BANTAMS SUPPORTERS TRUST

In attendance from the Club were, Ryan Sparks (RS) – Club CEO and Paula Watson (PW) – Director of Operations. Representing the Trust there was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair. Apologies were given from Justin Bret (JB) – Trust Vice Chair, and Matthew Pickles (MP) also from the Trust. Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 3 rd Nov. We last met on the 4 th Aug. There was plenty to discuss since the last meeting, as there is, as ever lots of developments taking place. So, without further ado lets dive into it. Fans’ surveys The Club recently had a survey running for season ticket holders about customer service satisfaction feedback in areas like retail, hospitality, and ticketing. It covered all customer service areas. Approximately 2,000 took part. It is felt the Club have a good handle on what supporters want and expect, but the responses hadn’t been analysed yet as the survey only closed recently, the 31 st Oct. The Trust asked whether the EFL had sent the Club supporter responses related to their supported Club questions. The Club haven’t seen them yet. The Trust made a point that there were was a wide range of issues covered in the survey asking supporters their opinions on how broadcasting matches affects fixtures, or about issues about protecting football clubs through the Football Governance Act and the Independent Regulator, fan engagement, diversity. It also asks how we as supporters consume and digest football and the football news about our clubs and team news in a digital age. The club and the Trust both promoted the EFL Survey. The Trust also promoted the Clubs’ survey. Season ticket sales breakdown The Trust asked for a further breakdown on sales figures of season tickets which have been published on the Club website, here . The Club said approximately 500 paid the full price during the Early Bird period and it was established that 7,192 paid through direct debit at the Early Bird price. It was said that in total 16,000 bought season tickets for this season compared with 14,000 last sold last season. It’s not clear, however, how many of the 13,000 renewals took up the Early Bird Offer. Season ticket prices for next season The Club haven’t explored this yet it was said but the headline is that they have no intention to make them expensive. We’ll come to this again in February. Increased staffing at the Club There is something of a transformation going down at Valley Parade. It’s not just the transformation on the pitch that has seen a qualitative improvement, Valley Parade has seen an increase in the number of staff employed by the Club, and indeed, a lick of paint around the ground and three sides of the stadium now have new seats. Midland Rd will be completed next summer, and they have recently ordered in new alcoholic beverage pouring machines on the concourses, The Club say that they have been under a certain amount of pressure to make improvements to an ageing stadium, and not only that but bring in talented staff to come into develop departmental teams to provide better customer / supporter services. Overall, they want to do fan engagement better. Matchday experience It has been noted that with the increased attendances there are issues of congestion all around from fans coming in, queuing for food and drink, and exiting the ground. The queues at the kiosks is one reason why they have brought in these live pourers, as beer is the most bought item at the kiosks. The Club are very much opposed to not being able bring beer into the stands. They have been looking at time-lapse film footage to understand how supporters are leaving the stadium. They may adopt a staggered approach to supporters exiting the stadium. There is more of a City supporting vibe within the concourses with the graffiti-style artwork in the main stand, and this will be extended in the concourses in other stands. It was said that the atmosphere area in Block B and the flags in that lower Kop has worked really well. At times it’s been like a sea of colour. There were still some issues in Block B but nothing comes without its challenges it was said. Safe standing was raised based on the idea of a supporter led fundraising. The idea being that fans would pay a bit extra on their season ticket – for those that want it of course. It was explained though, that that is not an immediate priority for the Club to have. If it were to happen the Club would have to reserve 10% of the seats to away supporters, and the reality is that the cost is 3 to 4 times the cost of what it was to invest in back in 2010, when the campaign for safe standing was well known. It was raised that in previous years there has been a successful example of fans raising money when the Club bought the scoreboard called Upgrade The Parade. But it was explained that a significant amount of the money came from one benefactor. It was said that it has taken 3 seasons to replace old seats in three different sides of the stadium. It could take maybe 5 to 10 years to install railed seating, and that the cost maybe too much for supporters to raise. But lets say it is, it could be that the cost is shared out to other funding providers, or commercial investors. It was explained by the Trust that this type of funding could be done for other projects, for Club charities for example. Improving our structured dialogue / Fan Engagement RS said we have a lead on fan engagement. He is the Fan Engagement Officer, Liam Mould. He has attended the Governance meetings that MD has attended and started in the post from September, and has been within the Club for around three months. Fan Engagement Plan MD raised that with the Club’s fan engagement, it is working in practice but it needs to update the Fan Engagement Plan (FEP) with the Trust text – a quote from the Chair and add dates for meeting with the Trust, also to be on the Club website. It was requested to send to RS and PW. MD recommended that Trust and other groups should be involved in the FEP in being part of the process and end of season review. It was suggested we could be involved in the end of season review. MD reported on poor fan behaviour meeting – that it was a start, and there had been much progress on the recommendations of the EFL with regards to the banning and sanctions policy in terms of education and restorative justice. There was discussion on the Clubs’ communications to supporters regarding being respectful to others when we turn up in large numbers at away matches. PW felt by the Club that they communicate a lot about behaviour as most fans behave and mostly police themselves. There was a debate whether sanctions actually deter offenders from causing an offense. It was said that it has been better this season so far as the Club have not as yet had to pay any fines. MD reported on a diversity photography project that has been proposed in that it will need funding and that a meeting will be arranged between BEAP and the Trust. With regards to environmentally sustainable football MD reported that he had written on the theme of getting supporters to and from the match to the bus companies in the city and also had written to the Wet Yorkshire Combined Authority and lead Councillor for transport, Caroline Firth. PW said MD could connect with Adam Kiezer, the Club lead on environmental sustainability. Football Governance Act and the Independent Regulator (IFR) MD asked if the Club had seen David Kogan the Chair of the Independent Regulator yet. RS said that they recently attended a regional event in Manchester about the purpose of the Regulatory body and what it will do. Some of the highlights are here of what it will do: Oversee financial regulation Strengthen the Owners’ and Directors’ Tests Introduce a Corporate Governance Code Define prohibited competitions Intercede in financial distributions (via a ‘backstop’ mechanism) Ensure protections for club heritage Specify fan engagement requirements In terms of fan engagement, the IFR will not prescribe how it should be. Like the FSA’s guidance, it will be based on broad principles that each club and its fans can use to build effective engagement. Clubs and their fans will be able to structure it in a way that works for them. RS was confident that the Club will be regulatory ready as a sound business and it is likely that we (the Club) will not need their attention, and that David Kogan would be seeing those Clubs that may need help with the running of their Clubs first. It was agreed that the purpose of the IFR was to mitigate the number of badly run clubs and reduce the number of insolvencies over time by working with Clubs to encourage better business management and take out poor owners through stiffer owners and directors tests. But that may not be easy. It was noted that fans groups can have contact with the IFR as well, and at a certain stage we as a Trust will be looking to see them. From the Trust’s point of view it would look better if the IFR saw the Club and the Trust in part together. Financial Performance MD asked how we have been performing and asked for a snapshot. It was noted that the Club provided annual figures – and these are at Company’s House, but they are often a reflection of how well we did over the previous season. It would be better to see a snapshot of now - figures to support the discussion. RS was able to give an idea about how well each department had been doing in the first quarter, and on the whole the Club has out-performed certain budgets in the first quarter. Departmental Performances: Youth Academy – currently on budget First Team – currently out-performing budget Retail – currently on budget Kiosks – currently out-performing budget Lottery – currently on budget Ticket office – currently out-performing budget Marketing – currently out-performing budget Stadium – currently over budget Matchday – currently over budget Commercial – currently out-performing budget Banqueting – currently under-performing budget Central Finance – currently on budget Training Groun d – currently over budget Development Centre – currently on budget Ownership MD asked if Stefan Rupp has put in a significant investment to bring about all these improvements that are taking place within the stadium, staffing and player recruitment, as well as the financial reward for promotion and getting through the League Cup rounds and the income from the Newcastle game – tickets sold and television money, and the answer was yes, it’s had the highest investment in the Club’s history, higher than from any other previous Chairman over the course of the current ownership, most significantly in the last 24 months. In terms of players’ wages, the club is nowhere near the top out of all the 24 League One competing teams. 

Late on Tuesday 21 st October, in a statement , LaLiga, the Spanish Football League have announced that they have scrapped their plans to stage a top flight fixture, Villareal v FC Barcelona in Miami. This was due to be played on the 20 th December. The Spanish Footballers Association (SFA) organised protests against the match being held abroad, over the recent weekend with players from every team not moving for about 15 seconds. The SFA said it was a ‘symbolic protest, co-ordinated via the captains of each team, sighting a "lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence" from the Spanish League. This is a victory for the majority, the players and fans alike against the football authorities and shows that collective action can work. Just a week or so earlier Football Supporters Europe (FSE) reported in their statement , that UEFA's Executive Committee decided that the two games under discussion, Villarreal v Barcelona in Miami and AC Milan v Como in Perth, would be “reluctantly” allowed to go ahead as planned, citing “regulatory gaps at global level”. You can see UEFA’s statement here . They said that they “will continue to stand firmly with fans in Spain and Italy in resisting these damaging proposals. Together with our members in these countries, we are looking into every possible option to counter these plans. By forcing through these matches, La Liga and Serie A risk undermining their own history and long-term success while inflicting long-lasting harm to football in Europe – and beyond.” In early September hundreds of football supporters groups including Bantams Supporters Trust signed FSE statement expressing our collective opposition to domestic games being held abroad, representing millions of supporters across Europe. We also shared that statement on the Trust’s website, and in response to that UEFA has paused any immediate decision on whether to authorize proposals such as Villarreal vs Barcelona in Miami or Milan vs Como in Perth (see UEFA’s statement here ). This represents a partial and temporary victory for supporters and players alike, because up to press the Milan vs Como in Perth is still going ahead, unless we know otherwise. We can report however that Italian ‘Como Ultras’ have been protesting at the weekend during their game against Juventus, where they had a 15 minute silence during their 2 – nil win. The silence was supported with a banner that read: ‘Lega Italiana: a gambe a-Perth (Italian league: legs o-Perth [open])’. And of course we know that even if there is a victory in that the Milan vs Como fixture does not move to Australia we know that the respective football leagues will keep trying, so the campaign to stop domestic games from being played abroad needs to continue.

This is the Chairs’ Report, written in October 25, ahead of our November AGM 2025, commenting on the promotion season and great start to this season on the pitch, as well as the national picture as a backdrop. It also covers our engagement with the Club, and all the work we have done amongst supporters linked to that. On the Pitch At the time of writing, the Bradford City team, are riding a crest of a wave. 2nd in the table after drawing level from being 2-0 down to get a point from the recent game against Rotherham United in a top verses bottom match, proved one of the most exciting games this season. City are 2 nd in the table with a game in hand as their home game against Lincoln City has been postponed due to Imps players receiving international call ups. Already we have beaten our West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town at home 3-1, Cardiff City 3-1 and Championship sides Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City, 2-1, and 3-0 respectively in the League Cup. We valiantly lost to Premier League Newcastle in the 3 rd round, but Andy Cook scored our consolation goal against the team he supported as a kid. It is an amazing season so far, and many fans have returned to watch, with lots of new, younger supporters witnessing a new look, determined and confident Bantams side. The attendance against Huddersfield broke a new record with 24,075 at Valley Parade (in the modern stadium). In May the Bantams finally got promoted on the last match of the season in front of 24,033 – a record at the time, in the dying throes of injury time against Fleetwood Town. Valley Parade became alive with celebration after seeing Antoni Sarcevic redirect a George Lapslie shot into the bottom corner of the net, which led to scenes of unbridled joy, a pitch invasion, and much celebration on North Parade amongst fans and players. During last season, we started spritely, but we were inconsistent. We really started to pick up in December of last year. And we were unbeaten in 10 home league games. It was a huge improvement on the previous season but few could’ve predicted automatic promotion. It was Graham Alexander’s first full season in charge. This season, with a lot more investment in the squad than in previous years, our team is certainly capable of much more success at our new League One level. At last supporters feel a sense of pride that players are putting the effort in, playing as a team and getting the wins as a result. It is coming up to Alexander’s 2 nd year at Bradford City. Lets up that we can maintain the momentum well into his second year and keep it going until the end of the season, and hopefully the efforts on the pitch will reap the reward of another promotion. The Football Governance Bill update The Football Governance Bill finally became an act of Parliament over the summer, on the 21 st of July this year, and with it, the royal assent brought the introduction of the Independent Regulator. The first version of the Football Governance Bill was tabled in 2024, following the Fan-led Review of Football Governance which was launched in the immediate aftermath of elite clubs across the continent trying to form a European Super League. The Football Supporters Association (FSA) has long argued that football can no longer regulate itself as so many clubs were going to the wall, and that a review of football’s finances was long overdue. As far back as 2012/13 the national fans’ organisation had submitted evidence to a Culture, Media and Sport Committee investigation endorsing far stronger rules on club licensing, ownership and protection of assets outlining why “the regulated should not control the regulator”. Our Supporters Trust was one of those Trusts involved in submitting evidence around that time to the government’s Expert Working Group (EWG) on football governance. We made a presentation about the Supporters Board. This amongst all the evidence gathered, was published in 2016, and it encouraged the EWG to recommend something called ‘structured dialogue’ between clubs and their fans. These recommendations were subsequently adopted by the Premier League and the EFL as a requirement for all clubs. Following Bury FC’s collapse in 2019 the FSA put forward a wide range of proposals to the FA to protect our professional clubs – and this included the concept of a regulator for football. Fast forward a couple of years and more clubs at lower levels of the game teetered on the brink while billionaire owners tried to stitch up the game for their own benefit – and the Government was eventually left with no choice but to pick up the reins. The FSA’s list of proposed solutions called for a licensing system which removes the conflict of interest arising from club owners regulating themselves. The licensing system will now be put in place by the regulator along with a whole raft of recommendations that are very heavily based on the FSA’s proposals to the FA, representing a remarkable victory for supporters in shaping the direction of the game. In those proposals the FSA argued for better tests of “fitness” for club owners and directors, protection for “heritage” items, rules to prevent clubs being relocated without supporter approval and bans on “leveraged” buyouts which burden clubs with debt. The FSA also argued in favour of the concept of “stewardship”, with owners being custodians on behalf of fans who will be there long after a current ownership regime has gone – an idea which is now widely understood and accepted. For more info on what the Football Governance Act is about please see here . The year’s work Like previous years, there is always something to keep on top of. It is very demanding. Our three key things that we do best are: Keeping members informed and in the loop about we are doing and keeping you up to date as much as we can to what is going on nationally with our email articles, which we post on social media. Physically engage with members and supporters through our stalls on match days in the stadium. Engage with the Club through our ‘Structured Dialogue’, and of course keep members and supporters informed with what we have discussed and what comes out of the meetings. Commercial relationships Teemill We continue to work with Teemill, a UK based, ethically sourced company. We have samples of our designed clothing on our stall and we regularly promote it with an advert on social media and on a join leaflet which we produce every season. We now include a QR code on our advert that takes members and supporters directly to the online store: https://bantams-supporters-trust.teemill.com/ where supporters can buy our products. There is no investment costs with this, but if it does prove popular the income we get with each sale of merch sold could finance any upgrade to have more choice in terms of stylization, so for example merch such as T-shirts and hoodies could have back printing. Scarves Last year, in September 24 began to work with Arena Scarves Ltd. who produced 50 ‘away’ white retro scarves and 50 ‘home’ claret and amber retro style scarves both in the jacquard knit design. Arena Scarves are Leicester based. The claret and amber ones have been so popular that we are having to re-order more, and before long we will be soon out of the white ones to, so we are in the process of ordering some more of them too. Our publicity and website We continue to try and bring members and supporters a good mix of mix of news about what we are doing and national news that can have a direct Impact or indirect impact on supporters as the season takes it’s course. Over the last year we have brought you regular updates about the Football Governance and improvements in terms of how Clubs are meant to engage with supporters, and we’ve brought you informed detail about the Sky TV deal rights and fixture rearrangements. Some of this detail can be necessary info added from discussions with the Club through our engagement with the Club, such as our structured Dialogue meetings with Ryan Sparks. And at the end of August the Trust met with Paula Watson, the Director of Operations, Jonathan Heaton, the Club’s Safety Officer and Aaron Dennis the Dedicated Football Officer from West Yorkshire Police to discuss changes to the Sanctions and Bannings Policy and poor behavior at two key matches. This was due to new ways the EFL have been working in these areas, and these are linked to the proposed ways of working advised by the FSA at a senior structured dialogue level between EFL and our national fans’ organization. Some of our news may promote community work such as the Foodbank event organized by Accrington Stanley Trust colleagues last April, or community events and exhibitions such as the Community event at VP that had an immersive igloo, explore with a digital copy of the University of Bradford Stadium, or the Football fanzine exhibition at Leeds Central Library which had our very own City Gent fanzine displayed and the editor, Mike Harrison was among other editors and writers speaking at that exhibition event last June. And of course we informed you that the Council approved our application for the Stadium to be an Asset of Community Value in June 24 and in July BBC’s Look North did a story on this piece of news and featured prominent City supporters. And we cannot forget to mention we always publicise our annual organising to get a turn-out for volunteers for the Burns Unit collection, and this year we were guests of the Council at the annual memorial in Centenary Square on Sunday 11 th May this year. Our members get our emails, and there is always a trace of our work so that members can look up or go back to articles. The emails get sent to over 500 members and it is a free service. All our articles and meetings with the club are on our website. It is very easy to get around. You can find out what we are about, how we were formed and our policies. Trust Board meeting minutes and our AGM’s are also on there. On Social media City supporters can just see a strapline and link to our articles, and we regularly share on multiple groups with the help of the Meta Business Suite and we continue to use twitter of ‘X’ as it is now called. And we continue to reach Instagram too. Our profile on these social media channels has grown and we are much larger than life because of the frequency of posting. If it is not for posting links to articles, often with an image / design in our Trust box, it is our regular well wishing prior to matches regularly asking poignant questions relating to form and record of results and immediate challenges. These get the most ‘likes’. These have the retro scoreboard C’mon City clap graphics. Our Facebook Group has 924 members, up by 43 from this time last year and our ‘Followers’ Page has 1,689 people following us, up by 117 on last year. Our Twitter /X account, https://twitter.com/bantamstrust, has 401 Following , up 7, and 291 Followers , up by 4. We do have an Instagram site with 76 following on that. Our presence on social media has definitely grown and we have shown to be consistent in our approach to what we do. Concourse stalls in the Main Stand Now in our fifth season, the Trust stall on matchdays is still going! Situated in the main stand, we set up from between 1.30pm and 2pm on a Saturday. It is difficult because we are not there every week due to work commitments, but even so, we definitely have established a firm base of friendly faces that stop and chat and discuss their concerns and put a few quid in the donations tin. Due to the success of the team this season, the crowds on the concourse are much bigger so we are seeing a newer layer of supporters seeing the stall for the first time and at the same time seeing what we have on the stall for sale. It does get very busy and there are times when there are a lot of people around the table waiting to be seen. One thing we have been able to do this season, with a little bit of help, is to venture out in other areas of the ground just to give our leaflets out. We have just started to do this and hopefully it will pay off with people joining online. Fan Engagement / Structured Dialogue During the last Financial Year we have held three meetings with CEO Ryan Sparks: in November 24 , and then February 25 , and August 25 . It is always work in progress and developments within the Club are always at pace, so we are often playing catch-up in what is always a movable feast. Themes covered through these meetings were: Matchday experience , including Fanzone, atmosphere section, stewarding home and away. Railed seating Season tickets prices and sales , loyalty points and limited capacity at away grounds as well as matchday ticket pricing and special offers for struggling people. Environmental sustainability including improving public transport Restorative Justice – discussing how the Club deal with and support troublesome supporters seeing the error of their ways. Community building and Diversity projects – finding ways to work with the Club supporting community projects. Other core agenda items: Aspects of the Football Governance Bill/Act. Improving our Structured Dialogue – improving the Clubs’ fan engagement. Finances – what we need to spend on the stadium and pitch (maintenance costs) and investment from promotion and the Sky Deal extra income. Ownership – The importance of seeing Stefan Rup as improving the Clubs’ fan engagement. Important achievements for the Trust Yearly meetings with the Club and Police regarding practices around stewarding and policing and any changes to sanctions policy and details about what the Club’s restorative justice practices involve. Now that the ground is registered as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) in July of this year we met with Naz Shah MP to explore if there is a covernant to further protect the stadium. In May we played an important part in getting volunteers to do the bucket collection, raising £7,387.70 ahead of the Fleetwood game on the 3 rd May, nearly double what was raised the previous year. In March we consulted with supporters about the Club’s Early Bird Season Ticket price rise . Membership We now have 995 contacts that we have on our InTouch database, an increase of 11 this time last year (2024), and the email membership figure now stands at 508, a reduction of 6. We have a total of 290 ‘suppressed’ contacts (an increase of 18 on last year (2024) that we have to go through and identify – This list covers all contacts whose emails have bounced – this could be because they have changed their email addresses, or indeed passed away. It covers members who have unsubscribed or indeed members who have no other contact details. This increase is lower than it was last year (272). Whilst our membership is respectable, we still need to increase the membership in order to represent a wider and more diverse support base the Club has. We have made it easier to join than ever before, from when people can enter the website on their phones to the links on social media to our articles, there is always an option to join, and supporters can still pay their membership or renew via paypal and bank transfer by going to ‘ Membership Cost’ The Trust Board We continue to meet regularly, there is a familiar pattern in that it continues to be difficult in getting everyone available to meet at the same time. This makes it more pressing that we need more people interested in joining the Trust and getting involved and playing a role on the board. With more board members we can reach out more and be a bigger influence. You don’t have to live in Bradford to attend meetings. You can attend meetings on ‘Teams’ (we have had to change from Skype to Teams as Microsoft has dropped Skype) and play a role but living in the West Yorkshire area would help as we need more hands to maintain and expand our work. If you fancy it get in touch via hello@bantamstrust.co.uk . Whilst the Trust as a larger than life presence, as a board, looking to the future, we do need to develop a new generation of Trust activists replenishing the existing board, who do the best that they can give at the present time. The Trust is a democratic and independent organisation, and the only body of City fans that is part of a wider Supporters Trust movement on a national scale. We can act as a critical friend of the Club and as a collective campaigning force that can be organised into action. To realise this potential, we need more fans to join and get involved.