New FA rules to protect the heritage of clubs – home shirt and club crest.

On the back of the fan-led review of football governance, the FA has introduced new rules for the start of the 2022/23 season to help protect the heritage of football clubs in England.

Under the new rules, if a club wants to make a material change to its club crest, or change its recognised home shirt colours, it must undertake a thorough and extensive consultation process with supporters.

A club must also be able to evidence that a majority of its supporters are in favour of any proposed changes (such as via an independently run poll of season ticket holders, the club’s Community Benefit Society, and supporters that have attended a certain number of home matches).

In the event a club is found to be in breach of the rules, The FA will be able to order the offending club to revert back to its previous crest or home shirt colour combination.

At first glance this proposal looked reasonably straightforward; if a club wants to make a material change to its club crest, or change its recognised home shirt colours, it can only do so if most of its season ticket holders agree to it via consultation. The Trust asked the FA for clarification in respect of the Rovers ‘quarters’ shirt, or the shade of blue, or which side the blue should be on, and their reply was that with such an iconic home shirt any change away from mainly blue and white halves without the endorsement of supporters would likely be deemed a breach of the new rules.

Liverpool FC ‘shadow board’.

LFC’s Supporters Board has now been established by the Club in negotiation with their Supporters Trust. It is a legally binding commitment from LFC to structure strategic engagement with supporters, strengthen dialogue and increase fan involvement in decision-making processes, all of which is integral in future-proofing the club.

Back in December 2021, LFC announced the intention to launch an industry-leading Supporters Board following extensive consultation with representatives of Spirit of Shankly (SOS), the club’s official supporters trust. The commitment to engage with fans will be enshrined in the club’s Articles of Association.

LFC has committed to consult and engage with fans on key strategic issues such as matchday experience, ticketing arrangements and to give fans consent over heritage items. The Supporters Board representatives are obliged to represent everyone within the club’s diverse fanbase in this engagement process and have been elected from organised Liverpool FC fan groups.

The representatives are 10 elected members of Spirit of Shankly and six elected members from other fan organisations or experts in their field. The non-SOS groups represented are:

• Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association
• Kop Outs
• Liverpool FC Women Supporters Club
• Official Liverpool Supporters Club (OLSC) Glasgow (elected by OLSC group chairs)
• Spion Kop 1906 (a group of fans responsible for many of the flags and banners seen regularly on The Kop and trips away and abroad.)
• One independent member (an expert on equality issues)

Membership Renewals

Members whose membership renewal was due in the last month may be receiving emails that Pay-Pal cannot process their renewal. Please bear with us as it only impacts this month's income and about 30 people. We will advise you personally when the glitch is sorted.

Board Meeting

At the recent Board meeting the Board agreed on two things:

• Firstly, to look at a new name for the Rovers Trust and come up with names for an October poll of Members (see Liverpool FC article).
• To look at an alternative way of collecting the £10 annual subs (we have to charge members by our corporate status).

More news soon.

Best Regards

‍John Murray‍

Chair of Trust

‍chair@roverstrust.co.uk