I’d like to start by extending a warm welcome to the players and officials of AFC Bournemouth (AFCB) this evening, but especially to the fans who have travelled up from the South Coast to support their team this evening.  All too often, attention is paid to the negative side of football support, be that England fans expressing their dissatisfaction by ‘booing’ a player to the more serious issue of football hooliganism.  Little credit is given to the loyal, honest and hardworking football fans, which all clubs have in droves and who invest time and money in their club week on week.  Even when the proverbial really hits the fan, the media often prefer to dwell on the ‘bad guys’ rather than give credit to the fans who can make a huge positive contribution and AFC Bournemouth is a great example of fans pulling together over the years for one common cause.

Those with reasonably long memories will know that financial crises within football clubs, whilst becoming more common as the gaps between the four leagues grow ever wider, are not something limited to this decade.  Who knows who Grimsby Town would have faced in the 1998 Auto Windscreens Shield Final had the AFCB supporters not played in integral part in pulling the club out of a six month spell of receivership only a year earlier.  The contribution of the fans via the AFC Bournemouth Trust Fund in 1997 led to AFBC promoting themselves as ‘Europe’s first community owned club’ - this at a time when supporter representation within football clubs was predominantly limited to providing willing matchday volunteers. In order to prevent a similar financial situation occurring, the new constitution which was drawn up stated that no one individual could own more than 10% of the club at any one time.

The year 2000 saw the formation of the Community Mutual (CM), designed to be a ‘co-operative’ for AFCB supporters.  The CM had two clear aims – to give the fans a greater say in how AFC Bournemouth is run and to raise money for the club.  Whilst the CM has changed its name to the AFCB Supporters Trust (AFCBST) since the more recent financial problems led to a transfer of ownership (and crucially the 10% ownership rule being scrapped), the underlying objectives and spirit appear largely unchanged. 

Fundraising has always been at the heart of the various supporters organisations linked with AFC Bournemouth.  Since 2000, fans have invested in excess £1.1m, outside of the traditional revenue streams, in their club.  This includes share ownership, fundraising and involvement in PlayerShare (a fan run limited company that provides funds to help strengthen the playing squad, more recently through funding much needed loan signings).  Other sources of ongoing funds are the In2win lottery, where usage of funds has included helping to finance the maintenance of the pitch by covering groundsman’s materials and machinery costs.  The ‘Cherry Steps’ initiative, where supporters sponsor plaques sited on steps near their seats, has been running for some time with resulting funds being funnelled towards the youth setup.  In addition, the ‘Cherry Bricks’ scheme has seen over 1,000 personalised bricks being sold and cemented within a supporters wall located in the stadium.

Despite having a membership of around 2,000, AFCB is possibly unique amongst supporters trusts in that for a long time it gained no ongoing revenue at all from these memberships.  Many of these members had come from the legacy CM organisation and paid no annual subscription for effectively a life membership.  For many smaller organisations, membership fees are a key ongoing revenue stream, enabling a small but continued investment in the clubs that they were set up to help.  In order to ensure continued financial self-sufficiency, AFCBST have now introduced a membership fee, but now face the challenge of maintaining and growing the membership base by their target of 5% a year having made this change.

Non-financial involvement with the club still includes direct voluntary assistance such as Stadium Painting days and responsibility for some matchday activities (programme selling and 50/50 lottery draw).  AFCBST also has representation on the AFCB Safety Forum, which looks at all aspects of matchday safety including a focus on stewarding issues. 

Finally (and by no means least importantly), AFCBST has two appointed Directors on the board of the football club and, whilst supporter ownership of AFCB is unlikely to happen again in the current climate, AFCBST are committed to working with the owners of the club in an open, supportive and challenging way.  We at GTST hope that our counterparts at AFCBST are able to enjoy a productive relationship such as the one that we have with the GTFC board, and wish them all the best for the coming season (with the obvious 2 exceptions!)

For more information about AFCBST, please visit www.afcbst.org

Emma Blackbourn – GTST Board Member

www.gtst.net