw our hands up in despair or we grit our teeth and redouble our efforts to
take the argument for greater fan involvement and better regulation of the game
to all supporters. As far as I’m concerned, the matter isn’t up for debate. We
don’t despair; we can’t despair. We must keep on fighting!
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