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What Is Supporters Direct? |
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Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
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Supporters Direct is an initiative backed by the Scottish
Executive, funded by public money and based at Robert Owen House,
Glasgow.
Their aim is to help those fans and supporters "who wish to play a responsible part
in the life of the football club they support". In doing this they offer support, advice and
information to groups of Supporters, such as SMiSA.
The organisation exists to:
- Promote
and support the concept of democratic supporter ownership and
representation through mutual, not-for-profit structures
- Promote
football clubs as civic and community institutions
- Work
to preserve the competitive values of league football in the
United
Kingdom
and promoting the health of the
game as a whole
In order to promote and achieve this, their objectives are
to bring about the following:
- The
Formation of Supporters’ Trusts as Industrial & Provident Societies
(IPSs*) registered with the Financial Standards Authority (FSA) to ensure
democratic, transparent representative bodies for supporters at their
clubs
- The
democratic representation of Supporters’ Trusts on Football Club Boards
- The
ownership of shares in clubs by Supporters’ Trusts and the pooling of
individually held shares in a club under the influence of the Trust
In assisting Supporters Trusts such as SMiSA to achieve,
this they work to ensure:
- The identification and
dissemination of best practice between Trusts
- Increasing influence of
Supporters Direct with the governing bodies
- High profile for Supporters
Direct and Supporters’ Trusts within the media and cognate organisations
To
qualify for the assistance of Supporters Direct, supporters trusts such as
SMiSA must be:
- Democratic in their structures and in the way they run their
affairs
- Open to all fans to join, at an affordable cost
- Broadly representative of supporters
- Viable and Sustainable as a group, and pursuing viable and sustainable objectives
For more information about Supporters Direct, please visit
their website at http://www.supporters-direct.org/
* For more information about IPSs, click here http://www.supporters-direct.org/englandwales/IPS.htm
(Information reproduced from the Supporters Direct Websi te)
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