Bantams Trust News

Bucket Collection Thank you

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:07:57 GMT

We would like to thank all of you who participated in the Bucket Collection on Saturday April 25 ^th at Valley Parade, our last fixture of the season against Bolton Wonderers.

The Trust had 8 volunteers with buckets all around the ground. There will have been a few more helping out also.

With there been an attendance of over 23,000, we hope this will have added to the total amount collected before the game.

We well let you know the total raised as soon as we find out.

Once again we would like to thank all the collectors for doing your bit. Whatever we have raised, this has been a great collective exercise and great achievement.

Final call for bucket collectors

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:15:24 GMT

Its not long till’ Saturday, and it would be great to have more volunteers.

We do already have a handful of committed souls but we can never have enough.

Last year, we had approximately 15 volunteers, with mostly our members and supporters from the Disability Club and Shipley Bantams.

For the 40 ^th anniversary we raised an amazing £7,387.70 during the bucket collection before the match, almost double on what was raised the year before.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

Arrangements

Volunteers should arrive from 1pm outside the WD Gate entrance - the large gates opposite the club shop. Our names will be ticked off before we all receive buckets and then stand outside the various entrance points around the ground.

Burns Research Unit bucket collection volunteers appeal Reminder

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:07:29 GMT

It is rapidly coming to that time of year when we will all be coming together give our respects to those who tragically lost their lived in the Valley Parade fire, and this year will mark the 41 ^st anniversary.

Last year, we had approximately 15 volunteers, with mostly our members and supporters from the Disability Club and Shipley Bantams.

For the 40 ^th anniversary we raised an amazing £7,387.70 during the bucket collection before the match, almost double on what was raised the year before.

This year, our last home match of the season, versus Bolton Wanderers is on the 25 ^th of April, and as always there will be a bucket collection.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

We normally expect volunteers to arrive from 1pm outside the WD Gate entrance - the large gates opposite the club shop. Our names will be ticked off before we all receive buckets and then stand outside the various entrance points around the ground. We don’t think it will be any different.

We’ll be putting out another reminder next week so we hope to have confirmation by then.

Burns Research Unit bucket collection volunteers appeal

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:00:55 GMT

It is coming round to that time of year when we will all be coming together give our respects to those who tragically lost their lived in the Valley Parade fire, 41 years ago now.

This year, our last home match of the season, versus Bolton Wanderers is on the 25 ^th of April, and as always there will be a bucket collection.

The bucket collection is a way of allowing all supporters to help participate in raising vital funds for Bradford’s Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit (PSBRU). This collective practice helps adds to the impact of the remembrance as well as the one-minute silence we have just before Kick off.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk

Last year, we had approximately 15 volunteers, with mostly our members and supporters from the Disability Club and Shipley Bantams.

For the 40 ^th anniversary we raised an amazing £7,387.70 during the bucket collection before the match, almost double on what was raised the year before.

We’ll be putting out another reminder in the run up to this last match of the season with details of the time and where to meet to sign out the buckets from the Club for the collection.

Tony Delahunty Speaks at the Exchange Craft Beer House

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:29:31 GMT

Here is a personal account of Bantams Supporters Trust Board member, Tony Deacon, describe the very successful event of Tony Delahunty talk about his experiences as a commentator for Pennine Radio in the 80’s in aid of the Burns Unit.

On Good Friday Helen Jeffery and I welcomed Tony Delahunty to the exchange on behalf of Bantams Supporters Trust. There were a lot of fans assembled in the Pub wanting to hear his talk.

Over the next 45mins Tony delivered a very emotional and moving talk about his experiences on 11th May 1985, and the subsequent aftermath.

He told of how he was asked to leave Pennine radio shortly after the fire. This was due to people writing to the radio station and saying his voice was too distressing. From Pennine radio he went to radio Trent.

After a disastrous interview he thought, ‘seen as I’m here I will blag an interview with Brian Clough’, which he did. When this interview aired, radio Trent got in touch and said you’ve got the job. He then went on to be one of the few journalists Clough would talk to.

He ended the talk by telling us about the documentary, ‘The Unforgotten’, that Manny Dominguez and I were privileged to attend the premiere of at the media museum ahead of the BBC screening last year. It has been nominated for a BAFTA.

After the talk I took the time to walk him to his taxi. During this time he said he really enjoyed doing the talk and was made to feel so welcome in the Pub. He also said he would love to do another talk with more humorous stories about City & Clough.

On behalf of the Supporters Trust we would like to thank Tony Delahunty for a very informative talk. Also Ben Hoole for allowing us to use the Pub.

A collection for the Burns unit was held during the talk and extended during the day. So hopefully we will have raised quite a bit.

Tony Deacon

Tony Delahunty at the Exchange Craft Beer House

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:15:12 GMT

For those City fans of a certain age, tuning into Pennine Radio for the football in West Yorkshire in the early 80’s, you may remember the familiar voice of Tony Delahunty commentating on the fortunes of Bradford City up and down the country. Well, he will be appearing at what many of us remember as the old Ale Exchange this Friday, raising money for the Burns Unit.

On the 3 ^rd of April, before the Northampton game, Tony will be speaking at the Exchange Craft Beer House about his stories during his time commentating on the City action.

Tony was commentating on the tragic day of the fire. Now 82, Tony is retiring from radio. In recent years he ran an independent radio station, Mansfield 103.2.

The Trust has helped organise this event and he is now an Honorary Patron of the Trust for being a great servant to Bradford in the past and as sports commentator around the world.

Tony will be at the bar from 12 so come down and see him and raise a glass and make a donation for the Burns Unit. We hear he tells some good stories!

He will be at the Ale Exchange for only an hour, as he will be treated at the Club before the match as well.

Vote for your Young Player of the Year 2026

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 05:00:10 GMT

It is that time of year again! It’s time for you to vote for this seasons 2025-26 Bradford City Young Player of the Year. All Members of the Trust can take part.

This season, Graham Alexander’s team had a flying start to this season and for the first half of it, overall, we remained 2 ^nd in the table, and whilst up to now, even though we haven’t been quite as consistent, we have hovered over third and fourth in the table. Our form in front of record-breaking home crowds has been formidable. So far, at home we have won 14, lost only 2 and drawn 2 out of a total of 18.

The highest attendance so far this season was against Huddersfield back in September, which was 24,075, and we won 3-1 with Bobby Pointon scoring twice. The game was one of the highlights of the season.

This season, from the first team we have only 3 young players making an appearance from midfielders to forwards.

Bobby Pointon (22), was voted your Young Player of the Year over the last two consecutive seasons. The former academy star has scored 9 goals, and has had 24 starts in the team so far.

Jenson Metcalfe (21), signed a three-year deal last summer, the former Everton Player has now become a firm favourite amongst City fans. He’s had 31 League and cup appearances and scored two goals.

Ethan Wheatley (20), is establishing himself in the team. The loanee from Manchester United has also represented the England youth team. The promising striker has made 8 appearances in City colours but has not yet found the net.

All three candidates eligible for the Bradford City Young Player of the Year 2025-26 have all made valuable contributions, but who has been your stand out performer?

As with previous years this award includes current players under the age of 23 with at least 4 first team appearances in all competitions:

Bobby Pointon (Central Midfield)
Jenson Metcalfe (Central Midfield)
Ethan Wheatley (Centre Forward)

Voting starts today, Friday, March 13th and will end on Friday 17th April. The Player Of The Year Dinner and results announcements will be on Wednesday, 22nd April 2026.

To vote, simply email us your number 1 Young player at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk . You can also let us know via our Facebook Group and Likes page as well as on our Twitter page.

Report of Trust meeting with BCAFC - February 2026

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:43:48 GMT

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, Matthew Pickles (MP) and Tony Deacon (TD).

Apologies were given from Justin Bret (JB) – Trust Vice Chair

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 9 ^th Feb. We last met in November last year, so there was much to catch up on in an ever-moving feast. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Fans’ surveys

We asked about a survey that the Club put out early on in the season regarding if fans were happy about the services the Club provide. The findings were not different to what they knew already. They wanted to see if the results backed the backed the opinion.

Some highlights were, that the reception experience was good. Catering and queue times were poor - Supporters are still waiting too long. There are more Kiosks and space to use up, and more staff for Tiffin.

Retail produces a turnover of around £1.2m and performing quite well, with year on year growth, though there is a wider target to reach the £2m mark.

Children’s retail is up. It was raised that when they have tried to order shirts they have sold out. There have been 3 runs of the 2 ^nd and 3 ^rd kit as they have been so popular.

It was explained that there is greater demand when there is a concern that something will sell out. There are a lot of collectors among football fans RS said. This is why within the retro market there are selected retro shirts out on sale for a limited time only to get them. It was said it is coming up to 40 years since the ‘Bradford Great City!’. And there will be other ‘strategic’ shirt designs produced by Macron.

With regards to whether the EFL had sent the Club supporter responses related to their supported Club questions, the Club haven’t been sent them.

Season ticket sales breakdown

Again from the previous meeting, the Trust asked of the 13,000 renewals of season tickets this season, how many of them took up the Early Bird Offer. RS said it was 95%. A total of 16,000 overall bought this season’s season ticket.

The postponement of the Rotherham game

It was asked why the Club had put out a statement on the Friday saying it was going to be on. The response was that the referee had said the pitch was playable on that day and fans want to know as early as possible. Also, they were not expecting extreme weather conditions. The shadow of the main stand can make that area colder. The frost covers can cover and protect up to -2C but it got to -3 to -4 the following night.

There was discussion of the viability of a protective dome covers and it was said they cost too much. As much as £250,000!

Loyalty points threshold for away matches

We asked about this because we received a query regarding them because it was felt they had been lowered. They had the view that the points system should only value those that had been to more games. The Trust view is whilst it does and should reward those that go to all, it should give the opportunity to buy for as many as possible.

First of all it was said that the threshold will always vary based on the number of away tickets the club receives from the opposite team. It was raised that both Newcastle and Huddersfield could’ve given more, as many fans were disappointed in not being able to go. It was said that the points system, whilst there is no universally fair system, a closed shop would never allow the opportunity for others.

It was noted that attendances have increased for the EFL Trophy matches to maximise on loyalty points.

Next season’s season tickets

There was a feeling of eventuality with this one, as it was said that there definitely will be an increase due to rising maintenance costs for the stadium, but for season ticket holders on direct debit it will just feel like other rising costs that we have to pay and we manage to pay them.

To continue saying that will become harder year on year, if working season-ticket holder families or individual supporters’ wage incomes struggles to keep up with the rising cost of living.

Supporters will still be able to pay in full, as there are a small number that do prefer paying this way. There will still be a 12 month direct debit plan and also there will be an option to pay over 3 months.

If supporters stop payments for any reason, supporters will be given up to two months to communicate to find a way of continuing payments. After that their season ticket will be terminated and they will no longer be able to attend.

Season ticket consultation

We asked if there will be a consultation with Supporters Board and Supporters Trust. There would not be but an announcement is due in the coming weeks.

The Trust feels it is a shame that this can’t be done. We are impressed that it was done last season even when the terms of the offer was already decided, and whilst there was very little time provided to consult with our members, it was still a positive achievement when it comes to fan engagement. We feel Club should aim to consult in future seasons.

Overall capacity

PW said that the actual capacity is 24,450, but for safety reasons that figure is not achievable. This is the reason they have the segregation and safety covers in the Midland Road and Kop respectively. With that, the capacity is around 24,100.

Attendance at matches from next season

Next season the Club will be bringing in a system where season ticket holders have to communicate if you can’t attend. We will still get our loyalty points but our seat will be able to be resold to others. We asked about those who have bought season tickets just to support the club, and said that that season ticket redistribution goes on amongst supporters anyway and will work in the same way. It was said those supporters who may have bought a seat to support the club would still need to say it’s free for Club resale. And the Club are aware re season tickets going to other supporter friends and family. It’s just if your season ticket can’t be used.

In the Trust’s view, this may prove difficult to manage.

They are also planning on installing a second segregation gate in the Midland Road stand, for greater flexibility.

Matchday experience

LED advertising Boards – we asked if the brightness could be lowered for night games as there are some people how have difficulty seeing the goalmouth action in front of them.

It was said the brightness was already on one, the lowest setting. We noted that it had been turned down to that settling for the same reasons last season. It was said that at some point all the advertising boards around the ground will be like that.

Congestion after the match - It has been noted that with the increased attendances there are issues of congestion all around from fans coming in, and queuing for food and drink, but also exiting the ground.

Initially the discussion took us to the steps upon many exiting the NW corner and kop exit out of. It was said that extending the steps could cause potential accidents and it would encourage more to use them. As of now there have been no reported accidents. The opening up of the One In A Million car park helps divert supporters away from taking the route up the stairs.

Then attention was focussed on the Kop as it is believed getting out from there is slow, as congestion builds on the aisle staircases. It was said that the average exit time out of the stadium is 10 minutes.

It has been said previously that they had been looking at time-lapse film footage to understand how supporters are leaving the stadium and that they thought about adopting a staggered approach to supporters exiting the stadium.

Father & Daughter toilets – MP reported that he struggles to find a cubicle available to take use daughter to use, and that the male toilets a generally poor, often with no toilet roll. PW said something like a family toilet is a good idea, and in the North lower Kop there is currently an unused toilet block facility that could be reopened as a family toilet.

B Block – It was raised that the issues prevalent when B Block became the atmosphere area were still there. It was suggested a meet up with representatives of for and against were present at a meeting were both parties had to concede to find a happy medium. RS said he was happy for us to take the lead on that.

Improving our structured dialogue / Fan Engagement

It was suggested that The Trust seeks to meet Liam Mould (LM) the SLO on this and the Fan Engagement Plan (FEP).

We asked if the Trust Statement was on the Fan Engagement Plan. PW showed us how to get to it. This is the link to the Fan Engagement Area , and within that area you an click onto the Supporters Trust Statement.

MD asked if the Club had seen the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) Engagement survey, and the response was affirmative. MD reported he had filled the supporter representative part on behalf of the Trust.

Football Governance Act and the Independent Regulator (IFR)

MD reported that he will be hopefully attending an FSA Network meeting with a rep from the IFR as guest in the future. It’s not yet been scheduled.

The FSA have produced an IFR guide for supporters which is here .

Financial performance

We asked if there is a 5-year plan or if there is any planning for where the Club wants to be. We understood from what was explained that there isn’t a plan as such but a broad direction in all departments and that is to improve from where we are now.

We asked about the American sponsorship deal with Mbanq, and it is bigger than anything the Club has had before, but the Club will make announcements on this in due course.

We asked if the Club could see sales in other departments, commercial sponsorship and TV deals etc. outstripping income from sales in season tickets and matchday tickets. It was explained that money from attendances is still very much the main income but the higher up you go in the pyramid, the income generated from that success becomes greater.

We asked whether money will change the direction of the Club, RS explained that we are a community Club at core and we don’t want to change that.

Your Chance to Win a season ticket for 2026/27 through BetterPoints

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:27:58 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust are supporting an initiative by the Club that encourages healthier travel to the match and back. The Club are working in partnership with BetterPoints – funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority – the body that manages West Yorkshire transport in the region, that could see you win a season ticket for next season.

Every journey to the stadium on a matchday (home games) from now until the end of the season counts as an entry into the prize draw to win a 26/27 season ticket.

How to enter the prize draw for a chance to win your 2026/27 Bradford City AFC season ticket:

Bradford City AFC fans can win a 2026/27 season ticket by travelling to home matches in a healthier way.
The prize draw runs across all the remaining home games of the season.
Fans simply download the free-to-use BetterPoints app from Google Play or the Apple Store.
Travel to any of the BCAFC home fixtures by walking, wheeling, cycling or using public transport.
Record your matchday journey in the app. The app will automatically do this for you if downloaded.
Each match attended by active or public transport = one entry into the prize draw.
Attend multiple matches? You’ll earn multiple entries, increasing your chances of winning.
One lucky fan will win a Bradford City AFC season ticket for the 2026/27 season. There will also be bonus BetterPoints prizes each game.

Download the app and get involved: westyorks.betterpoints.uk

Note : The prize draw is for adult season tickets only, and only over 18s will be entered into the draw. The competition winner will be announced on Friday 8th May. If the winner has already purchased a 2026/27 season ticket by that time, they will be refunded the full amount of an adult season ticket.

A Community Owned Stadium?

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:08:31 GMT

Since the Asset of Community Value (ACV) status was secured on 11th June 2024, for the Stadium at Valley Parade, the Bradford City Supporters’ Trust has been working to explore what the long-term future of our stadium could look like — with the aim of helping protect it for generations to come.

We have opened dialogue with local Manningham councillors and Naz Shah MP, all of whom have been supportive and engaged with the idea. The intention is to expand these conversations further by speaking with additional councillors and MPs across the wider Bradford district to build broader backing.

At present, we are awaiting further information from Bradford Council to establish whether any covenant exists on the ground that protects its use for sporting activities. Alongside this, we are beginning to explore ideas around how income could be generated from the surrounding areas to support any future community or supporter-led stadium model.

As discussed at the recent Fans Forum, the club has confirmed it is not currently looking to purchase Valley Parade and instead plans to extend the lease when it expires. As a Supporters’ Trust, we believe it is important to explore opportunities before the current lease runs out in 2028.

A key part of this process is, understanding whether there is support from the fanbase. We want to know if supporters would be willing to pledge donations and share ideas on how funds could be raised to support any future bid or community ownership model.

Suggested estimates of the value of the stadium are in the region of between £8m to £10m. It is likely the value will increase if we are to be promoted.

The way the ACV works however is that the current owner, Gordon Gibb’s family pension fund (that has a legal obligation to achieve the best return for its investors) would have to declare their intention to sell and that would open up the bidding process. Here is an explainer of the benefits of an ACV and what it does .

As we have said earlier, we are just canvassing opinion amongst supporter base on whether there is a mood for a supporter / community owned stadium at Valley Parade, and whether fans would be prepared to financially back such an initiative.

Our initial fundraising ideas include:

Applying for grant funding streams
Donation buckets around the ground on matchdays
Donation points within local businesses and building partnerships
One-off fundraising events and supporter initiatives
Auctions featuring items donated by current and former players

This is very much the beginning of the conversation, and supporter input is vital.

We would love to hear from you — your views and your ideas. Your level of support can help shape what comes next.

Please fill in our survey here .

Donation to Bradford Burns Unit

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:18:43 GMT

Representatives of the Lincoln City Former Players Association and the Red Imps Community Trust presented Bantams Supporters Trust with a cheque to go to the Bradford Burns Unit for £2,000 at our away fixture with Lincoln City at our recent away fixture (27 January).

The Bantams Supporters Trust would like to thank them for their generosity.

TERRY YORATH 1950-2026

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:02:46 GMT

The Trust would like to pay our respects to great former City player, coach and manager, Terry Yorath, who sadly passed away recently at the age of 75 after a short illness.

Starting his career at Bradford City as a player / coach in 1982, making 34 appearances as a player.

He was a brilliant coach and assistant manager to Trevor Cherry, being a key figure in our 1984/85 Championship winning side. In fact Cherry was not the same without Terry when he went to manage Swansea City in 1986.

Terry was deeply affected by the Valley Parade fire disaster after helping supporters evacuate the stadium.

He was also a coach under Paul Jewell taking the Bantams into the Premier League.

Terry’s time as manager at City didn't go to plan after taking the reigns from Terry Dolan in Feb 1989 and got sacked just over a year later in the bottom 3 of the old 2nd division.

He began his very successful professional playing career with Leeds Utd, winning the old 1st division Championship in 1974 in the Don Revie era, which also had Trevor Cherry in that season’s squad.

Also, Terry played for Coventry, spurs, Vancouver Whitecaps, Swansea and of course Wales where he captained 42 of his 59 caps. When he was manager of Wales he came close to taking them to the World Cup finals in 1994.

Our condolences go to his family and those close to him.

Rest in Peace, Terry Yorath.

Meeting To Ratify Our AGM & Christmas Social

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:04:52 GMT

Many thanks to everyone that attended our AGM. It is always fantastic to see people that support us making an effort to attend either in person or on Jitsi Meet.

Unfortunately, the numbers present did not make the meeting quorate, although it was a really good effort. To ensure that we are quorate within our rules we have to have a minimum of 20 in attendance to be able to carry out and agree the business of the meeting.

To remedy this, our rules allow us to provide you with another opportunity to attend our AGM meeting with a minimum 7 days notice so that we can ratify our AGM business.

The date for this meeting is Monday 22 ^nd December from 7pm at Jacobs Well near the Interchange.

We are also having our Christmas social on the same evening – an added incentive for coming along and finding out more about the Trust. And for members it is a second chance to attend.

There is another chance to come in online if you can’t make it in person via Jitsi Meet, which is a free video Conferencing platform. The link is here .

Location and parking

Jacobs Well is in Bradford city centre, near the Interchange and situated on the left hand side before the Jacobs Well roundabout. If you are coming by car, there is parking on Neal St. behind the Jacobs Well, or behind the Media Museum and free parking further up Neal Street near the Police Station.

On the Buses!

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:33:55 GMT

The Trust writes to politicians and engages with the Club on how best to get City fans to and from VP on match days and on a night.

First of all, the Trust is aware that many supporters rely on buses to and from matches. We are also aware that many more would use the buses if services were more frequent, reliable, and run for later on an evening during the week. As a campaign interest, it always scores well on our online surveys.

After recently getting a response from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) Bus services Team, we had an opportunity to Speak to Adam Keizer, Bradford City’s Sustainability Lead, and we met on Monday 10 ^th November.

We discussed the special offer with First bus – the matchday code which is now valued at £4.50 and is available during the week. It also has a discounted monthly travel for £10 off a monthly ticket for season ticket holders.

We discussed the letter we received from the WYCA which raised the fact that the Mayor “ has made the decision to Franchise the bus network in West Yorkshire, this is a lengthy process with services becoming operational from April 2027”. One of the reasons it will take so long, it was said, is because all the bus companies will operate until their contracts finish.

Up to now, the bus transport system is deregulated meaning services are run on a for-profit basis by private bus operators who set the routes, fares and timetables.

In the UK bus franchising means that a local transport authority (in our case the WYCA) takes back control of planning the bus network, including routes, timetables, and fares, and then awards contracts to private companies to operate these services.

This has come into being as a result of the Bus Services Act 2025 - is a new UK law that became effective in late October 2025, aiming to improve bus travel by giving local authorities more power to franchise services and allowing them to own bus companies.

The Club want to survey season ticket holders to do a wider study around the transport routes of where people live and are looking to work with Bradford University on this research.

They are also looking at partnerships with rail links and what other clubs are doing to support fan travel. They are also looking at our Community Foundation and digital resources to help.

The response from the WYCA did give insight into the fact that bus operators were asked to ‘ consider providing additional provision on these days’ – when there are evening matches.

Matchday is embedded in the Clubs sustainability plans because of the amount of people it brings to the stadium, and the Club therefore feel responsible as to how it provides supporters it’s services. It wants to get a good understanding about how supporters get to and leave the stadium.

They have plans to have matchday ambassadors to help supporters but are not sure what this could look like. They want to get this up and running from February onwards

As Bradford City are part of a network of professional football clubs they can all help each other with advise on what they do best. The trust is also part of it’s own network of Supporters Trusts and other fans groups and through our network we can also provide help and advice, and we can find out whether sustainability embassadors are something that is being done at other clubs.

The Club is signed up to EFL Green Clubs , a voluntary scheme that encourages clubs to improve their environmental practices and operations. The Club is ‘Silver’ in awards status and hopes to be ‘gold’ next season for its’ efforts.

It is committed to being responsible for carbon emissions and supports the target of reaching net zero.

According to the Dirty Tackle report, professional soccer’s annual carbon emissions are 66 million tons of CO2e. Sponsorship and air travel are the two biggest factors, but merchandise waste often passes unseen as a hefty contributor.

The UK football industry, primarily through the Premier League and its clubs, has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040, with an intermediate goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.

Here are some of the headline grabbers of what the Club have achieved so far in terms of environmental sustainability through the Greener Bantams campaign:

From next year over 90% of the stadium energy consumption will be supplied from renewable energy (inc the solar panels at the stadium)
96% of our matchday waste is recycled - the rest is used for refused derived fuel (RDF) - none of our waste goes to landfill
Our macron playing kits are made from sustainable materials (recycled plastics)
The club has installed EV charging points and bike racks at the stadium, we also have these at our training ground
We have committed to planting a tree for every goal we score to support biodiversity in the local area
We will be calculating our carbon footprint this season to use as a baseline and set long term reduction targets
We will be looking to do some fan travel surveys to look at how we can support sustainable travel options on matchdays

Click here for the Club’s Greener Bantams annual report from 2025/26 season and latest sustainability news.

The Trust is doing it’s own extensive survey that covers a wide range of issues both, Bradford City and wider national for the regular match-going City fan and should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. The results will help the Trust Board in understanding your views and enable the Trust campaign more effectively on your behalf. We last did this in the 2023/24 Season, and we want it to be bigger and more successful than that. Click here to take part.

Arrangement Details for our AGM

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:02:59 GMT

Our AGM is fast approaching and we welcome all members and City supporting non-members wishing to attend. The Annual General Meeting or AGM is the meeting in the year where we can discuss the achievements of the Trust.

It is a forum to discuss the purpose of the Trust and how we can go forward seeking to gain more influence with the Club.

With more emphasis on the need for clubs to engage with supporters due to the Football Governance Bill now an Act of Parliament and the Independent Regulator coming into being, there has never been a more important time for football supporters coming together to discuss and debate how we can do this effectively and we can get more fans to be actively involved.

You do not have to be a member to ask questions but only members can vote.

We will be meeting at Jacobs Well in Bradford city centre, near the Interchange and situated on the left hand side before the Jacobs Well roundabout. If you are coming by car, there is parking on Neal St. behind the Jacobs Well, or behind the Media Museum and free parking further up Neal Street near the Police Station.

The AGM is on Wednesday 26 ^th November. We encourage people to arrive early as we will start at 7pm.

If you are unable to attend in person you can attend online via Jitsi Meet, which is a free video Conferencing platform. The link is here .

If you would like to become an active member of the Trust you can contact us here: hello@bantamstrust.co.uk . You can of course express your interest at the meeting as well.

If you can, please email us to let us know you’ll be attending online or in person, it will give us an idea about the numbers in advance.

We are aiming to provide the Agenda paperwork to download in advance of the meeting, and we will provide the paperwork at the meeting for those attending in person.

Report of Trust meeting with BCAFC - November 2025

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 11:23:37 GMT

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.

Victory for Now

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:11:38 GMT

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.

The Trust Annual Review 24/25

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:33:50 GMT

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.

No Domestic Games Abroad Campaign Update

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:14:34 GMT

Dear co-signatory,

Following UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Tirana, on the 11 ^th September, 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 ). Instead, they have committed to a meaningful consultation process with all stakeholders—including fans—before proceeding further.

This is an initial victory, but this is not over.

Football Supporters Europe welcomes this development. UEFA’s expressed willingness to engage fans’ voices clearly reflects the strength of the opposition we’ve collectively mobilised. We believe this is a decisive step toward preserving the integrity of European football (see our full statement here ).

Your support—alongside more than 550+ groups from 28 countries representing more than three million supporters—has been essential in amplifying our message that European football belongs in its stadiums, communities and cities. The scale and unity of this response have made a real impact. We extend our sincere thanks to you and your supporters’ group for co-signing our statement You Can’t Export Passion .

Nonetheless, the threat to our game continues, yet our position remains the same: one domestic match abroad is one too many. We have prevented a quick decision, but we need to keep the pressure on to demonstrate the scale of opposition against these proposals.

What’s comes next?

We await the details of the consultation and will engage to ensure the position of supporters is heard.
We will continue working at speed with UEFA, European institutions, and other stakeholders to protect and strengthen European football against these threats.
We urge all co-signatory groups to stay vocal with your opposition. Continue voicing your opposition in your country, encourage other groups to co-sign the statement ( here ), and utilise any media contacts to keep the issue on the agenda.

Once again, thank you for your solidarity and commitment.

Kind regards,

Ronan Evain

Executive Director

Football Supporters Europe

Save The Date For The Trust AGM 2025

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 06:00:03 GMT

Our AGM is on Wednesday, 26th November, from 7pm, at Jacobs Well , near Bradford Interchange.

This is your opportunity to make your voice be heard and contribute to making us stronger in terms of building the Trust membership and our finances, but we also want to influence the Club in securing it’s long term success and longevity, bringing in supporter-led initiatives along the way that improve the match day experience for all. You will get to hear about our achievements through our reports at the AGM.

The existing Trust Board would like to see new Trust Board Members that have new ideas and proposals that will broaden our reach.

Find out how you can play a role in the Trust here . If you would like to be a Board Member, please find a Board Member Nomination form for this year here . All Board Members are volunteers and we are a not for profit organisation.

The deadline for submitting your nominations is Wednesday 12 ^th November 2025. There is space for a candidate’s statement on the form, and a proposer and seconder need to be members. For any enquiries about being a Board Member please contact us here .

Members who receive our regular emails will be able to download our Draft Agenda and Papers for the evening nearer the time.

For our AGM to be quorate, we need 20 Members in attendance. Only Members can vote.

The AGM will start at 7pm, so please arrive in good time to order a drink at the bar. We will be in the snug area of the pub and greet members at the bar from 6.30pm.

We understand that many of you will live across the country and further beyond, and therefore to encourage attendance we will have a hybrid meeting as in previous years, of members, in person, in the pub, or online video via Teams.

The Teams meeting link will be provided nearer the time.

We look forward to seeing you in due course.

Report of Trust Meeting with BCAFC: Improving Safety and Behaviour at Football Matches

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:09:58 GMT

In attendance from the Club: Paula Watson (PW) – Director of Operations

Jonathan Heaton (JH) – Safety Officer

From West Yorkshire Police: Aaron Dennis (AD) – Dedicated Football Officer (DFO)

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair

Apologies were given from Matthew Pickles (MP) also from the Trust.

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club and a representative of West Yorkshire Police working with the Club on Tuesday 26 ^th Aug.

The last time the Trust met with the Club was December 2022. That was at a time when the EFL had brought out its new supporter sanctioning guide, developed with the FSA (Football Supporters Association), to assist its 72 clubs in dealing with supporter behaviour issues. You can see the EFL sanctioning Guidance here and the Executive Summary here . You can see our report of the last meeting we had with the Club here .

At the time the Guidance had come out, Bob Eastwood, the EFL’s head of security and safety operations, said: “Following the return of fans, after the disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, the behaviour of some supporters has been placed under the microscope, which has prompted questions about how the football authorities deal with incidents that are in contravention of ticketing terms and conditions or ground regulations…” See full quote here .

MD asked how the Club’s Sanction and Banning Policy was used since the EFL’s guidance came in.

The Policy had been updated from around February 23 to put some detail of the variety of sanctions and the appeals process, and since then it has improved still further, for example, explaining what an acceptable behavior contract is and including ‘Education or Restorative Justice; in its’ levels of sanctions subject to the severity of the behavior. It also explains who (no names) the Appeals Committee’ comprises of. You can see the Policy here .

JH and AD broadly explained that that they have an ‘acceptable behaviour contract’ often for young people, and those under 18 that get involved in activities that stop short of what is breaking the law but could progress to that, where parents are informed and there is a 'ABC Yellow card' system which is part of an Acceptable behaviour Agreement.

AD explained that ‘Education’ is offered as a sanction and explains what behaviours / activities are football offences, the football ground regulations and what criminal offences are.

An Acceptable Behaviour Contract is overseen in the presence of the clubs safety officer and/or the Police. Parents or an appropriate adult may be present. If there are further instances of poor behavior, they may lead to the other sanctions.

It was further explained that police investigations are carried out at this time.

JH explained that there is a sanctions panel team that he attends and another staff member, as well as a supporter representative where possible that decides the type of sanction.

The subject has a right of appeal, and the Appeals Committee / Panel usually comprises of a senior staff member not involved in the initial sanctioning decision, the SLO, and where practical a nominated supporter representative.

MD said supporter perception was that poor behavior happened more at away grounds, but AD said that that’s not necessary the case, explaining that, at away games most of us either come on trains and supporter coaches, and we are all together in an enclosure, so incidents and anti-social behavior is more noticeable. At home the poor behavior is diluted all over the ground. Supporters come at different times and with big attendances right across the ground, it makes incidents less visable.

It was also pointed out that poor behavior is not just happening in and around the stadium or in city centres, there is an increase of online offences on social media and therefore this is included in the Banning and Sanctions Policy.

MD brought up a couple of incidents when City were away: Doncaster Rovers on ‘Black Friday’, December 22 ^nd 2023 and last season when we went to Prenton Park, 12 ^th October 2024. In both games we had won, but @ the Doncaster game, the disabled supporters were situated in the front rows behind the goal. When we had scored supporters had ran down the front to celebrate and wouldn’t return to their seats, obscuring the sightlines of the disabled supporters and it appeared stewards could do little about it. Some of the disabled fans were visibly upset.

In the incidents at Tranmere, supporters were allowed to congregate in the middle, standing on the stairways, so when we had scored in the first half, supporters on the stairways had toppled forward causing some to fall and cause alarm and upset. No one was seriously hurt but there could’ve been. In the second half, the stewards had gained control and most supporters were in or at least in front of their seats and those isles were clear.

MD said he had written to Tranmere Rovers several times and had not received a response. And the FSA had advised to ask if we (the Club) had communicated in advance about possible situations likely within our traveling support. And that supporter perception was that stewards and police don’t do enough quell tensions when they arise.

JH said that there is communication between clubs in advance of matches. We do have our own stewards to assist to manage our traveling supporters as it does help supporters to think twice to not get into bother. Often this is a reciprocal arrangement but Clubs have to request it

AD said that when there are large numbers to away grounds, those individuals that can get carried away in their support feel safe in those crowds to do as they please, but issues around persistent standing or other matters which would constitute a breach of ground regulations are not police matters as we (as in the police) do not have any power to enforce them, this is turn means the police do not as a rule enter the stands as this may escalate situations when they have no authority to impose such regulations . Arrests are often made after the match, or following investigation.

With regards to the Tranmere game AD said sometimes Clubs make mistakes in their strategies, and said that the halftime break allows stewards and police to regroup and gain control.

MD asked it if there are communications to supporters to deter supporters from misbehaving / being considerate to others. PW said that there are many comms on social media pre match and during the match on the scoreboard or at times on the tannoy.

MD asked about the ‘SQUAD’ training for stewards.

“ Squad will improve the consistency & quality of training and allow all stewards to manage their own continuing professional development (CPD) through access to online training courses, resources and qualifications. Modules will include Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Safeguarding, Counter-Terrorism training.”

An excerpt taken from an FSA’s EFL Network Meeting in June

PW said that this is for stewards that have had their training and on the Clubs’ database. It’s not a platform for new staff at the moment.

It was asked about supporter representation on the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) that regularly meets at the Club.

SAG’s provide specific advice and guidance to event organisers – such as football clubs – and usually have representatives from the local council, football club(s), police, and other emergency services. The local authority can then provide clubs with a safety license. In other words, without SAG approval, major football fixtures couldn’t take place. It is the local arm of the SGSA and is an essential way of ensuring good liaison between stakeholders. The FSA consults with the SGSA at national level and encourages its affiliated groups to be represented at the local SAG level. Indeed is a recommendation of the SGSA itself, see here .

MD advised a decision didn’t have to be made there and then.

To round up, there was a discussion of the prevalence of a minority who have a disregard to what acceptable behavior is in football and to a certain extent it has always existed and will always continue as this is mirrored in society in our communities, and that society is based on compliance – a willingness to accept and respect each other, social norms and rules and regulation.

We agreed to meet up yearly.

Co-Signed Statement: You Can’t Export Passion

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:20:08 GMT

We, supporters’ groups from across Europe, representing millions of football fans, express our firm opposition to the ongoing attempt to subvert the rules of the game by allowing leagues to relocate games elsewhere around the world.

The latest efforts to disrupt the nature of European football with La Liga and Serie A trying to relocate games to the United States and Australia are a direct attack on the essence of football.

Should either of these leagues’ proposals be allowed to go ahead, it would instantly open a Pandora’s box with unpredictable and irreversible consequences. Every club, every national team, every fan base globally would be at risk of seeing the team they love taken away from them, relocated to another part of the world, for one game or more. Or see other countries’ competitions knock on their door, just as La Liga and Serie A’s presence would disrupt domestic football and fan culture in the United States and Australia.

Football is based on a set of rules and principles and the rules of domestic leagues are simple: you play the same clubs home and away and the best team wins the league. Relocating games to foreign soil undermines this vital pillar of the game. Any deviation from the existing rules is a perversion of football for the sole purpose of entertainment and short-term financial gain.

Clubs are neither entertainment companies nor traveling circuses. They exist for the benefit of their communities and provide a sense of belonging, where fans have been attending home games for generations. Breaking this vital bond, even temporarily, would undermine the cultural, social, and local roots that give our game its’ meaning.

The concept of flying players, staff, fans, and others across oceans for a “home” game is absurd, unaffordable, and environmentally irresponsible. It goes against European football’s stated commitment to sustainability and accessibility for all. It risks surrendering our clubs and our leagues to the will of entertainment companies, dictatorships, or vulture funds, whose interests in taking European football away from its home go against the very fabric of our sport.

Four years after European football stood united and defeated the super league, we are facing a similar existential threat. We invite fans, players, media, governments, and football officials to act in solidarity and take a stand at this decisive moment for the future of the game.

We call on UEFA, FIFA, and all national associations to stand firm, play their role as regulators of the game, implement their existing regulations, reject these proposals, protect the integrity of the game, reaffirm their commitment to the European Sport Model, and ensure that football remains rooted in our communities, where it belongs.

Don’t take the game away from us.

#KeepFootballHome

Ronan Evain, Executive Director of Football Supporters Europe. said: "If this goes ahead, it will be the end of football as we know it. UEFA, FIFA, Leagues and National Associations have an obligation to protect the game and reject these nonsensical proposals now."

Co-signed by

Football Supporters Europe and:

12 Crusaders, 1893 Supporter Tamm, 1894 Group, 1897 Group, 1899 Supporter Gemmrigheim, AberdeenDNA, accionistas adr, Accionistas Unidos Sevilla FC, Accrington Stanley Supporters Society Ltd, AGF Fanclub Aarhus, AISA – Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association, Ajax Supporters Association, AKS Zły, albercl 80, Allezlesbleuschampions, Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs, Amasmob, A Nedde OFC, APDA, Apmae, Arabako Garrasia, Armada Sud, Armada Vermelha, Arminia Supporters Club, Arsenal GayGooners Supporters Club, Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST), Arsenal Women Supporters Club, Artois Lens Boys, Asociación de Aficionados Unidad Herculana, Asociación de Peñas del Real Oviedo (APARO), Asociación de peñas Racinguistas, Asociación Los 50, Asociación Señales de Humo, Asso Béthune, Association de Défense des Supporters Stéphanois, Association Nationale des Supporters (ANS), Aston Villa disabled supporters association, Atrébates, BAFF (Bündnis Aktiver Fußball Fans) e.V, Bantams Supporters Trust , Barbarians Havrais 1993, Barnsley FC Supporters Trust, Benztown Connection, Besaya verdiblanca, Betis Bohemio, Betis Never Drinks Alone, Black and White Together, Blackpool Supporters’ Trust, Block Paris II, Bluebirds Supporters Trust, Bluebirds Trust, Bollaert boys, Brentford Football Community Society Limited (Bees United), Brentford Independent Association of Supporters (BIAS), Breisgauflitzer e.V., Brigada Ultras Sporting, Brigade Loire, Brigata Mai 1 Gioia, Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters Club, Bristol City Supporters Club & Trust, Brøndby IF Fan Department, Brøndby Women Fanklub, Brustringbrigade Sachsenheim, BrusselsPower 2005, Bullitouren, Burnley FC Independent Supporters Association, BVB Fan- und Förderabteilung, Cachorros Getafe, Camp Sweden TIfo, Cannes 1902, Cannstatt Fire, Cardiff City DSA, CCS Allez Racing, Celtic Disabled Supporters Association, Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust, ChéFrivilensois, Chelsea Disabled Supporters Association, Chelsea Supporters Club, Chelsea Supporters’ Trust, Chelsea Without Barriers, Cherries Trust, Ch’tis alpins, Ch’tis Boys, Chtis canaris, Clarets Trust, Club des Supporters de Monaco, Club Nr. 12, Colectivo Ultras 95, Col·lectiu de Penyes Valencianistes, Collectif Isarien, Collectif Ultras Paris, Colliers Wood United FC, Comandos Azules, Commando Cannstatt 1997, Corocotta, Corrillo Ultras, Crystal Palace Independent Supporters’ Association (CPISA), Curva Nord Milano/Secondo anello verde n il, Curva nord 12, Curva Rommel, Curva Sud Milano, Cymru DSA, D’blueje kempfer, Danske Fodboldfans, Dave Smith Loyal RSC, De Sparta Supporter, De Stichting 2023, Denon Athletic, Die Blockbrüder, Diesdorf Borussen, Directivo Ultras XXI, Disidencia Albinegra, East Fife Supporters Society, Eastside Borussen MV, El bus de los béticos, El Lotero Rockero Group, Elsass Racing, England Fans’ Embassy, Eskes, Esquinita del Tajo, Esteban Hortal Japón, Everton Fan Advisory Board, Everton Fans Forum, Excel’Lens, Exeter City Supporters Trust, F_in – Netzwerk Frauen im Fußball, Fairplay Initiative, Falkirk Supporters Society, Fama Boys Ultras 1990, Fan- und Förderabteilung Eintracht Frankfurt, Fan- und Förderabteilung des SV Darmstadt 1898 e.V., Fan- und Mitgliederabteilung 1. FC Union Berlin, Fanabteilung Eintracht Braunschweig, Fanarbeit Bern, Fanatico Boys Ultras Heidenheim 2008, Fan Club Forza HJK, FanRat Braunschweig e. V., FASFE – Accionistas y Socios del Fútbol Español, FC Muckefuck 2000, FC Schalke 04 Supporters Club e. V., Federación de peñas del Alba, Federación de peñas Rayo Vallecano, Federacón De Peñas Del Elche CF, Fédération des Supporters du RCS, Femmes de Malmö, Feyenoord Supporters Verenging “De Feijenoorder”, Fioi Della Nord, First Cork City Brigade (FCCB), Fly Me To The Moon fanzine, Fond du Bus, Fondo 1922, Fondo Azulón, Fondo Norte 1928, Forest Green Devils, Fortuna Supporters Collectief, Fossa Saló, Foxes Trust, FSA Cymru, Fulham Lillies, Fulham Supporters’ Trust, Galeere Cannstatt, Geezers Hietalahti, Gintonic Albiazul, GN 14, Gol sur 1907, Goodboys Wattrelos, Grada 1907, Grada Joven Almería, Grada Murcianistas, Green Angels, Green lads Barcelona, Green Yellow Ouest, Grizzly Blues, Grupo 1922, Gueules noires de bollaert, Guliganerna, Gurea DA-Accionistas Albiazules, Gypsies supporters trust, Haagsche Bluf, Halbzeit – Gemeinsam gegen Rassismus, Hammers United, Handi Storck, Handi Tolosa, HandiFan Club Rc Lens, Hart voor Heracles, Henk Nieuwenhuis, Hijos de Barrios, HK05, Hooligans Teddy Boys, Horda Frenetik, I coniugi, IF Gnistanin Kannattajat ry, Ilicitana Durante, Indians Tolosa, Insane Guys, Inter Turku Supporters, Iparlabeak, Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks, Iraultza1921, Irish Supporters Network, Iron Lens, Irresistibles Français, Jaro Supporters, Juvenil1991, Juventud 1907, Juventude Leonina Boys, Juventudes Verdiblancas 1986, Kinderjim, Klanen, Kleeblatt-Fanabteilung, Klopit, Klubipääty, Kop Ciel et Blanc, Kop De La Butte 1992, Kop du ternois, Kop Rouge 1993, KPO Crew, Kridef, Krokobande, KSO’93, L’Esprit Canari, La Banda Rojinegra, La Hinchada del Arlanzón, Leeds United Supporters’ Trust, Leicester City Supporters Club, Lens Capitale, Lens Centre, Lens Normandie, Lens PACA, Lens Picardie, Lens’Buscade, Lens’Oye, Lensbudcade, Lensois Du Sud, Lensois On Line, Les Gueules Noires De Bollaert, Les lensois du sud, Les Téméraires, Letzi Junxx – Queer FC Zürich Fanclub, Levante Fans 1909, Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust, Leyton Orientear fanzine, Libertad VCF, Lingon’s Boys, Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association, Locals1903, Londra Bianconera, LUSN, Magia Tricolor, Magic Fans 1991, Magic Lens, Malaka Hinchas, Manchester United Disabled Supporters Association, Manchester United Youth Supporters Club, Marchena Fans Betis, Mauves Army, Mauves Army 2003, MBIDF, MCFC Fans Foodbank Support, Merlus Ultras 1995, MFF Support, Middlesbrough Supporters Forum, Milli Deste, Millwall Supporters Club, Milton Keynes Dons Supporters Association, Mineurs 2 fond, ML1, Mormile Raeticae, Movimiento Ambar, MUST (Manchester United Supporters Trust), My Old Man Said, NAC-Supportersvereniging, Nao’Hed, Nemetum Ultras, Newcastle United Supporters Club, Newcastle United Supporters Trust, Newport County AFC Supporters’ Trust, Nieuw Noord, Nordkurve Leverkusen e.V., Norsk Supporterallianse, North devils 08, Northampton Town Supporters Trust, Northern Ireland Seasiders, Nostra Ensenya, Notorious Boo Boys, Nottingham Forest Supporters Trust, Nukleo Ason, Old Rabbits Cannstatt e.V., Old School Hammers, Oldenburger Faninitiative e.V., Opale Lens, Orgullo Cazurro, Orgullo Isleño, Ösi Borussen 1909, Oss fanatics, Panthers Fano ’77, Pariser Section, Passione Paderborn, P.B. La Esquinita, Peña Albacetista K’Tomas, Peña Atlética de Alemania, Peña Atlética Indios de Caledonia, Peña Atlética Villalba, Peña Aúpa Racing, Peña Azul Madrid, Peña Bética Carnavalesca El Pato Verde, Peña Bética de Londres, Peña bética los asauras, Peña Bética El Manicomio, Peña Bética La Esquinita, Peña Bética La Periférica, Peña Bética La Pole, Peña Bética l’h Verdiblanca, Peña Bética Ludobetis, Peña betica Novena Provincia, Peña bética Sierra de San Pedro, Peña bética Triana 41010, Peña Bética Uruguados, Peña Carbayona El Fondrigo, Peña Peru Zaballa & Zamanillo, Peña Racinguista Comunidad Valenciana, Peña Racinguista Kant-Iber, Peña Racinguista Marea Verde, Peña Racinguista Ojáncanos, Peña Sevillista Colonos Coloraos, Peña sportiguista Piniella 6, Peña Sportinguista De Madrid al Cielo, Peña Sportinguista El Ferrerín, Peña Sportinguista Los Guajes, Peña Sportinguista sentimiento rojiblanco la regence, Peña Valderas, Peña Zaragocista Presentes Por El Escudo, Penya Barcelonista Lleó de Dues Cues, Penya Espanyolista de Mataró, Penya Valencianista Colla Blanc-i-negra, Pepa Betica Logroño, Pequeños Accionistas del CD Tenerife, Plataforma ADRV, PNE Online, Pomada Verdiblanca, Pompey Supporters Trust, Port Vale Supporters Club, Portsmouth Supporters’ Club (central branch), Portsmouth Supporters’ Club (Central Branch), Proud Hornets, Proud Lilywhites, Proud Seagulls, Projekt Trauer und Fußball, QPR 1st Supporters’ Trust, Qrcylens, Rabaltai, Racing Girls Strasbourg, Rainbow Blades, Rainbow Tractors, Raith Supporters Trust, RamsActive, RamsTrust, Ravenna 1913, Red and White Army Supporters’ Trust, Red Blue Angels 2012, Red Boys 96, Red Kaos 1994, Red kaos Grenoble, Red Star Fans, Red Tigers, Roazhon Celtic Kop 1991, Robins Trust, Saftkokaradn, Saikos, San Fernando casuals, San Jose 1913, Sang&Nord, Sanjose1913, Sarzana Presente, Saturday FC, Schickeria München, Schwarz-Gelbe Essener e.V., schwatzgelb.de, Scottish Football Supporters Association, Sección Mühle, Sección Völcaus, Section Kiosk 5, Section Muriel, Seguaci della Nord, Seguiment FCB, Settore Est, Sheffield Wednesday Women’s Supporters Group, Shenhua Element Crew, Siranac, Skansin, South End Core, South Leaders 2012, Spirit of Shankly, SpursAbility, Squadra 1940, STAR – Supporters’ Trust At Reading, Stichting KingZine, Stoke City Supporters Club, stup, Stuttgarter Hofboys, Sud’porters sang et or 65, Südland Arminen, Südtribüne Dortmund e.V, Sunderland AFC Branch Liaison Council, Suomen Maajoukkueen Kannattajat ry, Supporters associatie Go Ahead Eagles, Supporters Direct Scotland, Supporters Gol Sur, Supporters Mainz e.V., Supporters Pordenone & Bandoleros Pordenone, Supportersclub FC Den Bosch, Supportersclub Willem II, Supporterscollectief Nederland, Supportersvereniging Ajax, supportersvereniging De Trouwe Oss, Supportersvereniging FC Dordrecht, Supportersvereniging FC Groningen, Supportersvereniging NEC, Supportersvereniging PSV, Supportersvereniging Telstar, Supras Göteborg, Sustaina-Bees, SV Eindhoven, SV FC utrecht, SV FCVD, Sv Pro Excelsior, SV Superboeren De Graafschap, SVFCU, Swansea City Supporters’ Trust, Swindon Town Official Supporters Club, Swiss Fans’ Embassy, Synthesia 79, Szene 1916 Sandhausen, Team54, Terminus Guînes, The 1958, The Football Supporters’ Association, The Holte Trust, The Kilmarnock Supporters Society Ltd (The Killie Trust), The Mariners Trust, The North Fans, The OSC, The Scottish Football Supporters Association, The Shed End, The Well Society, Three Lions Pride, Tifozat Kuq e Zi, Tim, Torcida Verde Ultras 1984, Torreblanca Green, TotoTeam, Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust, TRA Manchester, Trade Union Blues, TramsBarmyArmy, Trans Pennine Irons, Trasferta Molesta, Tribune Nord Sochaux, Turbulens, Txirimiri Verdiblanco, Ultra Boys, Ultra Boys 90, Ultra Naciente, Ultramarines Bordeaux 1987, Ultras 1898, Ultras 1911, Ultras Auxerre 1990, Ultras Bitola, Ultras Brescia 1911, Ultras Mantova 1975, Ultras Monaco 1994, Ultras Murcia, Ultras Palazzolo 1913, Ultras Udinese 1995, Unión de Peñas Sportinguistas, Union Internacional De Peñas Del Atletico De Madrid, UnoNoveDueSeis, Unonoveduesei Firenze, Unsere Kurve e.V., Utrera Betis Fans, VAK112, Vålerenga kokos, Valladolid 1984, Vamos Bien, Vandals Malmö, Venezianestre, Veterani IncUdine, VfB Fanclub 1806 Württemberg, VfB Fanclub Kutten 1893, Viking Supporters Cooperative, Villa Bellas, Villarreal Fans, Wanderers Bremen, Waterford Blues Supporters Club, West Ham United Supporters’ Trust, White Rose Reds Independent Liverpool FC Supporters Club, Wolf 17, Wolves 1877 Trust, Women of The Lane, Wor Flags, Wrexham Supporters Trust, Wycombe Wanderers Supporters Trust, Yorkshire England Supporters, You Boys in Green, Zoep’n Boere.

Supporters Trust Representatives meet Naz Shah MP

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 09:17:37 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust has been working tirelessly to help secure the long-term future of Valley Parade as the home of Bradford City AFC.

On July 18th, we were proud to meet with Naz Shah MP, who welcomed us for a constructive discussion about the importance of the stadium—not just as a football ground, but as a pillar of our community, our identity, and our heritage.

We shared our vision of ensuring that Valley Parade remains our permanent home, owned by people who hold the club’s best interests at heart. We're committed to exploring every avenue to achieve this, and Naz has offered her full support in helping us move forward.

Naz understands what Valley Parade means to the people of Bradford, and we are grateful for her backing and her pledge to assist in keeping our club rooted where it belongs.

We remain determined to secure a future for Valley Parade that safeguards it for generations to come—owned and protected by those who truly care for Bradford City AFC and its community.

This is more than football. This is home.

We held back on publicising our news until we spoke to the Club about it at our recent Structured Dialogue meeting on the 4 ^th Aug to ensure our transparency with the Club.

Report of Trust meeting with BCAFC - August 2025

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:13:14 GMT

In attendance from the Club were, Ryan Sparks (RS) – Club CEO

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair

Apologies were given from Paula Watson (PW), Director of Operations, Justin Bret (JB) – Trust Vice Chair, and Matthew Pickles (MP) also from the Trust.

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 4 ^th Aug.

Whilst we last met in March to be consulted on Season Tickets, The last Structured Dialogue meeting with a Trust agenda we had was on the 10 ^th Feb 25, 6 months ago.

This meeting was a much-needed catch up on developments particularly on Fan Engagement. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Fans’ surveys

We had previously asked about fans’ surveys, in particularly on how supporters feel after the game and feeling valued. It was said that Club would follow up on this.

Season ticket sales breakdown

We had asked for a breakdown on sales figures of season tickets which have been published on the Club website, here . The headline figure is that the Club have surpassed 16K in sales, 16,026 in fact ahead of the start of the season, which is very good. At a glance at the figures, they show healthy increases; 8,133 adults, 2,146 65+ senior citizens and 1,047 young people (17 -23) are all up. What is pleasing is the amount of youngsters / children and families attending – it was certainly noticeable at the first game of the season against Wycombe. And 13,089 renewed from last season, which is almost all.

That said, it says that 7,192 took advantage of the Direct Debit scheme during the sale prices (Early Bird offer), an increase of 11% on last year, but it is not clear on what the total take up on the Early Bird offer was overall, that includes those that paid in the traditional way of paying all at once. Seeing it from another angle, how many of the 13k+ renewals from last season took advantage of the early bird offer?

In hindsight, it would’ve been better if we could see the figures compared with figures from last season based on percentages. Perhaps these can be available at the next meeting.

Also, and in addition, it would be good to see figures that show increases or decreases in numbers based on diversity with percentage comparisons from last year at a future meeting too.

Away matchday ticket sales and away capacity limitations

We noted that there will be a greater demand for way tickets this season. This was agreed but it was said that there will be many grounds that have significant increases in their away capacities compared with last season (in League Two).

It was asked about capacity reduction, with the prime example of Doncaster Rovers last season in mind, as there was a lot of disquiet about the fact that on previous occasions they had given much us a much bigger availability of tickets.

We had one unhappy member taking it upon himself to complain to City and the EFL about it. He referred to a regulation (35.7), which states that, “Each Club must make provision for at least 2,000 visiting supporters at every home match or such number as represents 10% of the Club’s certified capacity, if less than 2,000”

It’s clear that this rule is used especially in high-stakes matches to give unequal competitive parity to visiting teams. FSA advice was that the rule has been used in this way on many occasions although the host club can give any other reason to justify it, such as safety.

Any amendments to EFL regulations would need to be put forward by, and/or voted on by the League’s member clubs themselves. Clubs are permitted to recommend a rule change at any time, and as such would ultimately be required to vote on any implementation. But it is unlikely any Club would do this.

RS’s advice was that our member may have got a better response from the EFL if the tone of his letters would’ve been more diplomatic or been left to the club to discussions that had already been ongoing.

On the plus side, the Club did it’s best in inviting supporters to watch it on the big screen in the suites.

Ticket re-sales

It was picked up that the ticketing website has a section on re-sales, and it was said that this is something for the future as we are not yet selling out games. A lot of other Clubs further up the pyramid have this facility whereby tickets can be bought from supporters who are not able to go and then resold to fans that want to attend.

Supporter Liaison Officer(s) /Resources for Fan Engagement team

RS said that a new person will be starting from September as the club’s full-time fan engagement lead, and that from there it is hoped that the Club can grow a volunteer staff team.

Improving our structured dialogue / Fan Engagement

MD raised the importance of the Fan Engagement Plan (FEP) and that there were some amendments to it from the Trust that were agreed at the previous meetings that were not yet on there. See here . There was a concern from MD that area of fan engagement could be much better. RS reassured that he’d make sure he would look into it and ensure the amendments would be in place before we meet again and suggested that we propose all 4 dates for the year. It was down to the fact that the Club needed staff to cover this area but hopefully things will improve from September onwards.

Supporters Board

As part of Fan Engagement MD raised the fact that the based on the FSA’s preferred model, Supporters Boards should represent the widest number of supporter to be fully representable and that Supporters Trust’s should be key to that, however the SB constitution / Terms of Reference had changed some years ago whereby it has its own identity and that the chair of the SB and ST can meet outside its framework. RS’s advice was to talk to the SB Chair, Tony Bates (TB).

Other meetings the Trust would like to attend as part of a consultation process

All these areas were are covered under the Director of Operations, Paula Watson (PW).

As environmentally sustainable football was one of those areas, RS reported that the Club had recently won silver in the EFL Green Club Scheme.

Since this meeting, the Trust have successfully been able to schedule meeting with PW and others on poor fan behaviour / restorative Justice.

Football Governance Bill

The Bill finally became law on the 21 ^st of July. The Bill’s legislation will be overseen by an independent Regulatory body, Chaired by David Kogan (OBE), who has had a 45-year career in media and sports, has extensive experience in negotiating TV rights deals for major football bodies like the Premier League and EFL.

The FSA had lobbied for this type of governance reform for many, many years. In 2021 it sat on the Fan-led Review of Football Governance and submitted 300+ pages of evidence and ensured 130+ of its’ member-organisations were involved too.

There is a short version of what it covers and a longer one from the FSA.

RS felt it was yet to be fully clear what power/s the bill realistically has around the finances of the game and wealth distribution would be centered around bridging the gap between the Championship and the Premier League. He is hoping to meet David Kogan at some point within the next 6 months and was very impressed with his initial introduction at a recent EFL meeting in London.

EFL Sky Deal

Asked how much the Club will benefit from now being in League One this season, it was said to be over, an additional £400,000.

In May 2023 the 72 Clubs in the EFL agreed to a 5-year deal worth £935m that began last season. Both League One and Two Clubs have a minimum of 248 televised matches per season. See more detail here .

We discussed the timetable of the schedule of the notice: Initially notice is given as soon as the fixtures come out until the 10 ^th January 2026, and then notice is given from the beginning of the year with notice more televised matches increasing as we move towards the end of the season. RS believes they are much better than in previous TV deals. They are the games’ biggest sponsor, he said.

The FSA’s recommendation for giving notice for rescheduling is 12 weeks , and Sky’s is a minimum of 4 weeks . In some instances, Sky is breaking their own commitment of notice. The reason the FSA’s recommendation is a much longer period is to take into consideration travel and hotel bookings when fans plan for away trips.

Maintenance Costs

The Club said that maintenance costs are an on-going challenge. Although the stadium is modern, it is still over 20 years old, in its newest areas, and as a result needs on-going maintenance to the building.

Ownership

The Club said that the rental cost is more than £500K, though there is sponsorship income from Flamingo Land. We discussed a hypothetical idea of fans raising part of the funds needed for the Club to own the stadium it outright. It was thought not to be viable.

Finances

The biggest cost incurred is repairs and maintenance costs of the ground. Close to £200,000 has been spent on reseating the Kop over the summer. It will be the Midland Road next year, if financially possible. Those seats are in a better condition as they are shielded from the sunlight, which is why they are last to do. Also work on upgrading the McCall and Hendrie suites is also planned.

The ground rental, still of approx. £500,000 is less impactful the higher up the league divisions we go, as it doesn’t increase against divisional status.

Ownership

MD asked, since Stefan Rupp attended the recent fans forum in June, would he be able to attend the occasional Trust or Supporters Board meeting. It was said that he comes mainly for the weekend to attend the match and then flies back home but will ask when he’s here next.

Stadium

Trust colleagues MD and MP attended a meeting with Naz Shah to discuss whether the local authority had a covenant on the stadium – an agreement within property deeds – in this case the stadium that dictate permitted uses and restrictions – to ensure its use is solely for football / watching sport. It was explained that we had discussed with Andy Walsh (AW), a full-time officer working on a temporary basis for the FSA at the time, specialising in stadiums being an asset of Community value and fan ownership, and advised us to investigate this route for the purpose of further protection of the land in addition to the ACV, and with the aim of receiving support. AW also sits on the board of AFC Wimbledon Supporters Trust The experience we had with the local authority was like getting blood out of a stone but Naz Shah had responded very positively. MD said that we wanted to hang fire with publishing our story until we spoke to the Club about it.

RS said the Trust may do as it sees fit, but the club will not directly engage.

Promotion! And Prospects on the pitch

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:38:52 GMT

If anyone wasn’t able to be at the last game of the season at home against Fleetwood on May 3 ^rd 2025, they will know they missed probably one of the best endings of a match at Valley Parade in it’s history.

Looking back ahead of that game, City had looked wobbly in terms of achieving results. Their last win was 2- nil against Crewe at home a month earlier (Sat 5 ^th April), and lost their following match away at Swindon, and then drawing the next 2 – one at home to Notts County (1-1) in front of the Sky TV crew on a Thursday evening and then away against the Spirites (3-3) before losing to Donny Rovers 2-1 at theirs. So, City had it all to do on their penultimate match and overcome Walsall at least on goal difference who had thrown away their lead in the table since we had beat them convincingly by 3 goals to nil back in January. The pressure was on then because we had to win.

For the most part of this game, it was poor, and City played cautiously. It looked like for most City fans we were going to get in the play offs, especially when news came through that Walsall were winning away at Crewe on the hour. At the same time there was a massive urgency from the crowd to encourage a goal. It was only in injury time when the real drama took place. Antoni Sarcevic's shot on the turn went over! And then minutes later George Lapslie with the shot that got deflected in by Sarcevic, the winning goal which brought unbridled joy to Valley Parade in front of a record 24,033, with 420 from Fleetwood for the 25,000 capacity stadium built 25 years ago.

The goal brought on a pitch invasion, but once the pitch was eventually cleared to play the remainder of the injury time, it was invaded again!

It was almost unbelievable. Incredible scenes of jubilation at Valley Parade. All the frustration from years of lack of success, transformed itself into its’ opposite in an instant. We achieved automatic promotion, and to achieve it in that way, the Bradford City way, and then the celebrations on North Parade, the open top bus on the Tuesday evening was just something else.

The result on the day was also the greatest gift to those we remember, our friends and family who never returned home 40 years on after the fire.

Playing in League One

So now we are in League One, both Club and supporters alike are looking forward to some mouthwatering fixtures. We certainly have more Yorkshire derbies to play. Donny Rovers, who came through with us as League Two Champions, Rotherham and Barnsley are our 3 south Yorkshire rivals, but we know have our West Yorkshire rivals, the ‘dog botherers’, Huddersfield Town to look forward to playing again. It will be interesting to see how former Premier League achievers Luton Town will fair this season, and going to Kennilworth Road will be a popular aim for many. And we have some fairly long distance travel to also, Plymouth, Exeter and Cardiff (another former Premier League team), and we have some Lancashire derbies too, Bolton, Wigan and Blackpool. We do face the return of playing Lincoln City too. The last time we were in the same league was League Two in 2010/11.

Whilst the prospect of reacquainting ourselves with some of our rivals is exciting, there will certainly be some disappointments with getting to away games, because as we are now in a higher division, there will be greater demand from our fan-base to get tickets for getting to the away fixtures, and whilst we will see greater availability at some of the bigger grounds especially, it is inevitable some of these matches will be moved at police request or indeed for TV with a month’s notice or in some cases perhaps less. We will certainly keep a look out for that, and also not having enough loyalty points or ‘City Points’ will be a key frustration for many, and for some it will be rising costs of getting a ticket, especially from the bigger clubs in our league. These factors will bring supporters back to the reality of how costs and constant moving of fixtures dominate the modern game and with it, alienate supporters.

How well will we fare in League One?

The prospect of rising demand for away tickets, largely depends on how well we do on the pitch – picking up points from scoring goals in this results based industry.

In terms of players who have departed then, it is a shame that, Richie Smallwood, Romoney Crichlow, Jamie Walker and Vadaine Oliver had to go. There was a lot of experience and team effort from these key players last season.

In terms of who we have coming in this summer on free transfers, we have Stephen Humphrys (27-year-old center-forward from Barnsley), Josh Neufville (24-year-old right midfielder from AFC Wimbledon), Joe Wright (30-year-old center-back from Kilmarnock FC), and Matthew Pennington (30-year-old centre-back from Blackpool). They join Max Power, 31 from Danish Superliga side AGF, signing on a 2 year deal in May and, he joined Will Swan, 24 year old forward signed for an undisclosed fee from Crawley Town in June for two years. And just last week, we signed Everton’s Jenson Metcalfe, 20, on a 3-year permanent contract for an undisclosed fee.

It’s always difficult to predict how Bradford City will do. No one predicted automatic promotion to League One before the start of last season, especially in the way it actually played out.

The reality on the ground, we can say it will be tough in a new, higher division. We can hopefully, safely say that Graham Alexander will build a side based on the senior regulars and some of the new blood that has come in from May up to present. Jensen Metcalfe sounds promising playing alongside Andy Cooke and Bobby Pointon and Callum Kavanagh. There will be a lot of competition for places.

If there is confidence in our squad against our opponents and we can regularly find the net as well as being able to prevent opposition forwards score goals consistently we’ll be doing something right. If we can consolidate our position in League One finishing the season strongly that would be amazing. But predicting how well we will do is a bit like prediction the British weather. Most supporters will be pleased with finishing strongly.

There are probably over 16,000 season ticket holders at this point in time, and so if Graham Alexander and his coaching staff can create a real buzz in the team, we could see more attendance records being broken and away tickets snapped up quickly, but we shall see how this coming season will develop. Newer fans and certainly younger fans will have greater expectations than simply consolidation. Older fans know what to expect. We are sure there will be many twists and turns as the drama plays out. There will be injuries, and periods of peaks and troughs. It is always a roller-coaster ride, with fans divided on particular players and complete popularity on others as we dissect the game over a season. Another chapter that is unwritten as yet for 2025/26.

Total Amount Raised from Bucket Collection

Fri, 23 May 2025 08:42:06 GMT

On the 23 ^rd May the Club announced the total amount raised from the bucket collection before the last game of the season on the 3 ^rd May.

Supporters donated an amazing £7,387.70 during the matchday bucket collection – almost double last year’s total – where volunteers gave up their time to help raise funds around Valley Parade ahead of the game against Fleetwood .

Those volunteers were you, who did an absolutely fantastic job! There were approximately 15 or so volunteers, mostly Trust members, but also from the Disability Club and Shipley Bantams.

It is something that has been traditionally been done every year since the fateful tragedy and should be continued as a way of paying our respects to those who we should always remember.

A phenomenal £18,580.74 has been raised for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit (PSBRU) since our game against Fleetwood Town. For more of a breakdown of what was raised when, please see the Club article here.

The Trust would like to give a special thank you to all involved in the collection .

Fans Forum

Thu, 22 May 2025 14:16:54 GMT

There will be a Fans Forum at the Club on Wednesday 11 ^th June, where fans can ask questions to Chairman, Stefan Rupp, CEO, Ryan Sparks, First Team Manager, Graham Alexander, Head of Recruitment, Stephan Gent and Head of Football Operations, David Sharpe.

The event is free but there is limited capacity of 450, and tickets will be available on a first come first served basis to fans that already have next seasons’ season tickets. It will be in the McCall and Hendrie suites, starting at 7pm.

For more details and tickets here . Book early to avoid disappointment.

Your Stories from Valley Parade Community Event June 22nd

Thu, 22 May 2025 14:08:48 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust have been supporting a community project led by Chris Gaffney, a professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Bradford, with his team at the University of Bradford, by promoting a survey , City supporters have been asked to fill in that asks you about your best memories of being a City fan when you have been at Valley Parade.

Your stories will come to life by local artists and shown through the University's immersive technology at an event at City on Sunday 22 ^nd June, from 10am till 2pm.

“Using their technology and your stories, they will be making the unimaginable imaginable. Enter the immersive igloo, explore the digital copy of the University of Bradford Stadium and watch as supporters’ stories are brought to life by artists from across the city.”

The survey is still live so if you haven’t taken part yet, now is your chance.

Find out more about the day’s event and to register here .

Share Your Stories from Valley Parade for Virtual Reality (VR) Project

Tue, 13 May 2025 08:39:45 GMT

Were you at Valley Parade on the 3 ^rd May 2025 to witness incredible scenes of joy as Bradford City clinched automatic promotion in the 96 ^th minute? Was this your best and most memorable experience ever?

We, as Bradford City fans are being asked to participate in telling our stories of being at Valley Parade by answering online survey questions about your experiences of Supporting City at Valley Parade.

You can choose which questions you want to answer and your stories / memories can be told anonymously.

The questions include sharing memories of their first Bantams match, most memorable game, how they started supporting the club, family members’ memories of following the Bantams, where they sit at the University of Bradford Stadium and what it means to be a Bradford City supporter.

The stories will be shared with artists who will turn them into different art forms e.g. paintings, film, poetry. The different artists interpretations of the stories will be embedded into a digital copy of the stadium that Chris Gaffney, (Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Bradford) and his team are creating, and people will be able to explore using VR.

There is an intention to embed the stories in the physical stadium that people will be able to access using a QR code when attending matches. They will be revealed during the Bradford 2025 City of Culture celebrations.

The stories may also feature in a book being written to tell people about the different innovations that have been created by the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit as a result of fans donations. Any profits from the book will be go towards the future research of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit.

For further reading please go to the University of Bradford’s press release about the project.

Voice of the Fans Exhibition

Tue, 13 May 2025 08:37:09 GMT

A new exhibition looking at fanzine culture in English football from the British Library and the Leeds Library service opened just recently on Friday 9 ^th May and runs until Sunday 10th August. The “Voice of the Fans” exhibition examines the world of long-standing – and some FSA award-winning – fanzines such our own City Gent, the Square Ball ran by supporters east of Pudsey, national indie title When Saturday Comes, and much more.

Charting the rise of “fan self-publishing” from the 1960s into today’s digital-era, Voice of the Fans explores more than 60 years of fan-made media, with highlights from the collections of the British Library and Leeds Libraries – a period that has defined the beautiful game.

Born out of the DIY ethos of the music and punk scenes, the raw creativity of football zines remains inspiring and relevant in today’s global game. The exhibition showcases fan-driven creativity from the UK and Ireland, and features some of the longest running and most influential football zines, alongside stories of well-known names who started their careers writing for these grassroots publications.

14 ^th June Show

Our very own City Gent Editor, Mike Harrison will be among other writers and editors including Daniel Chapman of Leedsista and formerly The Square Ball, Felicia Pennant from SEASON Zine and Zoë Hitchen from Girlfans who will be discussing fan-driven publishing in the present moment, including its role in the wider media landscape, what it offers audiences, why it’s important and how it has endured despite changes in the globalised game. The discussion will be chaired by Ffion Thomas, Deputy Editor of When Saturday Comes and co-editor of Along Come Norwich zine. See more about this event here . This is part of the ‘Voice of the Fans’ Exhibition.

The exhibition is free to all members of the public and there is no need to book in advance.

“Voice of the Fans” will run at Leeds Central Library, Municipal Buildings, Calverley Street Leeds, LS1 3AB.

The Trust Always Remembers

Fri, 09 May 2025 06:00:06 GMT

Remembering the 54 Bradford City supporters and two Lincoln City supporters who went to watch a game of football but never returned home.

We stand with everyone at the Memorial Service in Centenary Square and those that join us from all parts of the UK and the world to mark the 40th anniversary of the Valley Parade Fire Disaster.

Memorial Service on May 11

Thu, 08 May 2025 08:05:00 GMT

This Sunday, the annual memorial service will take place at the Bradford City Fire Disaster sculpture, in Centenary Square from 11am, marking 40 years of the anniversary.

The service, jointly organized by Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Bradford City will be attended by relatives and friends of the 56 people who lost their lives and were affected in 1985, as well as Club and Council officials and members of the public.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Beverley Mullaney, will host a Civic Party from Lincoln who will also attend the service together, with City’s men’s first team players and staff in attendance alongside representatives from the Club, and from Lincoln City.

The disaster claimed the lives of 54 Bradford City supporters and two travelling Lincoln supporters, injuring hundreds more, in one of the world’s most devastating sporting tragedies.

Bantams Supporters Trust representatives will be laying a wreath on behalf of the Trust.

How we remember the events of 40 years ago

Tue, 06 May 2025 08:53:35 GMT

An article written four years ago, aimed at perhaps a younger audience of football fans, who may not be aware of the terrible tragedy witnessed at Valley Parade 40 years ago now, is a valuable educational resource.

Written by Simon Lloyd of the online magazine www.joe.co.uk , he interviews Mohammed Ibrahim, who recalls his experience of the events of May 11 ^th , 1985. Simon Lloyd also interviews the Chair of Bantams Supporters Trust, Manny Dominguez how he remembers it too.

The article features a short documentary called ‘Unheard Voices’, which is a series of interviews with Humayun Islam from Bangla Bantams, and others, predominantly from the Bangladeshi community who live in the locality around Valley Parade and how they remember too.

You can see the article here .

The winner of the Young Player of the Year is...

Thu, 01 May 2025 08:48:59 GMT

We would like to thank all of you who voted for the Supporters Trusts’ Young Player of the Year 2024/25.

They say that football is a game of two halves, and it is, but it needs to be said that our whole season has almost been like a season of two different ones. It was really our home record, a succession of 10 back-to-back home wins that began just before Christmas that propelled the Bantams into the position we are in today. And the future of where we are next season is still to be determined at the last match of what feels like a very long exhilarating rollercoaster ride for the long suffering fans.

This season there has been a real team effort on the pitch, a team that has grown in confidence over the course of the season. Congratulations goes to the gaffer, Graham Alexander who picked up the EFL Manager of League Two, while the skipper, Ritchie Smallwood was named in the EFL League Two Team of the Season at the recent EFL awards.

And well done to Ritchie Smallwood who picked up the Player of the Year Award from the Club’s main sponsor, JCT600, and most the supporters travel clubs, and from the team itself.

Young Player of the Year

The winner of the Trust’s Young Player of the Year is of course, Bobby Pointon! He was voted as Trust members’ Young Player of the Year for the second time running! We would also like to give a special thanks to Tony Deacon, who gave Bobby the award.

Once again, a big thank you to all of you for taking part. You know who you are and we very much appreciate your involvement in this event and making it a success.

FSA Annual General Meeting Invite 2025

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:52:34 GMT

The role of supporters in our game is growing ever larger, and it is important that as many fans as possible get involved in fan-related activity both at a local and a national level.

From ticket pricing to VAR, governance to broadcasting and fixture scheduling, there are issues in our game that need supporter input. It’s vital. If you have a keen interest in these areas, this is the perfect event to attend.

The Trust are affiliate members of the Football Supporters’ Association, and therefore we would like to extend our invite to their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Manchester on Saturday June 14th.

The FSA will be welcoming Martyn Henderson, the interim chief operating officer for the incoming independent football regulator (IREF), to discuss his work in building the organisation before the Football Governance Bill achieves royal assent later this year.

The FSA will have representatives of PGMOL (Referee officials body) in attendance, as well as an opportunity to have a go at the VAR systems currently in place in the Premier League.

As well as that, there will be workshops for members throughout the day on the following topics:

Ticketing
Supporter engagement
Broadcasting/3pm blackout
Fans for Diversity
Women’s Voice in the Men’s Game
Young supporters
Governance and Finance in the Women’s game
Football and the climate crisis

The AGM will take place at Manchester Metropolitan University on Saturday 14 ^th June, starting at 10:00 am, finishing up at 5:00pm.

You can register for the AGM here .

More information can be found here .

Burns Research Unit bucket collection volunteers appeal Reminder

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:14:13 GMT

As such, as in any anniversary, the effort to mark the occasion will be much greater. Therefore, we would like to make that extra effort to encourage more volunteers.

Last year up to 30 volunteers plus, including the help of you, our members, together with the efforts of the disabled supporters community, the collection raised £4,176.71 before the last match of the season against Newport County. It was almost double on what we raised the year before (£2,455.11) with just a handful of volunteers.

This year, our last home match of the season, versus Fleetwood Town is on the 3 ^rd of May.

At this point in time, the team is vying for an automatic spot, but there is a real possibility that automatic promotion will be determined by the end of the Fleetwood game so we are expecting a greater attendance, for this match.

It is imperative therefore we will need a bigger visual presence, which will require more volunteers to help with the bucket collection before the match starts.

If the game hasn’t been moved to an earlier K.O. we normally expect volunteers to arrive from 1pm outside the WD Gate entrance - the large gates opposite the club shop. Our names will be ticked off before we all receive buckets and then stand outside the various entrance points around the ground.

We all need to meet back at that entrance around 2.45 to hand buckets in so you can all get back to your seats before Kick off.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

If you don’t have a ticket for Fleetwood match you may get a free one if you are prepared to volunteer. We do need you to let us know in advance so that we can let the Club know.

The Clubs’ Season Ticket offer consultation meeting with the Trust

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 11:01:11 GMT

In attendance from the Club were, Ryan Sparks (RS) – Club CEO and Brett Cullen (BC) Head of Marketing

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 10 ^th March.

This meeting discussed the season proposed ticket offer and matchday prices only.

Rising Season Tickets and Matchday tickets

The Club’s explanation was that they want to keep the football accessible and affordable to ordinary fans, but they need to ensure the viability of the business. They said that they had to raise the prices, because of rising costs of between £350,000 to £400,000 while working to protect the players’ budget.

Examples of rising costs were given as; increases in utility prices, rates, policing, stewarding, the National Living Wage and National Insurance contributions from the employer.

Examples of the offer for the Early Bird prices were shown:

Adult £299 – A rise of £50 on last years’, and to the value of £13 per game and £24.92 per month on Direct Debit for 12months.

Over 64’s and Under 24’s £263 – A rise of £44 on last years’, and to the value of £11.63 per game and £21.92 per month on Direct Debit for 12months.

Prices are frozen for Youth and Juniors to encourage families.

Match day tickets were are also intending to go up from £20 to £24 in advance and from £25 to £28 on the day.

The Trust’s position

We understand that money is tight amongst many of our supporters due to the continued cost of living crisis, and therefore it has always been our position that the Club should keep season ticket prices as low and affordable as possible. Freezing prices for all after an increase last year was our ideal scenario.

The Club’s position

The Club understood how hard it is for many people and they reiterated that being affordable for the supporters was always going to be part of Bradford City’s identity.

They also showed a table of where we are in terms of offering the best value in both League Two and indeed League One. In those league tables, those at the top represented the clubs with the most expensive ticket prices, so it showed our Club as one of the lowest in both leagues, which show us as being amongst the most affordable. They said they were fighting a trend of rising costs of season tickets at other clubs. At the time of this discussion, not all Clubs had revealed their prices for next season.

The Trust asked about perhaps re-introducing an updated, modern day version of the flexi-card. This will not be re-introduced, as the direct debit scheme in effect, replaces it.

The Trust asked about an ‘Unwaged’ category price, but it was felt that the Community Foundation does a lot of work drawing in supporters from deprived areas with community tickets.

The Trust commended the Club on introducing the £5 offer for the Colchester game they had recently, and suggested that they do more of them. At that point they were undecided about a future offer like that given the desire to protect the overall value of season tickets.

It was asked about trends regarding age groups that bought season tickets for this current season, and they gave us a rough breakdown:

Adults 24 – 64: 6,500

Seniors: 2,000

Young adults: 1,000

Youth: 1,600

Junior: 2,000

Consultation

The Trust asked about a consultation period, and the Club’s response was that the intention was to put out publicity about the offer in April so it was suggested we could ask our members what they would be prepared to pay.

More generally, from a Trust point of view, it was explained that consultation should really be at a formative stage, where a proposal or offer can be at a stage of intention by the proposer but there should be adequate time to digest, and respond – a consultation period, where a membership based organisation like ours, can gauge how their members feel about something and respond based on what that view is.

The view of the Club is that they are always pressed by time constrains during the course of a football season and that they do the best that they can to engage with supporters groups.

The Trust was grateful it was invited to discuss the season ticket offer. We always value and appreciate the Club’s time and effort to engage with us.

Foodbank at Accrington was a Big Success

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 07:38:43 GMT

Accrington Stanley's food bank collection for Maundy Relief welcomed hundreds of donations before the lunchtime Kick Off last Saturday.

The collection took place outside the ground, with both Accrington Stanley Bradford fans donating food items, while over £300 was also raised on the day.

Supported by The Official Accrington Stanley Supporters Trust (OASST) the food bank collection has become an extremely popular initiative.

Maundy Relief are well known in the Hyndburn community for being a frontline response team who immediately help anyone in need. Their services are open to all and include help with physical, mental and emotional health.

Here is a link to Accrington Stanley’s Facebook post about it…

Vote for your Young Player of the Year

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:58:55 GMT

It is that time of year again, as Bantams Supporters’ Trust Members you have the opportunity to vote for the 2024-25 Bradford City Young Player of the Year.

This season, especially in this year, has been probably the most exciting we have had in years. And we have seen City win 10 home games in a row, a Club record. We have also broke our biggest home attendance record in modern times with over 23,000 watching us beat Colchester Utd 4-1 on March 22nd.

This season, from the first team we have 5 young players making an appearance as defender, midfielder and forwards.

Tayo Adaramola , signed on loan in February from Premier League side from Crystal Palace and has made 8 appearances in a City shirt, and played a crucial part in the most recent 4-1 win over Colchester. The Dublin born defender has also played in 6 matches for the Republic of Ireland under 21’s.

Brandon Khela signed on loan In January from Birmingham City until the end of the season. The promising 19 year-old from Coventry was the first South Asian player to sign for Birmingham City in 2022. He has made 9 appearances for City and got an assist against Colchester.

Calum Kavanagh , signed for us on a two-and-a-half year deal from Middlesbrough on deadline day of the 2024 January window, and has made 30 appearances in a City shirt this season, scoring 5 goals (including the 3 ^rd goal against Colchester) and has assisted on a further 4. The Welsh born forward has had a number of appearances in a Republic of Ireland shirt. He is certainly firm fixture in the City squad.

Bobby Pointon , He was voted your Young Player of the Year by a country mile last season. The super sub who is ‘one of our own’ has established himself in the starting line up much more this season He has made 42 appearances, scored 6 and has assisted on 6. He came on as substituted for the Colchester game

Michael Melon , is on loan from Burnley from January this year until the end of the season. The 21 year-old Scottish youth international, born in England has had 9 appearances for City, and scored 2 goals with 1 assist. His last goal was the third one in our 3-1 win over Cheltenham.

All five candidates eligible for the Bradford City Young Player of the Year 2024-25 have all made valuable contributions, but who has been your stand out performer?

As with previous years this award includes current players under the age of 23 with at least 5 first team appearances in all competitions:

Tayo Adaramola (Defender)
Brandon Khela (Central Midfielder)
Calum Kavanagh (Forward)
Bobby Pointon (Forward)
Michael Mellon (Forward)

Voting starts today, Friday, March 28 ^th and end Friday 16th April. The Player Of The Year Dinner and results announcements will be on Wednesday, 30 ^th April 2025.

To vote, simply email us your number 1 Young player at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

You can also let us know via our Facebook Group and Likes page as well as our Twitter page.

Bradford City season ticket consultation

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:53:06 GMT

We are writing to you to gauge your view about the cost of season tickets. The Club have released its’ ‘Early Bird’ Season ticket prices and have increased them for adults by £50 and for Over 64 year olds by £44, and by £100 after the earlybird discount ends. Under 24’s have also had an increase.

We understand that money is tight amongst many of our supporters due to the continued cost of living crisis, and therefore it has always been our position that the club should keep season ticket prices as low and affordable as possible. Freezing prices for all after an increase last year was our ideal scenario.

The team on the pitch has been doing extremely well with promotion a real possibility. In the scenario we do get promoted, it is likely we will see a greater demand for season tickets.

We have been consulted on the offer, and when we have engaged with the Club on recent occasions, they have always cited rising costs they must contend with, such as increases in rates, utilities and the cost of implementing the minimum wage, and greater National Insurance contributions etc. – overall between £350,000 and £400,000.

The increase may not be appreciated by everyone, but at least supporters can spread the cost over 12 months. It’s much easier than paying all at once.

Based on the Clubs’ offer, how do you feel about the increase? Please complete the following short survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/bcfc-season-tickets

Foodbank Collection

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 08:00:00 GMT

There will be a Food Bank Collection at the Crown Ground on the 29 ^th March, ahead of our away 12.30 lunchtime fixture with Accrington Stanley from 11am in aid of Maundy Relief , a relief aid charity serving the needs of the local community in Accrington.

The most sought after goods include UHT mil, coffee, biscuits, tinned meat/fish, soups, tinned beans and veg, pasta, rice and pasta sauces. They do also take cash financial donations.

If you want to say hello and make a donation please head for the bottom of the Crown steps at the corner of the main stand and Clayton End.

Burns Research Unit bucket collection volunteers appeal

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:31:58 GMT

It is coming round to that time of year when we will all be coming together give our respects to those who tragically lost their lived in the Valley Parade fire, 40 years ago now.

This year, our last home match of the season, versus Fleetwood Town is on the 3 ^rd of May, and as always there will be a bucket collection on that last home fixture.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

Last year with earlier planning, up to 30 volunteers plus, including the help of you, our members, together with the efforts of the disabled supporters community, the collection raised £4,176.71 before the last match of the season against Newport County. It was almost double on what we raised the year before (£2,455.11) with just a handful of volunteers.

Hopefully with the earlier notice, and the occasion being the 40 ^th anniversary, we can hopefully get a higher turn out of supporters that are willing to volunteer, which should transpire into raising more vital funds for something we all care deeply about.

We’ll be putting out more reminders in the run up to this last match of the season with details of the time and where to meet to sign out the buckets from the Club for the collection.

Margaret Hainsworth - Rest in Peace

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 09:45:29 GMT

You know, sometimes in life you must take a moment to pause and reflect when someone you consider to be a good friend passes away.

I felt compelled to do just that recently when Richard Hainsworth (son of Margaret) contacted me via Messenger to let me know of the sad news that Margaret had died.

If you are a devoted Bradford City fan like me, then I would simply ask that you take a couple of minutes to read this short, but heartfelt, tribute to Margaret and in doing so recognize the immense and invaluable contribution, Margaret made to saving our football club for future generations to come.

The financial crisis facing Bradford City and the very real threat of liquidation in 2002 is well documented and it is at that time that the Bradford City Supporters’ Trust (BCST) was formed. Margaret was one of the founder members. I think this was the first time I met, Margaret as we both volunteered to help set up and become members of the Supporters’ Trust – something that neither of us really knew anything about.

That said, we were both willing volunteers and our Trust was swiftly in the headlights. There was a real and distinct possibility that Bradford City FC could be one of the first football league clubs to go out of business. No sooner was the Supporters’ Trust established that the Trust Board members (all unpaid and volunteers) met with Kroll the administrators appointed by Bradford City FC. Kroll gave us a simple (!) task, raise £250,000 in six weeks or lose your football club. It was as stark as that. With the significant help of the Telegraph and Argus, the football club’s supporters, and the public of Bradford that amount was raised before the end of the six weeks and the rest as they say is history.

It would be simple to consign all this to one paragraph in the club’s history but the efforts of a small group of people to arrange, lead and deliver on this fundraising effort was an incredible story and chapter in the history of our beloved Football Club. At the very heart of this was Margaret.

Margaret was appointed our volunteer treasurer. At the height of the fund-raising activity, Margaret was literally counting and banking thousands of pounds from donations daily. We always joked about the reception Margaret received when she went to the bank in Cleckheaton. Margaret literally took a couple of hours a day of a cashier’s time over a five-week period to bank the cash and cheque donations - £250,000 was raised by the Trust and this was supported by the Telegraph and Argus. You can see the size of the banking task Margaret was faced with.

When you talk about an unsung hero, someone who worked incredibly hard behind the scenes, was kind, humble and generous with their time, then Margaret was all these things and more. Margaret was an intelligent lady with a great business acumen. Margaret never wanted to occupy any of the roles that were public and media facing preferring others on the Board to take on these roles. I owe so much to Margaret during my time as vice-chair and then chair of BCST. Margaret was always there for all of us, with her wise words of counsel, her obvious intellect, her sense of humor which we all relied on but equally her unwavering support to ensure Bradford City was saved from liquidation and to remain at Valley Parade. We had some difficult decisions to make and actions to take in our fund-raising efforts, including presenting to Bradford Council, speaking with MPs, arranging gatherings in Centenary Square and at St George’s Hall but Margaret helped us make these decisions in everyone’s best interests. She was a tour de force and a great ally as well as having those wonderful qualities of being kind, caring and compassionate.

After the club was saved Margaret and the rest of the Trust Board members grew apart but I was fortunate to remain in touch with a few of them on social media.

It was fitting that Margaret’s work was referenced in a book written by David Markham and Lindsay Sutton.

“The Trust’s hardcore of volunteers, fronted by chairman Mark Boocock and vice chairman Phillip Marshall, suddenly found themselves in charge of a major fundraising drive. Margaret Hainsworth, the Trust’s secretary, devoted herself to the cause, collecting and banking scores if not hundreds of cheques every day.”

David Markham and Lindsay Sutton, The Bradford City Story: The Pain and the Glory

I will miss Margaret – I’m still fortunate to be able to travel to many away games and I always post about them on Facebook. We all enjoy receiving a ‘Like’ on our Facebook postings and despite not been in contact for several years I always enjoyed a ‘Like’ from Margaret with the most recent having been the Birmingham City away game. I also enjoyed putting a ‘Like’ on Margaret’s postings. We always wished each other happy birthday and it is clear Margaret was a much-loved Mum and Grandma.

It was fitting that I shared with her son that it would be wonderful if City could beat Cheltenham on 4 March very soon after her death as a tribute to her, and the team duly delivered with a resounding win. I went home with a big smile on my face – that one was for Margaret.

So, please do raise a glass to Margaret when you have read this and just say a quick thank you to her - Margaret did more for Bradford City FC than many of you will ever know.

Rest in Peace Margaret and I really do hope we get promotion for you this 2024/25 season.

Phill Marshall

Report of Trust meeting with BCAFC Feb 2025

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:46:19 GMT

In attendance from the Club were, Ryan Sparks (RS) – Club CEO

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair & Carl White (CW)

Apologies were given from Paula Watson (PW), Director of Operations, Justin Bret (JB) – Trust Vice Chair, and Matthew Pickles (MP) also from the Trust.

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 10 ^th Feb.

The last meeting with the Club was on the 18 ^{th of} November 24, 3 months ago.

This meeting covered a lot of ground in all matters we wanted to know more about and there was more of a sense we felt part of a process. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Season Tickets and Matchday tickets

The Club felt that they were not at a stage where they had come to an agreement about next year’s season ticket prices.

Like in November’s meeting, the Club reiterated their concern that there are challenging rising costs they must contend with, such as an increase in rates, utilities and minimum wage, National Insurance etc – overall between £350,000 and £400,000. For example when it comes to renewals, the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) who yearly provide safety licenses to stadiums charge a fee based on the capacity of the stadium. It costs £17,000 (a recent increase) and it was felt this is unfair and that the cost should be based on what the position of a club sits in the pyramid. This figure used to be less than £500.

Matchdays are dependent on season ticket holders, and the Club lost between 600 – 700 season ticket holders from last season. However there has been an increase in the numbers who buy match day tickets, largely due to the recent success of the team.

The Club said that it is committed to providing affordable season ticket prices and will consult the Trust and Supporters Board on its’ proposal for next season.

The Trust stated that it felt its free tickets to schools in disadvantaged areas of the city was commendable and its £3 for its community tickets to encourage a new generation of fans is excellent as well.

The Club talked about its Community Takeover, as part of the EFL’s Community Weekend, for the MK Dons game on the 22 ^nd of Feb which will be in the TL Dallas (Bradford End) stand, but there would be lots of activities in the main (Morrison’s Family) stand. The Club are making a lot of effort to reach ‘the EFL Family Excellence status’ hoping to reach gold this year. 15 out of 92 EFL clubs will achieve Gold. Last year the Club achieved bronze. A ‘secret shopper’ takes a visit to make the judgment call. There has been an emphasis about trying to make family entrance clearer and the children’s areas more colourful and providing more kiosk options.

Matchday ticket prices

We asked about them as we mentioned that even at our level in League Two, away match prices are certainly creeping up well above £25 and nearing £30 at some.

Admin fee added to telephone sales

There was a feeling of inevitability from the Trust about the answer. When the admin fee came about there was quite a bit of disquiet about It. The Club response was that it should’ve been brought in in the summer, but technical issues delayed its’ implementation. Before they did this many fans were ringing up and not getting seen to. It was said most clubs already have a telephone admin fees now and Ticketmaster has taken up a very large part of the ticketing market. Even Wembley sells tickets via Ticketmaster.

Since the admin fee has been implemented, there has been a 50% drop in calls, but it means ticketing staff are answering more ticketing queries or calls regarding technical help rather than just selling tickets over the phone. Most supporters buy online now.

Atmosphere and examples at other Clubs

The Trust raised the issue about the atmosphere end in B block and asked if the Club could’ve consulted better. It was said that however the Club had consulted.

Newcastle was raised from the Trust viewpoint how the atmosphere section had done well at St. James’s Park, where flags were being waved all-round the ground at the start of a game against Bournemouth recently, and other Clubs have something similar. There was some good discussion around this, and it was concluded that every club has its fan culture – flags and banners and creating that fan ultra effect has largely come from mainland Europe where it is still cheaper to attend football at top level matches, and it is still being tested out a little in the UK. It will improve as more clubs implement railed seating, but football must remain affordable to the masses. It means that ordinary supporters (that want to create the most noise) don’t feel priced out. The Premier League must lead by example but by today’s standards it is going in the opposite direction in terms of ticket prices.

It has been over 25 years since fans have had the choice to stand at Valley Parade and most home regulars much prefer to sit, and the atmosphere comes when we win games, but when there is an atmosphere, it doesn’t always project to be audible in all areas of the ground. At Newcastle there is a choice of railed seating in the away end, high in the gods and for home supporters in the Gallowgate end where traditionally the atmosphere had come from.

Club Business Strategy (with regards to fan engagement)

We asked for an update on fans’ surveys, in particularly on how supporters feel after the game and feeling valued. The Club would get back to us on this.

Improving our structured dialogue / Fan Engagement

First, we looked at the Trust’s proposal – statement and additional wording and amendments to go on the Club’s Fan Engagement Plan (FEP) below.

The intention for this is for the Club to show equal parity between the Supporters Board and Supporters Trust when engaging with supporters’ groups. In the FEP the Club has a quote / statement from the SB Chair, has all the month in the year it meets with the SB and is included in in its consultation when it comes to ‘Heritage Assets’.

Trust proposed Chair quote /statement:

"Bantams Supporters Trust very much welcomes the Club’s Fan Engagement Plan. It shows the Club is committed to involving supporters in its development and growth as a football club, all of which continue to improve.

There has been a huge emphasis around fan engagement in recent years, and the fan-led review (a process of consultation with the Football Supporters Association (FSA) along with affiliate supporters’ trusts) was a prerequisite for an incoming Football Governance Bill.

We have gauged the Club’s views over recent years about the many key aspects of football such as FSA proposals within the Fan-Led Review, the Governance Bill, and national issues such as TV revenue and redistribution as well as, of course the concerns that affect Bradford City supporters.

We value the Club’s readiness to engage with us and we look forward to working closely on initiatives that bring supporters together and Bradford’s diverse community together to ever improve and enrich the Club’s fan engagement process."

Quarterly meeting arrangement

Also, in keeping with a quarterly arrangement of meetings with the Trust, it would be good to see that in writing on the FEP by adding February, May, August and November for meetings with us on the Fan Engagement Calendar. Obviously, these are a guide and would be 'subject to change"

Additional proposed text amendment on Heritage Assets

On Heritage Assets, it says, "...will involve thorough consultation with the Supporters Board." If you can add, "...and Bantams Supporters Trust"

The Club said it would investigate getting these added.

What is Fan Engagement?

Supporter engagement is a means of giving fans a sense of being closer to the club. A close association encourages and strengthens loyalty. It is a term that has come to encompass everything a club does to communicate with its supporters.

Clubs will be required to publish a FEP on an annual basis which will be overseen by a senior Club official. This requirement builds on the work clubs are already undertaking with supporters including hosting two meetings or fan forums each season to get their views on key issues faced by supporters and clubs.

Stoke City’s FEP is the best example of a template all clubs should aim towards.

Other meetings the Trust would like to attend as part of a consultation process

The Trust explained that it is not always practical in getting a full picture of certain aspects of what the Club does where the Trust would feel the benefit in sharing ideas and feeling consulted at these structured dialogue meeting.

Governance meetings , which are monthly where we send a delegate to, shows good practice at involvement of groups in discussing Inclusion, Equality and Diversity ideas and Community events to attract new layers of supporters to watch City for example.

Other meetings we would like to attend on an ad hoc basis to see how things are moving and how we can add to the discussion are:

Restorative Justice, Crime Reduction, Police – we last met the Club on this specifically over 2 years ago.

Sustainable Football – environmental impact which should include improving public transport, encourage car sharing etc. and broadly speaking the Club reducing its carbon footprint and encouraging fans to do the same. Every year there is a Green Football Weekend.

Catering – we last met Doug, from Tiffin’s on discussing options for supporters and prices over 2 years ago.

Mid-Year Fan Engagement / Consultation

We looked at an FSA model guidance paper to go carefully go through it, as it is this time of the year that our affiliate organization is gathering date ahead of its structured dialogue with the EFL.

The Trust feels it has:

A good day to day relationship with the Club
The Club has informal meetings with groups of supporters
It has the minimum of two fan forums
And has monthly meetings with the Supporters Board
Quarterly meetings with the Trust

The Trust has with the Club:

A Terms of Reference (TOR) for our quarterly Structured Dialogue meetings
A Memorandum of Understanding ready for when we feel it’s’ consultation process improves even more than it has.
The Trust feels the Club is making efforts to bring us on an equal par with the Supporters Board.
The quality of engagement and discussions are very good at our meetings.
The Trust publishes our reports for our structured dialogue meetings on our website and bring them to the attention of our members, by email and on social media, but it would be good for the Club to have some acknowledgement that a meeting has taken place with us and broadly what was discussed on its own website.

The Club says it will look to have something published as a record of meeting with the Trust.

Fans Forum on Radio Leeds

The Trust asked why the Club was set to have its Fans Forum not in front of fans especially when there had been a great improvement in form on the pitch, which had moved the attention away from perceived off the field issues.

The answer was that it was for continuity. It was done last season, and it had worked well it was said. There is going to be a forum in front of fans in the summer as there was last year, and that an in the studio forum on the radio gave an opportunity for fans to ask questions who may not have an opportunity to do so at a live open forum with supporters. It was added that it would be 2 hours long and would be published online.

Football Governance Bill Update

The FSA was at the heart of 2021’s Fan-Led Review of Football Governance which made a range of recommendations to strengthen the game’s governance – most notably the commitment to introduce an independent regulator.

The Bill, which has cross-party is currently going through the ‘Lords’ at the moment, but the Club remain unconvinced the outcome will have the desired effect – that the Premier League will accept redistributing its wealth to help even out the wealth distortion that currently exists within the English football pyramid, and that there is a likelihood that there will be a watering down of the Bill.

The Trust feels that there may be an element of truth in this given the amount of ‘U’ turns the Labour government have done since being elected given what they campaigned for to the electorate before the election. It’s clear they are listening to big business more than its traditional voters.

The other aspect of this Bill was to seek legal ways of preventing Clubs from leaving the leagues to create a European Super League.

But we shall see what comes out. There may be some lobbying of MPs from supporters’ groups when the Bill reaches the ‘commons.

EFL Sky Deal

It was explained from the Trust, we and other supporters’ groups on the FSA’s EFL fans network are monitoring away ticket prices in conjunction with the rescheduling of matches.

It’s clear that most fans prefer a 3pm Kick Off.

The Club said that it opposed the original fixture of a Doncaster Rovers away on a Monday evening.

Maintenance Costs

The Club said that maintenance costs are an on-going challenge. Although the stadium is modern, it is still over 25 years old and as a result needs on-going maintenance to the building. More than £70k has been spent on the pitch and drainage.

Ownership

Any Other Business

The electronic (LED) advertising hoardings situated behind the goal at the Bradford End were raised, because at the last game, there were many supporters who thought they were too bright, obscuring the goal-mouth action. They were previously in use at Fratton Park. It was said that they would pay for themselves as sponsorship partners would buy into them. The lighting was said to be turned down for the next game.

On The Pitch

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 09:03:23 GMT

This is an updated version of our comment on on the pitch matters, from our Chair’s Report Agreed at our AGM in November 2024. It captures the excellent run from on Boxing Day 2024 and brings us up to date on the football.

After we had done so well with a bit of luck on our side throughout October, we were upstaged by Doncaster, a team that showed us how to win games by beating us 2-1. The attendance was the highest up to that point of the season, 18,267, with 1,587 Donny fans making their way to Valley Parade. With excitement in the air amongst fans, the pressure was too much on the pitch and caused our bubble to burst.

From November right up to the last match before Christmas against Notts County where we lost 3 - 0, the Bantams put in some absolutely turgid performances. It was only a shadow of a team and painful to watch. Since the Doncaster defeat and up until Boxing Day we had only won one League game, against Swindon on the 14 ^th December. Morecambe also knocked out of the FA Cup in the 2 ^nd round at the Mazuma Stadium in that month.

The performances were so poor they invited an open letter from the Independent Bradford City Fans Independent Group, 24 ^th December, for the attention of Stefan Rupp and Ryan Sparks, to reiterate their assertion that there is a lack of a plan and investment at Bradford City to get the team out of League Two.

The Joys of Boxing Day and other results

Beating Port Vale was a tremendous lift for all City fans and reward for such a team effort. Taking 3 points off the Valiants was a huge achievement which saw our Andy Cook score both our goals and saw him reach a personal feat of 100 EFL goals It was certainly the antidote to the negative pressure that arises every time the team goes through a sluggish spell. A slightly bigger crowd of 18,330 watched this one with over 1,300 making their way from Staffordshire.

The Bantams had been on a real roll, winning 7 out of 8 league and cup matches including the 3 -1 win against Aston Villa under 21’s at Villa Park in the Mickey Mouse Cup, er, I mean, EFL Trophy, invoking wonderful memories of that historic victory in the League Cup at Villa Park 12 years ago now when we beat them 4-3 on aggregate.

The winning run included, Chesterfield at VP at the end of December, 2-1, with a great attendance of 18,730, and 2,341 away support, and then the Mariners, beating them 3 – 1, the first home match of 2025 – 4 ^th January, with a post festive attendance of 18, 011. Slightly lower than the other two big game attendances with 2,187 Grimsby supporters making their way from South East Yorkshire area. City appeared to have a strong conviction to battle right to the end.

The other significant win by a solitary goal, for us was of course a long trip to Carlisle, and it was 40 years ago since we last won at Brunton Park. It was a sell out for the Bantams barmy army with 1,391 making the trip to the north East, Cumbria. The attendance was 8,399. And of course we have to mention the significance of Andy Cook getting injured in the one all draw at Barrow on New Years’ Day. There was a real concern about how we were going to cope without him, but the continuing winning form has answered those doubts.

Walsall

Many had feared that our next opposition to play at VP were going to be a tough nut to crack but high-flying Walsall just could not find their form at all at the weekend. City had done such a professional job in not only neutralising Walsall’s attacking prowess but did an excellent job breaking forward and taking their chances and executing some great finishes. This 3 nil win saw us put in the best performance so far. There was a lower than expected attendance of 17,172, with 901 from Walsall, and although their away support was not that big it did appear much busier everywhere else. It’s clear that prior to results being more favourable, many season ticket holders that chose to stay away are now returning.

Morecambe

The match against Morecambe on a very chilly Tuesday night of January 28 brought what looked like half of the numbers inside VP than on Saturday, 15,083 the official attendance, with maybe 100 from Morecambe. It was a close finish in the end, but in the end we took 3 points off the struggling side that are at the wrong end of the table. City were much the better team of the first half where we had the better chances and of course got our solitary goal on the half hour mark (Cavanagh), but in the 2 ^nd half, Morecambe sucked City into a rough battle and were unfortunate not level the game at least. Much to our advantage we did well to keep another clean sheet and we reached 3 ^rd in the table. Who would’ve believed it after witnessing the Notts County display at Meadow Lane before Christmas?

Frustration at Wimbledon

The winning streak ended at Plough Lane. It was very a physically game. Wimbledon deserved the win. City succumbed to Wimbledon's game. Both teams spent the game cancelling each other out, but the Don's did it better. We threw away our opportunities including free kicks and corners. Our game needed changing in the 2nd half with subs on but it didn't happen.

Back to winning ways in t’ Cup

City have done really well to reach the semi-final after beating the Millers 1-0 via a Ritchie Smallwood well taken penalty. Attendance was 3,073 with 1,128 traveling City fans. It’s not a popular cup competition but we are certainly enjoying the ride, with a trip to League One side Birmingham City, and if we are lucky a trip to Wembley for the final. The financial reward is said to be reported as £100,000, and £50,000 for the runners up.

Harrogate

Back to the League and we picked up 3 points to a side we haven’t had much luck playing against since their promotion into League Two. Prior to the win, we had only won 2 out of 10. Harrogate had won 7 and there has been 1 draw. Sarcevic early solitary goal kept us in the mix for promotion. 17,126 saw this one.

Prospects for promotion?

Over the last few games, it has been great to hear City fans find their voice again as we now have something to cheer. The atmosphere at the Walsall game has to be the best so far, now we have really seen in action Graham Alexander’s team at it’s best. The Bantams performed well with the home crowd creating a wall of sound at Valley Parade, a sound of pleasure and excitement, and a sound that has been missed. Fans have been yearning for City to find its’ form, and the team responded to our backing. Can we be talking about promotion now? Will we see the passion and determination from our team consistently? To maintain a presence in the mix it has to be.

Roller Coaster

Graham Alexander came to Bradford City in November 2023, well over a year ago, and this is first full season in charge. His contract runs out in June next season and his team have struggled to find a consistent form, yet they have managed to put together little runs together up to now. Hopefully, however we can put a run together that keeps us in and around where we want to be. Most fans will understand we will have some blips along the way, but hopefully some of the worst performances are behind us.

Alexander is fortunate that results and performances did pick up in the way they did, because up until then, there was an awful amount of discontented pressure building up not only on his shoulders but also on the Clubs’. It was March of last year that saw us get hammered 5 times in a row. This was the only other time that brought the toughest period of disenchanted pressure.

Mark Hughes, who managed the team from February 22, was a popular manager initially, that took us to the play off’s but failed to beat Carlisle away in the semi final. It wasn’t the most exciting journey on the road to the play off’s but we got there, and after that let-down, Hughes could never really get his team going again after starting the new season with us, and he parted with the Club on the 4 ^th October, leaving us in 18 ^th in the League table.

We said at the time, “No one predicted such shocking displays of football within these 11 games so far. It is the manner in which the team has played up to now that has been so disappointing, and no fan of any football team enjoys watching their team play stripped of belief.”

Thankfully, with fortunes looking so much more favourable, it is unthinkable that any City fan will be saying Alexander has got to go, and the Trust hopes we can all enjoy this ride for as long as possible. There is such a real desire from the fans for our Club to get promoted it’s almost tangible, and it is widely understood, and certainly from experience, that a resorting to the short term path of the managerial merry-go-round can be a damaging gamble for a football club.

We can only hope that this is our year of progressing out of League Two.

The Trust Annual Review 23/24

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 08:58:58 GMT

This is the Chairs’ Report, written in October 24, ahead of our November AGM 2024, commenting on the managerial situation, the national picture as a backdrop and the Trust’s year engaging with the Club, and building the Trust to ensure its longevity by encouraging supporters to join and play leading role in ensuring we have a football club for generations to come.

On the Pitch

At the time of writing, the Bantams are 5 ^th in the League Two table after coming away from Cheltenham on a Tuesday night with a point. Could we be seeing something of a renaissance after seeing three wins on the bounce following a dip in form in September up until early October.

In fact the anniversary of Mark Hughes departure, October 4 ^th , last year, came and went and our 3 wins in a row started on October 7 ^th at home against Newport County, winning 2 – 1 on a Monday night in front of the Sky TV cameras.

Rewind to the beginning of Graham Alexander’s career with Bradford City, his first game didn’t go as well as planned, losing to Barrow 2 – 1 at home on the 11 ^th November 23. We lost again to Notts County 42 in the following game away in the league before beating Barnsley at home 5 – 1 in the EFL Trophy group stage getting his first win at home under his belt at VP against Accrington Stanley, and this winning streak continued well into December, beating Doncaster away 3-1 away on the 22 ^nd . The next stint of back-to-back league wins came in February of this year (2024), a 4 – 0 beating over MK Dons and a solitary goal beating Sutton United respectively, both at home.

March saw us get hammered 5 times in a row and it also gave reason to growing unrest from a section of the fanbase, frustrated with the lack of progress on the pitch come to it’s height in the form of a protest led by ‘Bradford City Independent Fans Group on the 29 ^th March before City’s home fixture against Tranmere which we won 2 – 0. City had a run of 6 games unbeaten starting with a 1 – 1 draw against the Mariners away and then 5 wins, and came so close to a play-off off place. It left us City fans and probably the players and the management team wondering what if? What if we had won that Crawley game at home, what if we didn’t lose so many in March?

At the time of writing we will soon come to Graham Alexander’s 1 ^st year as Manager and hopefully a better season. The pressure on the Club to succeed to get out of this league is almost tangible and we are sure the manager and players understand. It is imperative the team doesn’t buckle under that pressure. At the moment the team are fifth in the division and a win against Doncaster Rovers on the 26 ^th of October could see us leap frog over them and potentially reach third place in League 2. The difficult challenge will be however to maintain the consistency needed to hold that position. It is indeed a long season, a season of challenges to the team and another roller coaster season for the fans.

The Football Governance Bill update

Earlier this year (2024) the Football Governance Bill had started its process of getting legislated (19 ^th March 24) with the introduction of the Independent regulator being the key component of the proposals as a means to intervene and stop clubs being run into the ground, protect the heritage of clubs, give supporters a much bigger voice in the running of the game, and prevent any chance of domestic clubs joining a breakaway European Super League. However the snap general election in the summer prevented the Bill in completing its process of getting through parliament.

In May this year (2024), keen to continue put pressure on politicians after the general election was called, the FSA tabled an open letter signed by 200+ supporters’ groups, calling on all parties to get behind a new Football Governance Bill. Bantams Supporters Trust was amongst those signatories.

On the 23 ^rd of October 24, the Labour government launched the Bill in parliament strengthened with additional powers to protect clubs and support fans, chiefly on:

Consulting fans on ticket pricing, home stadium relocations, and fan representation at clubs.
Parachute payments included in Regulator’s remit so it will have full oversight to tackle financial sustainability across the football pyramid.
Requirement to consider government foreign policy dropped to cement regulator’s full independence.

It’s considered that the independent regulator will be seen as a ‘back stop’ power if EFL and PL clubs cannot come to agreement around issues around wealth redistribution. Naturally the EFL are happier of the two because the parachute payments are within the remit of the independent regulator

You can see more detail here .

FA Cup Replays

In April (2024) we reported that the FA had authorized the banning of FA Cup replays from the first round proper from next year. It was something the Premier League had always wanted, predominantly to ease their fixture calendar which has been made more congested by the expansion of European club competitions, and initially it formed part of it’s proposal to the EFL and National League on financial redistribution.

It has angered many football supporters and clubs especially of clubs further down the pyramid. You can find a fuller report on the detail and what it means in our article on it here .

On the 1 ^st May, 27 clubs, 11 from the EFL and 16 non league clubs joined forces to back a football reform body called Fair Play who are requesting an amendment to the Football Governance Bill to re-instate FA Cup replays. See more here .

The EFL TV Deal

In May 2023 EFL clubs have unanimously voted to accept a £935m 5-year deal with Sky Sports, which starts this season and will run until the end of the 2028-29 season. It is said the deal will keep the Saturday blackout in place.

The blackout is when the majority (i.e. 50% or more) of the weekly football matches in the top or top two domestic leagues or in the national cup(s) in the country are played in a two and a half hour window.

It is also said that under the deal 1,059 league EFL Cup and EFL Trophy matches will be shown live either on a Sky main channel or via a Sky streaming platform, replacing the iFollow service. You can still get iFollow if you live internationally.

When the dates were confirmed in the summer, Sky and EFL had maneuvered to stagger all scheduled live matches around the black-out for the period up to the FA Cup third round in early January.

Viewing times will stagger over long weekends from Friday to Mondays. The FSA will keep a watching brief over future confirmed televised fixtures. You can see more here .

The year’s work

Again, 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

We are now in our first full season with UK based, ethically sourced company called Teemill. We have samples of our designed clothing on our stall and have an advert, now with a QR code to take members and supporters directly to the online store : 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.

Our scarves are the key seller on our stall. One of our members, Ryan Bell (RB) had donated some of the scarves he had made from a supplier in Europe before Brexit done in a retro European style so that the Trust could raise money from them. MD and RB then went halves on 50 claret and amber retro design scarves with Leeds-based company Global scarves for the start of the 2022/23 season. We still had plenty of the white with claret and amber trim type scarves left over, and this is what we have been selling up to date. The Global Scarves ones are a jacquard knit design, harking back to how football scarves were originally mass produced in the UK, but as everything is so much more expensive post Brexit we had to sell them at £15 each to get a return, but we have not taken out our investment back from what we have sold and we have very nearly sold them all in over 2 seasons.

Our publicity and website

As we have mentioned earlier, we always regularly update members and supporters updates on national things that can have a direct or sometimes indirect impact on our Club, and articles about whet we accomplish.

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 that get sent to over 500 members is a basic free service and on average 40% click on the emails. However there are less people that click on the links to see the articles in full.

Our Facebook Group has 881 members, up by 54 and our ‘Likes’ Page has 1,500 plus people liking it, and 1,572 people follow it, up by 45. Our Twitter account , has 394 Following , up 12, and 287 Followers , up by 67.

We do have an Instagram site with 72 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.

Our website has also seen improvement. You are now able to share features on our website onto social media via your mobile phone as most people use their phones to look at social media and share within their social groups.

Also we have changed the way you see our news items whether it is on your phone, laptop or computer desktop, and we have added a structured dialogue area in the ‘About us’ section and an ‘ACV’ or Asset of Community Value’ section in the ‘campaigns’ section of our website. We will explain the ACV further on.

Concourse stalls in the Main Stand

The Trust is now in our fourth season running a stall on matchdays. We are in the main stand, usually setting up 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 / or put a few quid in the donations tin, and supporters constantly look at what we have to sell. It is a very good set up. As we have said earlier, it is the scarves that sell best. We think it important to have this live link to the Trust. It is a shame we only have the resources to do it in that one spot, and in other parts of the stadium.

Fan Engagement / Structured Dialogue

During the last Financial Year we have held three meetings with CEO Ryan Sparks: in November 23 , and then February 24 , and August 24 attended by Marco Townson as the club's Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO). It was just Marco that represented the Club at the last one. We are due to have another meeting this November.

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.

The key themes running through these meetings are:

Matchday experience, including Fanzone, atmosphere section, stewarding home and away, food and drink choices and prices.
Railed seating
Season tickets and loyalty points as well as matchday ticket pricing and special offers for struggling people.
Environmental sustainability
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 Fan-Led Review / the proposed Football Governance Bill.

Improving our Structured Dialogue – improving the Clubs’ fan engagement.

Ownership – The importance of seeing Stefan Rup as improving the Clubs’ fan engagement.

Important achievements for the Trust

We had helped to improve the Clubs’ Sanctions Policy .
We discussed through the findings of our extensive survey, see February’s meeting with the Club report .
In November 23 we told the Club of our intention to nominate Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) and in March this year we submitted our nomination of VP to be an ACV and it was confirmed it had been successful in June . We even made it as an item of news on BBC’s Look North in July ! That was a major coup for us that generated a lot of interest and support from City fans.
In April we played an important part in getting as many as 30 members able to do the bucket collection, raising £4,176.71 before the last match of the season against Newport County.

Membership

We now have 984 contacts that we have on our InTouch database, an increase of 23 on last year (2023), and the email membership figure now stands at 514, an increase of 5.

We have a total of 272 ‘suppressed’ contacts (an increase of 25 on last year (2023) 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 contact details.

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.

The Trust Board

We continue to meet regularly, but it has been difficult 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 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 on at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

Whilst the Trust as an identity has 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 I would like to thank one and all for helping the Trust stay alive.

I would also like to give a special thanks to Board member Simon Hagerty, who continues to play a tremendous role in managing our website and getting our articles and documents out there, making them accessible to all.

Offensive comments on Social Media & tragedy chanting

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:36:33 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust are moved to respond to derogatory remarks aimed at victims of the fire disaster on social media after the Walsall game on Saturday 25 ^th and reports of tragedy chanting at our match away at Carlisle on the 18 ^th January.

Last weeks we saw our Clubs statement on the recent social media post and more recently we saw a statement from Walsall Supporters Trust;

"Following complaints made by the Trust and many individuals, Walsall Football Club (and the West Midlands Police) are taking steps to identify the individual responsible for this so called joke about the deaths of 56 people who went to a football match and never returned home.

Our thoughts are with any relatives who may have seen this abomination, not to mention the 250 odd people injured that day, some of whom received life changing injuries."

First of all, we share the sentiments of the Walsall Trust’s statement, and we are saddened that we have to respond about negative news about supporters again. We would like to share our Clubs zero tolerance position on any form of abuse or discrimination, including tragedy chanting and condemn it in the strongest possible manner.

Love Football. Protect the Game.

We would like to remind supporters that last season (23/24) the football authorities united to introduce a series of measures to help improve football participation and fan behavior, and more specifically, address the issue of football tragedy abuse under the banner of ‘Love Football. Protect the Game’.

Measures to challenge unacceptable fan behavior include bans and potential criminal prosecutions.

Restorative Practice

However, to support the rehabilitation of those identified as having engaged in negative matchday behavior, offenders may be referred to restorative practice programmes, with a range of in-stadium, in-classroom and online resources, to educate adults and children alike about the hurt tragedy chanting and other forms of abusive behavior causes.

See more about all the types of measures rolled out last season to help improve the behaviour of players, managers, coaches and fans across the professional, National League system and grassroots game here .

The Trust's Contribution to Alan Carling

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:53:05 GMT

Alan was a very knowledgeable man. He was a lecturer of Social Science at the University of Bradford and active in his union, so he had first hand experience of engaging with representatives of the employer and business. He knew how to carefully, and articulately put a position forward.

In 2011 he submitted a an evidence paper to the Government's Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on the recent history of Bradford City, illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of football in the UK at the time, and still relevant today. Drawing on the Club's toughest period of modern times; from the Premier League to League Two up until 2011, it called into question the Governance Model and looked at supporter involvement and including what the German Bundesliga way of organisation has to offer for English Football.

In about 2013, Alan was invited, along with a handful of select supporters, to give evidence to the government’s Expert Working Group (EWG) on football governance, which was published in 2016. Alan gave evidence on the effectiveness of the Supporters Board at Bradford City, which began life in 2012, chaired by former Manager of Operations, Dave Baldwin.

Along with the case for the Supporters Board was the development of Structured Dialogue, a vehicle of fan engagement with the Club, something the Trust still has in place today.

There was also the role and purpose of Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO), Supporter Director roles and Supporter Ownership shareholders rights – Fans’ reps gave evidence to all these things to the Government Expert Working Group and can be found and read up on here .

All of this was a precursor to the 2021 Fan-Led Review chaired by Tracey Crouch, and the Football Governance Bill which is still going through parliament.

Alan was Chair of the Trust from 2006 until 2013 and continued to volunteer on the Trust Board, always a strong advocate of the Trust having two channels of communication with the Club as a 'critical friend', through the Trust directly and via the Supporters Board.

Alan was also on the 'Remembrance Panel' working group on the Supporters Board and the Trust continues to lead the way in organising the annual bucket collection, raising much needed funds for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit (PSBRU).

Alan was a close friend to those that knew him well and he was tremendously proud to represent the cause of the Supporters Trust, which is first and foremost about encouraging his much loved Club, Bradford City to give football supporter representatives a say in the running the Club. A kind and caring person, Alan, gave confidence to others and was an excellent counsel, giving guidance and direction to his team. After he stepped down as Chair, Alan became our Treasurer, but he was much more than that, he was a true ally and friend right until the end.

Alan Carling Funeral Arrangements - Further Details

We would like to confirm further details of the funeral arrangements. As you know, the service will be held at Oakworth Crematorium at 12:15 on Friday 17th January. The address is Wide Lane, Oakworth, BD22 ORJ. There will then follow a private burial at Morton Cemetery for family.

A webcast of the service will be available for those unable to attend. Joining details will be sent in due course to those who have elected for this option. For those unable to attend who have asked about donations we will also circulate details of charities.

Following the service there will be a reception at Bradford City Football Club from 2:00pm, in the 2013 Suite. The address is Valley Parade, Bradford, BD8 7DY.

A Message & Funeral Details from Alan Carling’s Family

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:05:13 GMT

Friends & Family,

Thank you all for the your messages of condolence, and the lovely memories Alan many of you have shared with us. At this very difficult time your messages, conversations, offers of support and acts of kindness, solidarity and remembrance have been a real source of solace for the family.

Alan’s Funeral will be held on 17th January, starting at 12:15 at Oakworth Chapel & Cemetery, Wide Lane, Oakworth, Keighley, BD22 0RJ.

The funeral will be followed by a gathering with food and a chance for those that knew him to meet and remember Alan at a venue a short drive from Oakworth Cemetery that we are currently confirming. We will let you know further details as soon as we can.

Alan had a rich and varied life that touched many people’s lives in many positive ways, both small and large. We want the funeral to be a time for everyone to celebrate and remember his life.

Please do pass this note to friends or colleagues that you think would want to attend, but that we may have missed. There will also be a webcast of the ceremony for those not able to attend in person.

If you could please also let us know by return if you or others are attending in person that would be appreciated, so we are able to keep track of numbers for the chapel space and catering.

Many Thanks - Sarah, David, Iain & Jonathan

Share Your Stories from Valley Parade for Virtual Reality (VR) Project

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 10:12:56 GMT

We, as Bradford City fans are being asked to participate in telling their stories of being at Valley Parade by answering online survey questions about your experiences of Supporting City at Valley Parade.

You can choose which questions you want to answer and your stories / memories can be told anonymously.

For further reading please go to the University of Bradford’s press release about the project

Sad News of Loss of Our Longest Serving Active Trust Member

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 09:02:37 GMT

It's with great sadness that we must inform you, our members, and the Bradford City family of the loss of our long-term Supporters Trust board member, former Chair, Treasurer and friend Alan Carling who passed away on Friday 6th December 2024.

We cannot do justice in a few short words to the contribution Alan made to the cause of the Trust and the wider community over several decades.

We will pay our own tribute to all he has done for us and will keep our members informed of the details of Alan's funeral in due course.

Fans continue to campaign as Premier League Club Ticket Prices Soar

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 09:55:03 GMT

After 19 out of 20 top-flight clubs raising prices over the summer, and a widespread attack on concessions for supporters at both the younger and older end of the spectrum, many of the FSA’s supporters’ groups are pushing back.

Fans organized with the FSA’s Premier League Network are continuing to spread the FSA’s #StopExploitingLoyalty campaign across the weekend Premier League’s fixture lists, and they look set to continue into Christmas.

Despite the cost-of-living crisis and football clubs earning ever more income from broadcast (especially in the top 2 tiers of the pyramid) and commercial income, the cost of football tickets increased at most clubs this year.

A decade ago the FSA secured the £30 Premier League away cap and tens of thousands of fans benefit from that every week in the top-flight and EFL (where many clubs choose to implement their own deals – these can be reciprocal deals).

Home ticket prices are a harder nut to crack as every club is allowed to set its own pricing structure.

Football clubs exploit the loyalty of fans who cannot switch their ‘brand allegiance’ as customers can in other sectors, and matchday prices are higher in the Premier League than those in the Championship and especially in comparison to EFL Leagues One and Two, but it is important to keep a watchful eye at that end too.

Read more about the Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign in the Premier League here and here .

Motion on fans’ co-ordinated action against ticket prices hikes

At the FSA’s AGM in June there was a motion passed for fans in the Premier League to co-ordinate action on the cost of football tickets, proposed by the Spirit Of Shankly. Find out more about the campaign proposals and other motions voted on at the AGM here .

The New Football Governance Bill includes changes to support fans

The Regulator will now explicitly require clubs to provide ‘effective engagement’ with their supporters on changes to ticket prices. This is a direct result of the FSA’s campaign activities on ticket prices. See more about how the Bill is stronger in protecting Clubs and supporting fans here .

Away ticket prices & the impact of TV, 2024-25 in the EFL

The FSA is monitoring away match ticket prices and how rescheduled matches for TV affect you. Let us know which away match ticket prices and rescheduled games affect you and why so we can inform our FSA EFL League One & Two Network.

Email us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk

Save the date for our meeting to ratify our AGM

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 09:03:05 GMT

Many thanks to everyone that attended our AGM. It is always fantastic to see people that support us making an effort to attend either in person or on Skype.

To remedy this, our rules allow us to provide you with another opportunity to attend our AGM meeting with a minimum 7 days notice so that we can ratify our AGM business.

The date for this meeting is Wed 11th December from 7pm at Jacobs Well near the Interchange and Hall Ings.

So, if you have been perhaps thinking of attending on Skype or maybe physically then here’s your second chance! It’s great when we get the opportunity to see you.

The Skype meeting details are here .

Report of Trust meeting with BCAFC Nov 2024

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 12:01:41 GMT

In attendance from the Club were, Ryan Sparks (RS) – Club CEO and Paula Watson (PW) – Director of Operations.

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) – Chair

Apologies were given from Justin Brett (JB) – Vice Chair, and Matthew Pickles (MP)

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 18 ^th November.

The last meeting with the Club had been the 5 ^th August, 3 months ago, but we hadn’t met with RS since February so this was a much-needed catch up.

This meeting covered a lot of ground and we hope it got across what matters for supporters, and in the process a Trust sense of involvement in Club developments. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Season Tickets and Matchday tickets

The Trust feels that it is important that season tickets and matchday tickets should continue to be affordable for all. The Clubs position is it desires the same but the club will be facing extra costs of more than £300,000 due to the new governments recent budget measures on employers.

Home and away loyalty points

It was raised that supporters that come in any other way than through the turnstiles, for example going through to a sponsors’ box, don’t get their loyalty points added.

It was advised supporters using the boxes can email the club which matches they will be using the boxes so that they can be added by ticketing staff, or they can explain to a steward to exit to go through the turnstile to get their QR code scanned before the game.

It was also expressed that even getting QR codes scanned at home or purchasing an away ticket, doesn’t automatically enable supporters see their loyalty points added straight afterwards.

The Trust was advised to email the Club examples.

Away ticket availability

The concern was expressed that some away tickets come on sale quite late making it difficult to plan ahead.

It’s not always easy because supporters are at the mercy of the away club.

It was said our Club try to give at least 4 weeks notice or more about away tickets, and the Club have recently giving 48hr notice ahead of away ticket releases, with dates for purchase pending loyalty points collected, then season ticketholders and then general sale.

Atmosphere end consultation

It was said that there was still a lot of dissatisfaction among the regulars that sit in block B, and some say they will no longer buy their season ticket.

The Club said there have been 3 key consultations with supporters. One had been on season tickets and the outcome was most would be happy with an increase. Another had been on the branding, and over 4,000 took part largely rejecting any change to the Club crest. And approximately 80% of supporters were happy with the relocation of the atmosphere end to block B out of approx. 3,000 that took part.

It was also pointed out that supporters would’ve liked to be directly involved in the processes. The Club felt it was a case that fans in Block B wanted to be emailed about it.

Railed seating within the ground for both home and away supporters and cost

Staying with atmosphere, it was asked if there had been any thought of planning where in the stadium there would be a choice to stand for both home and away supporters – would block B be considered as the home choice for example.

The response was that it had been put on the back burner for the time being as there was a more urgent need for repairs over the shop, changing rooms roof at a cost of £75,000 which has largely been completed now.

Club Business Strategy (with regards to fan engagement)

We looked a this with particular attention to ‘supporters after the game’ and ‘fans feeling valued’ and there a plans to carry out surveys to understand how fans feel valued, and what would make supporters feel more valued.

Improving our structured dialogue and the Club promoting of work with the Trust and Supporters Board (SB)

It was briefly explained that more fans would understand the value of the Trust and SB if the engagement with them was occasionally publicised on the Club website.

It was felt from the Trust side, from the meeting, that the Club were more willing to commit to following up on decided action points being made.

Fan Engagement Plan (FEP)

We looked at this necessary requirement all EFL clubs have to commit to agreed to in the summer of this year.

Stoke City’s FEP is the best example of a template all clubs should aim towards.

The Trust picked up on the fact that the Clubs’ FEP has a quote from the SB’s Chair and dates of when they meet throughout the year and it was suggested that we have the same, a quote from the Chair and that we should aim for quarterly meetings in a year.

Governance Meetings

The Trust would get invites, and there we could raise ideas on diversity, community projects and sustainability.

The Club said it was aiming for silver in the Equality Code of Practice. Last season the Club achieved Bronze.

On sustainability the Club are concentrated on working with the EFL’s ‘Green Code’ sustainability programme.

Restorative Justice and Crime Reduction

It was raised about incidents at away matches against Walsall and Tranmere. Examples were given that at Tranmere, supporters were allowed to stand on the steps of the stands, and when our first goal was scored supporters toppled over each other. The Club hadn’t heard about that and it was suggested to email the Club and Tranmere Rovers.

It was also raised that disabled supporters get a raw deal at many grounds where we travel to especially where there is no choice of two areas of a ground to get into. Where we only get one stand, other supporters tend to stand in front of wheelchair users, obscuring their sightlines.

Asked about the appeals panel – where supporters accused of doing things they shouldn’t have been doing can appeal a decision, and have their case looked at again, availability for a Trust volunteer would be made.

Transport – Getting supporters to and from matches on a week night

It was explained that fans can get a day rider for £3 on a match day by using the promo code 'BANTAMSMATCH', check here , but it’s much more difficult to get home from a night match. It was asked if the Trust could contact the local authority and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to see if they have any ideas to improve this situation, and response from the Club was favourable.

Football Governance Bill

The Bill, which has cross-party support was stopped in its tracks under the Tories due to the snap general election, and kick started again under a Labour government. In the Trust’s view, we feel it has been strengthened to protect both football supporters and clubs.

The stand out changes since the first draft of the Bill are:

New powers in the Bill include consulting fans on ticket pricing, home stadium relocations, and fan representation at clubs
Parachute payments included in Regulator’s remit so it will have full oversight to tackle financial sustainability across the football pyramid
Requirement to consider government foreign policy dropped to cement regulator’s full independence

However, the Bill has not yet run its full course through parliament and therefore it is not law, and as such, the Clubs position is that it is committed to following the regulations as laid down by the EFL.

It remains unclear how long it will take to become law. It currently has 19 amendments and it is likely there will be more tweaks to it than that before it gets over the line.

What is likely to take longer is the limited period it will take for the Premier League (PL) and EFL to agree an amount of money (after years of failure to agree) that the PL redistributes before the Independent regulator would come in to choose a proposal from either or impose a figure of its own. There is a view of course that this will never happen. But one thing is true; this financial redistribution underpins the whole Bill. The disparity of wealth between the EFL clubs and PL clubs is far too great already and is still widening.

EFL Sky Deal

It was asked by the Trust how the Club benefits from the new Sky deal and it was said that the Club is £50,000 worse off in League Two compared with having iFollow under the previous arrangements. The Club votes with the collective generally when it comes to voting to accept new changes, it also voted in favour of the new TV deal with a view to being in League One or higher as the rewards are financially greater under the new deal.

Under the previous EFL iFollow streaming service agreement, the Club benefited generating £250,000 from supporters using the service to stream home and away, live streamed matches.

Club Maintenance Costs

The Club said that maintenance costs on the stadium were significantly up on last year. More than £70k has been spent on the pitch and drainage, so far, with more works taking place over the coming weeks and months.

Ownership

It was asked if there was any developments in terms of Stefan Rupp’s intention to be involved and investment since his open letter to fans and his attendance at the fans forum last summer. It was said he had come over for the Doncaster Rovers game at home in October, and nothing has changed with regard to his commitment to the Club, and was in the UK’s for Saturday’s postponed visit of Accrington Stanley.

With regards to the stadium, it was said that the Club are in a stronger position with Gordon Gibb and there will be consultation with the Trust should Gordon Gibb wish to sell in regard of the Asset of Community Value (ACV).

Our AGM will be on Skype

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 09:43:04 GMT

Our AGM is fast approaching and we welcome all members and supporters wishing to attend. The Annual General Meeting or AGM is the meeting in the year where we can discuss the achievements of the Trust.

It is a forum to discuss the purpose of the Trust and how we can go forward seeking to gain more influence with the Club.

With more emphasis on the need for clubs to engage with supporters due to the long awaited Football Governance Bill being in a process of becoming law, there has never been a more important time for football supporters coming together to discuss and debate how we can do this effectively and we can get more fans to be actively involved.

You do not have to be a member to ask questions but only members can vote.

We will be meeting at Jacobs Well in Bradford city centre, near the Interchange and situated on the left hand side before the Jacobs Well roundabout. If you are coming by care there is parking behind the Media Museum. We encourage people to arrive early as we will start at 7pm on Wednesday 27 ^th November.

If you are unable to attend in person you can attend online via Skype. The link is here .

If you would like to become an active member of the Trust you can download the nomination form here . Members have until the 20 ^th November to submit the form to us. You can send us the filled in form or ask for more info by contacting us via email at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

Download our Agenda and papers for the AGM here .

Sky & EFL Broadcast Selections confirmed up to March

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:39:15 GMT

The EFL and Sky Sports have confirmed all broadcast-selected Sky / EFL matches for the period up to the weekend of March 1 and 2, 2025.

By November 1, selections were delivered by Sky Sports to the EFL. The League has since liaised with the respective Clubs and relevant local authorities to ensure an appropriate spread and balance of home and away fixtures, prior to announcement.

From Monday 11 ^th November, Clubs and fans have up to four months’ notice of matches that have been moved in order to be broadcast. This continues the League’s commitment, ensuring fans will be able to plan with more certainty when making travel and hotel arrangements.

The full list of broadcast selections is available at EFL.com .

You can see our three selected / affected game BradfordCityAFC.com .

Broadcast selections are subject to change due to fixture rearrangements in relation to international call-ups, fixture postponements and Cup ties.

Already this season, fans at home have enjoyed watching their team more often on TV across all competitions, with all EFL Clubs set to feature more than 20 times on Sky Sports during the 2024/25 season.

Sky Bet EFL fixtures are broadcast via either an existing Sky Sports channel or Sky Sports+, integrated into Sky TV and the Sky Sports mobile app. Sky Sports+ is available at no extra cost for subscribers of the full Sky Sports package. All televised fixtures will also be available on streaming service NOW .

Selections for matches scheduled from the first weekend in March will be made on a four-week rolling basis starting from the first week of February (for example: a selection for the first weekend in April will be selected from the first weekend in March).

The Football Supporters Association (FSA) are tracking the cost of away ticket prices and fixture changes due to broadcasting. If you are dissatisfied with any of the rearrangements of fixtures or prices of tickets for the moved away games this season since the start of the season and including up to March 2025 then please let us know and we can inform our FSA Network for League Two.

You can email us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

Save The Date For The Trust AGM 2024

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:25:09 GMT

Our AGM is on Wednesday, 27th November, from 7pm, at JacobsWell , near Bradford Interchange.

This is your opportunity to make your voice be heard and contribute to making us stronger in terms of building the Trust membership and our finances, but we also want to influence the Club in securing it’s long term success and longevity, bringing in supporter led initiatives along the way that improve the match day experience for all. You will get to hear about our achievements through our reports at the AGM.

The existing Trust Board would like to see new Trust Board Members that have new ideas and proposals that will broaden our reach.

The deadline for submitting your nominations is the 20 ^th November 2024. There is space for a candidate’s statement on the form, and a proposer and seconder need to be members. For any enquiries about being a Board Member please contact us here .

Members who receive our regular emails will be able to download our Draft Agenda and Papers for the evening.

For our AGM to be quorate, we need 20 Members in attendance. Only Members can vote.

The AGM will start at 7pm, so please arrive in good time to order a drink at the bar. We will be in the snug area of the pub and greet members at the bar from 6.30pm.

The Skype meeting link will be provided nearer the time.

What is a Football Supporters Trust?

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 07:56:52 GMT

A supporters trust is a not for profit, democratic organization that is run by football supporters for football supporters, committed to strengthening the influence of supporters over the running of the club they support.

Lead by a small group of elected volunteers, they are accountable and subject to recall by the membership. The elected volunteers are board members steering the organization to work with the football club, committed to strengthening the voice for supporters in the decision-making process at a club and strengthening the links between the club and the community it serves.

In England, Wales and Scotland, there are approximately 140 supporters trusts, with as many as 110 that have a financial stake in their club and as many as 40 clubs in the pyramid that are owned by supporters. Three of them are in the EFL: Exeter City, AFC Wimbledon and Newport County.

The vast majority of supporters Trusts were formed out of crisis, including ours. You can read the history of how we were formed here .

How does it work?

Supporters’ Trusts are constituted as Community Benefit Societies (CBS), a form of Co-operative that operates under a one-member one-vote principle.

CBS's are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and any changes to the rules must be approved by the members and only become effective once the FCA has agreed to them, checking they are in keeping with the spirit of the organisation.

The members own all assets and liabilities collectively.

Under FCA rules the Trust must remain solvent if it is to continue to legally exist. Trusts are non-profit making organisations any profit made is either kept as reserves or reinvested to meet its objectives. It will never take the form of a dividend to members.

Bantams Supporters Trust was formed as Bradford City Supporters Trust in 2002 as an interim board before formal elections in 2004 in accordance with these rules and guidelines. Our registration number is 29446R.

As a CBS, we meet the requirements of the Football Supporters Association (FSA) as an affiliate member, as do all other supporters trusts, and provides trusts with model rules that fall within the CBS.

Membership

Our rules say that because members are effectively shareholder, a minimum share or cost to a member is £1 and all members paying a contribution are entitled to vote – one member one vote.

In previous years we had a free membership to encourage members to join and had a patron membership for those that wanted to contribute financially. This was only on a temporary basis, and at our 2023 AGM we reverted back charging from £1 as a minimum.

There is a free email membership but are not entitled to vote, All members receive our email news and surveys, and we regularly share them on social media

You can see our FSA Model rules (2022) here .

Can a supporters travel group have membership of the trust?

Yes, Supporters’ travel clubs will be able to have affiliation membership of the trust. We welcome contact with all supporters groups. Members of all supporter groups are encouraged to join our Trust as our purpose is distinctly different.

Our finances

All our income is modest and comes entirely from its’ membership. Much of our income goes towards operational costs such as maintaining the website and our CRM database, where we can email our news articles and surveys directly to our members. Our income goes on investment on our merchandise that we sell in the main stand concourse, and also on sponsoring players.

Ways in which the FSA help supporters Trusts

The FSA, national organization run by fans for the fans, campaigns for the interests of football supporters in England and Wales. It promotes the campaigns that supporters trusts and other fans’ bodies are involved in at their clubs, whether that is about bringing ticket prices down at a specific club or promoting a community initiative led by a trust and club working together. It can also highlight issues where the fan engagement commitment from a club isn’t there or where the owner of a club has mismanaged the finances and relations with s trust has turned sour.

All professional football club are obliged to engage in consultation with supporters through EFL and Premier League regulation, and a supporters’ trust would provide a formal mechanism.

Bantams Supporters has a direct relationship with our Club through the formal mechanism called structured dialogue.

The FSA works with the EFL to promote good fan engagement practices and recently worked on guidance for clubs to involve supporters’ trusts and other supporters groups to come up with a ‘fan engagement plan’ on a yearly basis.

Included in the guidance pack drawn up by the FSA are various engagement models such as ‘Fan Advisory Boards’, ‘fan consultation groups’, ‘structured dialogue’ and others.

It also includes formal engagement structures around how clubs and supporters should meet, how many times they should meet, numbers and who should be there, inclusivity and diversity, independent democratic bodies such as supporters trust etc.

There is some guidance to some of this on the FSA’s website here .

Training

The FSA also provides training to supporters trusts to develop its board members, its polices, and specialist projects – this could involve developing a community project or getting a club listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV as we did earlier this year, see here .

EFL Networks

The FSA also has support through its’ EFL Network group which meets on a monthly basis with an agenda guided by trust reps with guest speakers on a whole variety of projects promoting fan engagement, getting young people interested in supporters trusts, diversity projects, campaigns to encourage clubs to promote carbon footprint reduction, and regular updates on the Football Governance Bill.

What do supporters trusts do?

The bread and butter of any supporters Trust is engaging with members and meeting with the club they support.

One topic Trusts don’t get involved in with a club is about team performances, players and managers.

The conversations revolve around supporter experience on a match day, improvements to the facilities, accesibility, inclusivity, diversity, carbon footprint, foodprices, ticket prices, season tickets, community activities, restorative practice, policing and stewarding as well as well national campaigns FSA are invoved in to improve the interests of supporters, the health of our football clubs and of course the hot topic of fan engagement, and there is so much to improve there at City!

All supporters trusts are at different stages of development, some have small membership bases, perhaps with very active layer of a volunteer board, some have medum to large membership base and a small active volunteer board. Much of this depends upon the relationship a trust board has with the club they support. The better a relationship it has with a club, it is more likely there is a better understanding of what a trust does from the wider club fan-base and membership of the Trust.

Some more established trust have a community arm whereby many community projects and fundraising comes from, helping to fund club supported and fan-popular charities.

Almost all post on social media and some have a physical presence at football matches selling merchandise or some have Trust lottery schemes. Some even run coaches to away matches.

What is the differeence between the Supporters Board and the Trust?

The Trust is completely independent of our Club. Whilst the the Supporters Board has a certain amount of autonomy as a group of football fans with its own constitution, it is still an extention of the Club’s consultation process and connection between the Club and the fans.

Until two season’s ago or maybe three, the Trust had a formal seat on the Supporters Board. This was at a time when all the representatives represented a greater spread of the supporter-base than it does today, where the members of the board are there as individuals.

In the ever changing landscape of fan engagement many supporters boards are now Fan Advisory Boards and it is the case that the FAB model, the FSA recommends a seat should be for its’ affiliated supporters’ group – a supporters trust. You can see more on this here .

The other difference is that the SB is more focused on Club matters, and whilst the Trust will also be focused on the same, it also has a wider national remit that may affect the Club’ business motivations. As we know, no club is an island, there are 72 EFL clubs all in competition for prize money

Getting involved with the Trust

We at Bantams Supporters Trust would like to do so much more than what we are doing currently.

The Trust Board meets once a month, and ordinary members can come and see what it is like as an experience. We meet every third Wednesday of the month on an evening between 7 and 9 at Jacobs Well in the city centre, near the Interchange, and this ‘open door’ policy has had some positive effect.

Members can be co-opted onto the board at any time of the year and stand for election at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) usually in November, 6 months after our years’ end on the 30 ^th May.

The Trust Board has a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasure and ‘Acting’ Secretary. We also have a Website Administrator. We would like an Equality Officer and Women’s Officer, people who are good at sharing our posts, and writing articles about the matches – previews and post match reviews.

Sub-Groups can be formed to focus on specific issues, projects that we would like to develop and / or within the trust, enabling cross representation where we have members that are members of other groups for example and open dialogue.

Ultimately we are all volunteers, we encourage as many members as possible to assist with our work. It is important that more supporters join us. The bigger our support base is, the bigger voice we potentially have. The more members get involved, the more we can achieve and have a greater presence.

Join here today, and don’t forget to contribute financially to support us. Remember, your membership sub allows you to be able to vote.

Love Football, Hate Racism

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 09:33:57 GMT

On Saturday 7 ^th September Stand Up To Racism, an anti-racism campaign group that has a national profile, leafleted outside Valley Parade before the Carlisle game.

The leaflets were well received and the activity was at Bradford to show a presence after far right infiltrated rioting took place in many towns and cities in the UK in early August.

Bantams Supporters Trust would like to show its support for anti racism campaigns such as Stand Up to Racism because we believe that such campaigns can bring communities together.

In 2020 the world of sport and in particularly football, taking the knee before the start of a match became a silent act of team solidarity against racial inequality and injustice. This received widespread support from the majority of football fans. It also formed the backdrop to the ‘No Room For Racism’ initiated in 2001, widely supported by the PL, EFL, FA, Kick it Out, FSA and others

Over the years, charitable football campaigns such as Kick It Out and Fans for Diversity have put on education programmes, and support diverse supporter and football club groups promoting inclusivity. Bangla Bantams and Bhaji Bantams are good examples of this. But the work should not stop there.

When workers and football supporters (most are workers or retired workers), both men and women, of all backgrounds unite through struggle on common causes, we can cut across the feelings of negativity, fear and prejudice that exist in our society, and we can make positive gains in the interests of all.

We are inviting members and supporters to help with leafleting with Stand Up to Racism on Saturday 19 ^th October, when the Bantams take on Gillingham. We would like to advise members and supporters to meet outside the 'City Hub Community Café' at 1.30pm. Please contact us via email if you would like to take part.

Licensed Standing

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:19:26 GMT

It has been just over two years since the historic announcement that safe, licensed standing in seated areas would be allowed in football ground’s subject to the all-seater policy. So, it’s an opportune time to reflect on where we’ve come from and how it’s going.

Licensed standing commenced in England and Wales in January 2022, with five early adopters – Cardiff City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. As of 16 September, there are 22 grounds that offer licensed standing, with Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town the latest to receive licences. This is equal to around a third of all grounds subject to the all-seater policy – with over 100,000 licensed standing seats.

Giles Smith, Chief Executive of the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA), said: “The controlled return of safe, licenced standing at professional football grounds in the modern era has been an important and historic step forward. Since its introduction in July 2022, we have seen a steady increase in grounds offering licensed standing, based on the requirements of safety and giving fans a choice of being able to sit or to safely stand.”

To be eligible to offer licensed standing, clubs must aim to meet published guidance and supporting criteria, developed by the SGSA. This includes that safe standing installations – whether seats incorporating barriers or seats with independent barriers – must be on the basis of one standing space per seat, and clubs must demonstrate that the viewing enjoyment of others not within the standing area is not impeded.

Over the last couple of years, evidence has demonstrated a number of benefits from introducing licensed standing, including:

Improved fan safety

The key benefit is that the risk to fan safety through a progressive crowd collapse and subsequent injuries has been virtually eliminated, as the barriers limit forwards and backwards movement.

In addition, the risk of injury, and the danger posed to others from spectators standing on seats or on the backs of seats should they fall forwards or back, has reduced.

Enhanced fan experience

Critically, barriers help enhance spectators’ feelings of safety – particularly in having a barrier behind them and so being protected from people falling on them – which increases their enjoyment of the game.

They can also provide stability for spectators who may be unsteady on their feet whilst standing for long periods of time, and for people moving up and down aisles and gangways (which may also speed up egress).

There are also other secondary benefits, such as making it easier for spectators who arrive late to reach their seats in the middle of rows faster, as others are already standing and have a barrier to lean against when latecomers pass.

Reduced crowd management issues

There are additional safety management benefits, which have been found in grounds with safe standing infrastructure, including:

egress is more uniform because the barriers limit spectators’ ability to climb over seats to exit the stand more quickly

spectators are lined up more clearly, so obvious gaps and therefore any risk of overcrowding can be identified, particularly using CCTV

barriers make it more difficult for spectators to move within areas, such as towards segregation lines or the rear of stands

clearer aisles and gangways, as spectators are more aware of their space and use the bar to lean on

a more positive relationship between stewards and spectators in those areas as stewards do not have to attempt to get standing spectators to sit down.

For more information on licensed standing, visit the SGSA website . SGSA is the government’s advisor on safety at sports grounds in the UK.

Save The Date For The Trust AGM 2024

simon.hagerty@gmail.com (Simon Hagerty) — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 08:16:48 GMT

Members and none members are cordially invited to our Supporters’ Trust Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held on Wednesday 27th November, from 7pm, at Jacobs Well , near Bradford Interchange. We will also be on Skype if you live too far away to attend.

Bantams Supporters Trust is just as relevant today as it was when it was founded over 20 years ago, then when the Club was in crisis.

Today, thankfully, we are not with collection buckets to save the Club, and rather, we are part of a necessary mechanism of Club fan engagement called Structured Dialogue, a process where we can put across what our members and supporters are saying in response to an ever evolving moving feast of developments at our Club with the back drop of how national developments are taking place within football and society.

For those of you that are not aware, the Trust is a Mutual Benefit Society, which means that we are a cooperative – democratically owned and controlled by our members. Each member can have a share, which at its minimum, is valued at £1.

The importance of the shares is that they could be used for buying a stake in the ground or the Club if members were to direct us into doing that.

At the AGM you will be able to hear about the work of the Trust throughout the year, and you will be able to hear about the purpose of its policy motions. We encourage questions, discussion and debate, but only members can vote.

Trust Statement: The Use of Pyros

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 08:08:17 GMT

On Saturday 14 ^th September, our League game against Walsall at the Bescot Stadium was marred by an incident when a City supporter threw a pryo onto the pitch.

It is understood the Football Association (FA) are looking to fine Bradford City for the incident. It is not the first time this has happened and because there is a regular frequency with these incidents it is likely that all will be taken into account in deciding the penalty for the Club.

The Trust deplore the actions of a tiny minority that, probably unintentionally (without thinking), ruin the match day experience for the majority of supporters.

It is understood from the Club’s own statement which came out on the 20 ^th September that a young male supporter was arrested and is, ‘subsequently released on police bail, with conditions they do not attend any football fixtures in the UK while the investigation is ongoing’.

Dangerous

Pyro’s are a major fire hazard and are known to cause burns and breathing problems, alongside damage to hands, hearing, lungs and eyes. The smoke can often be a reminder to those who were witness to our own fire disaster of May 11 ^th , 1985.

We wish to remind supporters that anyone found in possession of, or using, pyrotechnic devices face Club bans and will be reported to the Police.

Stewards can have the powers to:

Search spectators on their entry to the ground.
Physically intervene against and eject spectators who are in breach of ground regulations. This includes decisions on refusal of entry.

Check out more info on stewards’ roles and duties at Sports Ground Safety Authority .

Awareness campaign

In recent years the EFL and Premier League along with the FA and Football Supporters Association, (FSA) joined together to get behind the campaign of ‘ Love Football, Protect the Game ’ which came about after fans had come back after the Covid Lock-down’ and there was a noticeable increase in anti-social incidents at or around football matches.

Banning orders

From August 1 ^st 2023 there were a total of 1,624 football banning orders in force, an increase of 24% compared with 28 July 2022 (1,308). Within the 2022 to 2023 football season, 682 new banning orders were issued, an increase of 32% compared with the 2021 to 2022 football season.

Reported incidents at football matches

Incidents were reported at 1,516 football matches in the 2022 to 2023 football season (50% of a total 3,024 matches). The number of matches with reported incidents decreased by 6% (-93 matches) compared with 1,609 matches in the 2021 to 2022 season. For more data, look at the government’s statistics .

Restorative Justice

The Trust at our last Structured Dialogue meeting in August with the Club raised the idea with the Club about preventive strategies to act as a deterrent for further incidents and what they currently have in place. Perhaps a good example of a preventative strategy is to educate those supporters inclined to use pyro’s by showing the video of the traumatic events of the fire disaster.

It was suggested to have representation on the ‘Appeals Panel’ if a defendant wants to appeal a decision.

Love Football, Protect the Game

If you regularly attend matches home and away, it is impossible not to see the visual presence of the ‘Love Football, Protect The Game’ campaign, especially at away grounds. We firmly believe that it is not worth the risk of a whole lot of trouble to throw a pyro onto a pitch.

We do not want a bad reputation for our Club or our supporters.

Exclusive discount for fans going to Field Mill if you like Pizza

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:01:15 GMT

Mansfield Pizza Hut restaurant are offering an exclusive discount to matchday going fans visiting Mansfield and the One call stadium, for the upcoming season.

This will include City v Mansfield for the EFL Trophy Group match on the evening of 17 ^th September 2024.

We received a recent email from Mansfield Pizza Hutt Restaurant and would like to communicate this to our members about this offer.

In addition to this offer they also provide free parking to any customers for the duration of their meal and afterwards throughout the game.

They are a 4-minute walk away from the ground, and a good option fans to take advantage of a discounted price meal and have the convenience of free parking so close to the ground.

The above image shows the voucher explaining the offer.

Report of Meeting with BCAFC

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:35:46 GMT

In attendance from the Club were, Marco Townson (MT) - Lead Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) and Alex Pyrah (AP) – Fan Engagement Officer FEO).

Representing the Trust was, Manny Dominguez (MD) - Chair, Justin Brett (JB) - Vice Chair and Matthew Pickles (MP).

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 5 ^th August.

The last meeting with the Club had been the 26 ^th February, 6 months ago. As expected so much that has happened since then, so this was a much-needed catch up.

Much of our discussion was about how the Trust can be involved in some way with the various developments within the Club that improves supporter and community cohesion within the City. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Season tickets

The Trust felt it is commendable that the Club had frozen matchday ticket prices considering the temptation to put prices up as seen at many other Clubs.

Also The Trust felt that it is amazing there is a tremendous amount of support in terms of so many, over 13,500 buying season tickets at the ‘Early-bird’ price, despite it going up a by £50.

Our view was that there will be many who would be happy to pay more than £249. The Club agreed, as they have many paying more after the ‘Early-bird’ deadline. In total, nearly 14,000 have bought season tickets so far. There will be many who have bought additional costs to get into the suites and bars, and so on as well.

It was pointed out also that there are some Trusts that work with their Clubs to provide a hardship fund whereby from those that like to pay over and above for a season ticket, that excess, can be put in a pot to subsidise those that can’t pay those sums of money – a hardship fund. It was said the Club and Community Foundation are already doing something like this – similar to what Yorkshire Water do.

Ticketmaster

We asked about the Ticketmaster and telephone service situation a few months ago when Ticketmaster had signed a deal with the Club. It was explained that the older ticketing system, Talent, was not without its flaws, the plastic cards were no longer working and they had to bring in a whole new telephone system. A complete overhaul was needed.

Atmosphere and the move to the lower tier of the Kop

The Club said the move was for safety reasons, and that all QR codes would be scanned to ensure all fans in the Kop would be at their seats.

Club Business Strategy for the coming season

It was explained that there were strategies for a wide range of things at the Club but the business strategy for fan engagement at least covered:

· Family Excellence – The Club have received bronze for this EFL award this year, its third consecutive year and wants to achieve gold.

· Ticketing

· Food and drink

· Website and first impressions

· Outside the stadium

· Merchandise

· Travel and last mile (to Valley Parade) – e.g. road signs / artwork

· Stadium facilities – Disability access around the ground has now been completed.

· Supporters after the game

· Fans feeling valued

Improving our Structured Dialogue and the Club promotion of our work with the trust and Supporters Board (SB).

Fan-Engagement Plan

The Trust welcomed the fact that the Club had recently put it’s Fan-Engagement Plan on the Club website . The Fan Engagement Plan (FEP) is something all EFL Clubs are required to have published following a recent EFL AGM in early June where Clubs voted to approve regulation changes . You can find out more about how and why fan engagement has become of vital necessity for the whole of football in our Trust article here .

We mentioned and discussed the Stoke City example of a FEP , which we all agreed was very good and Club said that they had used as a template.

We picked up on the fact that the Clubs’ FEP has a quote from the SB’s Chair and dates of when they meet throughout the year and it was suggested that we have the same, a quote from the Chair and 4 dates in the calendar year. It already says that the dates of meetings can change. This seemed like a reasonable suggestion from the Club.

Restorative Justice, Environmental Sustainability, Diversity and Community

We have also been vocal and had meetings/emails with Paula Watson (PW) – Director of Operations about restorative Justice and crime reduction, environmental sustainability, Diversity campaigns, building community links with the Club and Community Foundation but they haven’t continued.

There was a suggestion from the Club that we could have a person on the appeals panel with regards to restorative justice as MP works for the Probation Service, and the Club already have a representative from the SB on it.

We have also asked about being involved in a ‘Community Day’ or ‘Open Day’ event, this is usually held ahead of a new season where Junior Bantams get autographs from players and there are different activities being run for the community at the Club. There is an intention for this to happen for the 2025/26 season.

We asked about the solar panels intended for the roof of the stadium and it was said that they are now in place situated above the ‘Bradford End’ and Midland Road. On the Club website, Leanne Hunter, Watt Utilities Operations Director said of the project, “In an effort to create a sustainable and environmentally conscious future for the team, the community and the environment, Bradford City AFC and Watt Utilities collaborated to design and implement the enormous solar panel project, which took eight weeks to build and install after a year of planning.”

Staying with environmental sustainability, we also asked about the First Bradford sponsorship deal, and about any plans for running services for evening kick Off’s and it was said that any special offers were to be looked into.

On the Club website it says there is a matchday saver scheme that if you download the First bus app you can use the code: BANTAMSMATCH to secure unlimited travel all day for just £3 on matchdays.

Together in Sound

There was an idea suggested regarding bringing fans together by encouraging supporters to vocalize `We are the Bantams’ and by using technology, bring the voices together to create the voice of a crowd. It was agreed it was a possibility.

Ownership

We explained about how the Asset of Community Value had to be triggered into action; the owner of the stadium would have to declare their intention to sell. The community group that nominated the ground to be an Asset of Community Value, in this case, the Trust, would have 6 weeks to decide if we want to bid. If we wanted to bid we would get 6 months to come up with a bid. Stefan Rup could bid and other interested parties. Ultimately it would be up to the owner to choose the bid.

It was noted that the T&A piece earlier in the summer got it wrong. It missed out the fact that there is a 6 week period for the Trust to decide to put a bid in, and we may not decide to put a bid in at all.

Any Other Business

The Trust raised the possible idea of a fan exchange, of City fans going to watch Hertha Berlin, and Hertha Berlin supporters traveling to watch Bradford City.

Date for the next meeting

November.

Why Fan-engagement has strengthened Bantams Supporters Trust in its’ relationship with our Club

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Fan-Led Review

There has been a huge emphasis around fan engagement since the fan-led review of football governance was pushed into action after fan protests against the ‘big six’, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham agreed to join a European Super League in April 2021.

The fan-led review was a process of consultation with the Football Supporters Association (FSA) along with affiliate supporters trusts led by the then Chair of the review and former Tory MP, Tracey Crouch. She produced a report in November 2021. See key findings here .

On the 7 ^th September 2023, a government ‘white paper’ (a precursor to an act of Parliament) was published on football governance entitled ‘ A Sustainable Future – Reforming Club Football Governance ’ , following the then Tory led government’s commitment on supporting an independent regulator. But of course this commitment for an independent regulator has cross-party support.

On 7 ^th November 2023, King Charles said, “Legislation will be brought forward to safeguard the future of football clubs for the benefit of communities and fans,” in his speech, opening Parliament. The details of that legislation never passed through the final hurdles of the previous Parliament, but the Bill , now with Labour in government after the recent general election, still has cross-party support and in May of this year the FSA launched an open letter that had initially 170 plus group signatories which exceeded 200 by the end of May and Bantams Supporters Trust were one of them. See what the open letter says here .

EFL and FSA

One of the other factors as to why the Trust is in a stronger position in relation to the increasing emphasis of club fan engagement is that we are an affiliated member-based organization of the FSA, which brings us the advantage of being part of it’s League One and Two Network where we discuss issues that come up nationally, for example football fixture rearrangements for the purpose of SKY TV or issues around the devaluing the FA Cup by dropping replays.

The FSA has a structured dialogue with the heads of the EFL, which selected or nominated Trust reps attend with some of our full-time national officers. These meetings are by annual a year and every year, the FSA asks its Trust reps to fill in surveys as to how well our clubs conduct their fan engagement with their supporters and whether they meet regularly with shadow boards / supporters Boards / Fan advisory boards, and if they have structured dialogue with supporters trusts. The findings of these surveys are discussed at these ‘high level’ structured dialogue meetings with EFL senior representatives.

EFL fan engagement

In early June at the EFL’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) EFL Clubs voted to approve several changes to the EFL Regulations, see EFL Statement – Regulation changes , which will come into effect immediately. These include: facilities for disabled supporters, club community organisations, and clubs having to have a Fan Engagement Plan (FEP).

The Trust through our EFL FSA network was sent an email with ‘supporter engagement in the EFL guidance document. It was sent to all EFL clubs which our FSA senior colleagues had recently been working on. The document is very much intended to inform fan groups for when they are collaborating with clubs on their FEP.

Here is a snapshot of the EFL changes to its fan engagement policy in the FSA headed document. The EFL, it is said to be reinforcing its commitment to fan engagement through these amendments:

Clubs shall hold at least two meetings/fans’ forums per Season to which its supporters (or representatives) are to be invited to discuss significant issues relating to the Club. The framework for these meetings shall be documented in the Club’s customer charter, but are subject to the following minimum criteria:
Clubs must be represented by the Club’s majority owner, board Director(s) or other senior executive(s);
Where meetings are not open to all supporters wishing to attend, the supporter representatives must be elected, selected or invited in line with basic democratic principles; and
Each club shall comply fully with the League’s requirements to create a ‘Fan Engagement Plan’ and agree to:
Produce & publish a Fan Engagement Plan on an annual basis;  
Nominate a senior Official to oversee delivery of the Club’s Fan Engagement activity; and
Provide to the League (no later than 30 June each season) an end of season summary of work carried out to achieve the Club’s Fan Engagement Plan objectives
Where a Club amends its Fan Engagement Plan throughout the course of the Season, the Club must update the version published with the latest version within no less than 5 business days of it taking effect.

We became aware of Bradford City’s own FEP on the 1 ^st of August. One of the best FEP’s we’ve seen however is that of Stoke City’s . The Club consults with so many groups, groups of fans and Club staff, women and girls players, diversity groups, sponsors and so on, they have at least 12 fan events, work with their Supporters Trust and community groups and more. It’s something for all EFL Clubs to work towards.

In this new period of fan engagement we feel our hand is strengthened as the FSA have a kind of trade union and employer-like ‘collective agreement if you will.

Over the last couple of years we have attempted to gauge the opinion of the Club about the fan-led review and the priority issues that we urge consultation on. The traditional colours, the name, the stadium and ownership of the club and stadium have all been identified as items of key heritage items of importance in the Fan-led Review report. We’ve asked about the opinion of Stefan Rupp about fan ownership of football clubs as in Germany most football clubs in the Bundesliga are 51% owned, and indeed, if he would come and discuss with the Trust and Supporters Board respectively.

The fan ownership model of the Bundesliga clubs was looked at for research purposes for the Fan-led Review report.

The English version of this today is the proposed Football Governance Bill, whereby if accepted by Parliament, many key aspects of football from a more robust fit and proper owners and directors test, fan engagement and stadium requirements will need a license, and will be regulated by an independent regulator.

The Sky TV deal and what this means for regular match-going fans

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 13:13:46 GMT

In May of last year EFL clubs have unanimously voted to accept a £935m 5 year deal with Sky Sports, which starts this season and will run until the end of the 2028-29 season. It is said the deal will keep the Saturday blackout in place. But does it really?

It is said that under the deal 1,059 league, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy matches will be shown live either on a Sky main channel or via a Sky streaming platform, replacing the iFollow service.

You can see on online, on the EFL’s, ‘how to watch Sky Sports Q & A’ the devil in the detail here .

It’s basically means matches moved to 12.30 on Saturdays, teatime or later, or moved to Thursday, Friday Sunday or Monday. It’s a continual headache for actual match going fans.

But it does say at least, ‘And before a ball is kicked of the 2024/25 season, all TV selections will be confirmed for the period up to the FA Cup third round in early January.’ That relieves us a little but most match going supporters will take a dim view of this and think this is the thin end of the wedge.

It also says, ‘games will be broadcast on existing Sky Sports channels or via Sky Sports+, available to existing Sky Sports subscribers or through NOW TV’.

It is interesting to note that all selected League 2 Saturday fixtures are being televised at 3pm. It is said that no one was expecting the fixtures to be as staggered as they have been scheduled for the opening day of the season. This was an agreement made between the EFL and Sky. As there are no Premier League games that weekend and as the Saturday Championship games are scheduled to kick off at 12:30, the activation threshold (for the 3pm blackout) will not be reached.

Really, Sky, and their EFL buddies were complicit in their manoeuvrings.

However, the FSA say it will be monitoring the situation.

The Trust listing of Valley Parade as an asset of Community Value gets the ear of the BBC

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:22:39 GMT

On the 17th of July 2024, three well known City Supporters, Nick Kitchen, Lenny Berry and the Trust Chair, Manny Dominguez met up with BBC reporter Aisha Iqbal at Valley Parade to be interviewed about what the stadium means to them in light of the listing of the ground as an Asset of Community Value or ACV.

The interview is now written as a BBC news article . It is well written and covers broadly all what was said.

We believe the ACV is a matter of transparency once the owner of the stadium announces an intention to sell. Fans’ reps should be consulted and involved in discussions about the issues important to supporters such as the stadium.

Collectively, football supporters are the largest stakeholder of football. And it should be remembered that without football fans football is nothing. It is very much reliant on our passion and love of our football clubs and stadiums.

Therefore we have an obligation to consult our members and the wider city support base to encourage as much discussion and debate to see if there is a mandate for community ownership.

The listing of the ground can give confidence to City fans that the Trust has their interests at heart.

Our interview was broadcast on Look North and can be seen below.

Additionally, the full interview on Radio Leeds can also be accessed.

Trust Success in listing Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 08:02:40 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust are pleased to inform our members, and the wider City supporter base that we have been successful in our application to Bradford Metropolitan Council in listing the stadium at Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). This came into effect from the 11 ^th June 2024.

The property (the stadium) will remain on the list for five years after which time it will be removed. To re-list it, we would have to submit a new nomination for it.

We took this step because we feel that Valley Parade deserves to be recognised publicly for the role it plays in the lives of City supporters and the wider community of Bradford. For 120 years, the stadium has brought the community together with a shared focus of activity that reaches into many corners of the Bradford District's collective life.

Should Gordon Gibb’s Family Pension Fund decide to sell the stadium, the local authority would notify us. We would then have six weeks to make a decision to bid to buy the stadium. If we decided to bid, we would have a six-month moratorium period to come up with the necessary funds to submit an offer.

In the event of any substantive move to change the ownership of Valley Parade, the Trust would consult immediately with members in order to determine a fans' view of the best way forward for the club and to ensure the continuation of football at Valley Parade.

For more information about the ACV, please check the previous article we put out in March notifying you of our application, here .

We are pleased to understand from a recent article in the Telegraph & Argus that the owner of the club, Stefan Rupp, is actively considering the purchase of Valley Parade. We also welcome Mr. Rupp's emphasis on the importance of communication and dialogue in strengthening the relationship between the club and its fans, and his determination to come to the forefront of public discussions about the future of the club.

The acquisition of Valley Parade on a basis that met with the approval of fans would offer an exceptional opportunity to unify the City community around a common objective. The Trust looks forward to a constructive dialogue with the club and its owner about this possibility for the future.

You can see the Council’s listing of the stadium at Valley Parade here .

What Happens to the Bill after the General election? Part 2

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 05:15:00 GMT

It’s clear that after the general election, whichever political party wins will have it’s own take on the Bill but what is unclear is how exactly it will change if at all.

It is important however to know what the Bill looks like as it is , and the Football Supporters Association (FSA) staff and volunteers have gone through it with a fine toothcomb to bring out any weaknesses and at the same time submit amendments for improvement.

The FSA have 11 amendments, citing clarity on the objectives of the Bill in view of the FSA’s national policy commitments in promoting fans’ interests.

We would like to highlight Clause 55 (revenue distribution), Clause 56 (backstop powers) and Schedule 4 (fan engagement) as key proposal in context to the national perspective.

Clause 8. The Independent Football Regulator’s (IFR) regulatory principles

This lists those with whom IFR is required to cooperate and engage with. We think it is important that it should be amended by adding “supporters and supporters’ organisations” alongside other football stakeholders such as clubs, owners and competition organisers.

Clause 10. State of the Game report

The bill says the IFR must publish a State of the Game report including an overview of the main issues that the IFR considers to be affecting English football and whether any of those features “risks jeopardising” its main objectives (which are protecting the financial sustainability of individual clubs and the resilience of the game, while safeguarding traditional features which matter to supporters and communities).

The legislation says the first report is to be published within three years, but we feel that is too long and urge that the first report should be published within a year. We also feel its responsibility should include fan engagement across the game.

Clauses 12. Guidance published by the IFR and 13. Guidance published by the Secretary of State

The IFR is tasked with consulting “such persons as the IFR considers appropriate before publishing” its guidance. We fully expect that the IFR and Secretary of State guidance will include the FSA on the list of those to be consulted but appreciate any supportive messages to MPs from members on this subject.

Clause 37. Matters relevant to determinations

Clause 37(2) says that in making a decision on a new or current owner “the IFR must ... have regard to the foreign and trade policy objectives” of the Government. It’s a debatable point but this could give rise to concerns about the breach of UEFA and FIFA statutes so it would be preferable to replace the word “must” in 37(2) with “may.”

Clause 45. Duty not to operate a team in relation to a prohibited competition

This prevents regulated clubs from taking part in prohibited competitions - it is the clause that kills the European Super League in relation to domestic club participation.

However, there is no explicit requirement for clubs to consult fans about a proposal to play in a potentially prohibited competition - we believe that clubs should have to consult their fans as it might give them pause for thought before releasing madcap plans to the world. The IFR would be required to consult fans if new competition ideas were proposed. Clubs should too.

The bill doesn’t specify that IFR’s powers are limited to “new” competitions either, so existing competitions may fall under its remit. Therefore alterations to any competition which contravene 45(5v) - “harms, or would harm, the heritage of English football” - could lead to it being specified by IFR. This has relevance in relation to recent FA Cup replay debates.

Clause 46. Duty not to dispose etc of home ground without approval

At present there is no mention of a requirement for IFR to consult any other parties such as supporters, local stakeholders, competition organisers, etc. about a proposed sale of a ground. There should be.

Numerous grounds are already in separate ownership from the clubs who play on them which leaves those clubs facing potential forms of jeopardy, in the form of rent rises or cessation of football and redevelopment. We know that extending the Bill to such grounds would be problematic but feel some steps should be taken to address this.

Clause 48. Duty not to relocate without approval

There are no explicit requirements for the club or IFR to consult competition organisers, supporters or anyone else about such proposals. Such a requirement should be added.

Clause 55. Distribution of revenue

Possible direct payments - There is a concern that a competition organiser could seek to evade the revenue distribution provisions by arranging for clubs to receive the TV money directly (e.g. via a Netflix model whereby subscribers choose their club who receive that fee). That revenue is currently within scope of the IFR if it is “received by the competition organiser.” Adding words to include monies received directly by clubs would solve the “Netflix” problem.

Parachute payments - These are also excluded from being within the scope of the regulator’s so-called “backstop powers” on revenue distribution. Given the huge financial problems they cause we don ’t see any justification for their exclusion, which should be deleted. The exclusion of parachute payments would cement the current grotesque inequalities in revenue distribution and undermine IFR’s ability to deliver its systemic financial resilience objective.

Clause 56. Applications for resolution process to be triggered

This refers to the starting of the so-called “backstop” powers. It should be amended to allow IFR itself to trigger the resolution process when competition organisers fail to agree or fail to move the matter towards resolution. It should also be possible for the IFR to trigger the process if a settlement is agreed which compromises the IFR’s systemic financial sustainability objective.

Schedule 4 - Threshold requirements (Fan Engagement)

Fan engagement is the “core business” of the FSA. Given the fundamental requirement in the bill that “English football is sustainable if it continues to serve the interests of fans of regulated clubs” we are particularly keen to ensure that the fan engagement regime established under the bill is robust. It should be appropriate at all regulated clubs, according to their circumstances, based on democratic principles and regulated not solely on the basis of the appearance of arrangements “on paper” but with regard to the conduct of those involved and the outcomes secured by the engagement process.

It is left to the IFR to define some of the key terms (including “adequate means”, “operational issues” and the means of consultation). The Premier League has developed its own fan engagement standard centred around Fan Advisory Boards but it has been set at the lowest standard that sufficient clubs were willing to sign up to. Moreover, while some clubs have embraced and exceeded that standard, others are yet to deliver it.

We also have concerns that some clubs are avoiding or limiting consultation on important matters – ticketing policy has been a particular concern. Crucially, there is no qualitative assessment that what is put in place is properly used by clubs to consult and take fan views into account in decision-making.

The “light touch” collaborative approach in the bill puts considerable onus on the regulator to create an acceptable framework through its guidance. There is also a risk that the leagues and clubs will seek to dilute any such guidance.

Schedule 5 - Mandatory Licensing Conditions

This section must make clear that those selected as representing the views of the club’s fans should be appointed through a process that is democratic and independent of club control.

Where the club has an established, legally registered supporters’ trust, that body should have appropriate representation in the club’s consultation processes.

What Happens to the Bill after the General election? Part 1

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 09:12:28 GMT

With the general election now called for the 4 ^th July, the Football Governance Bill, which has had 2 readings in parliament already, will not have time to go through the final Committee stage during this parliament.

However, all is not lost, as there is cross-party support and the Football Supporters Association (FSA) to which Bantams Supporters Trust is affiliated to, has launched an open letter to the political parties appealing for their commitment to the bill in their manifesto’s should they win the election. The letter is co-signed by Kevin Miles, CEO of the FSA, and Tracey Crouch, the Chair and author of the Fan-led Review.

The letter also has more than 200 FSA member supporters’ group signatories including Bantams Supporters Trust.

You can see the full letter and signatories here .

Concerns about the Bill after the general election and proffered by the PL

The Guardian, 23 ^rd May says that, “There remains uncertainty, however, over whether an incoming government would pick up the bill as it is or seek to redraft it. This could lead to another extended period of lobbying by football stakeholders, and further delay the introduction of a regulator.”

And the Premier League (PL) clubs cannot agree a distribution package to the EFL and cannot agree with the EFL regarding the regulator’s proposed backstop powers to enforce financial redistribution from the top flight down the pyramid.

The Football Governance Bill – an opportunity for the Premier League, not a threat

The PL, who are not entirely on board with the Football Governance Bill, have called it a threat to a successful British business, when in fact the PL could help bring about an improved healthier competition throughout the whole pyramid with a significantly better financial redistribution process. And as well as the wider improvements the Bill can bring to the PL, it will improve it as a business.

The PL’s income is already far ahead of the top divisions in Germany, Spain, Italy and France. According to Deloitte forecasts, Premier League revenues in

2023/24 will be €3.2bn ahead of its nearest competitor, Germany’s Bundesliga.

Deloitte 2023/24 projections ( Annual Review of Football Finance 2023 ):

1. Premier League - £6.66bn*

2. Bundesliga - £3.45bn

3. LaLiga - £3.4bn

4. Serie A - £2.45bn

5. Ligue 1 - £2.05bn

It would take a failure of spectacular proportions for this commercial dominance to be lost, and that failure will not come a result of improvements to governance that have been carefully thought through by MPs, fan organisations and clubs at all levels of the game.

The huge income of the PL is offset by massive financial losses, due to a lack of financial constraints. The latest financial returns show combined annual losses by PL clubs exceeding £1bn – all while paying players and agents a combined £4.4bn.

*New reports indicate the latest Premier League club accounts showing revenue as £6.1bn.

Championship club owners, gambling to earn a share of the riches at the top of the game, delivered annual losses for their clubs of £400m . The dreadful lack of financial controls in the game has led over the years to significant numbers of insolvencies.

Since the PL was formed in 1992, 64 English league clubs have gone into administration or been liquidated.

What does success look like?

The PL is an enormous cultural success generating enormous global interest as its clubs collect the biggest prizes in football and create fantastic sporting moments. But is that the only measure of success and how sustainable is that success for every member club and every other club trying to be a member? How does the vast commercial gap between the PL and the rest of English football affect the strength and sustainability of the whole game?

How is success defined?

Is success a club like Nottingham Forest spending more on players in one summer transfer window than it had previously spent in its entire 157-year history?

Is success Everton making losses that broke the Premier League’s own rules three seasons in a row? Is success Crystal Palace going bust, twice, to clear debts? Is success Brighton and Hove Albion, a club often cited as an example of what good management can achieve, being one of the most indebted in football and sustained by the huge generosity of a single owner via a £373m interest free loan? Bolton Wanderers and Derby County show how quickly that approach can go wrong.

One problem the PL does not acknowledge is that its success incentivises its own clubs to take desperate measures to stay in it, while EFL clubs take desperate measures trying to get into it – all because of the enormous disparity in income between Premier League and EFL clubs.

It has even distorted the commercial market and the competitive playing field by introducing a special system that recognises this - so-called ‘parachute payments’ to clubs who are relegated from the Premier League. These payments are made over a three-year period to help relegated clubs bridge the income gap they experience when dropping out of the top division. But the very existence of that system is an admission of commercial weakness. And it distorts competition, because clubs not receiving payments must deal with the realities created by clubs that are.

Parachute payments or trampoline payments?

While we have referred to them as parachute payments there is no doubt they act as trampoline payments – giving relegated teams a huge advantage over other Championship clubs. The threat to football’s competitive balance is that the same handful of clubs could repeatedly be promoted to, and relegated from, the PL – creating a de facto closed shop league.

The recent offer proposed by the Premier League to the EFL would allow relegated clubs to spend 85% of their revenue on wages while other clubs in the Championship would be limited to 70%. Clubs in the 85% band already receive more revenue and would be allowed to spend a higher percentage of that revenue. EFL chairman Rick Parry said this would equate to a budget of around £110m for relegated teams while the EFL was bound to restrict EFL clubs to a £20m budget. This cliff edge must be removed and revenues spread more equitably through the game.

Of course, some clubs will always be more financially healthy than others, and so be able to spend more, but the game should not put systems in place that widen the financial gap, nor encourage reckless behaviour in the name of fair competition. The very existence of parachute payments is an admission of failure – the free market that so many in football argue should be left to run naturally needs intervention because otherwise clubs would go out of business. The answer is to address the distortion of the market at root, not seek to mitigate by distorting it further.

The Football Governance Bill could do this, but the PL is insisting parachute payments should be beyond the new regulator’s remit, and the Bill as it currently stands entrenches that position (Clause 55). One of the Bill’s key objectives is “to protect and promote the financial resilience of English football”. How can it hope to deliver on this if it is unable to address what is widely considered to be the one element which distorts the football pyramid more than any other? That clause should be removed, and we ask for your support for an amendment that does so.

England’s unique football ecosystem

The PL deserves credit for funding community projects and for “solidarity” payments to the EFL, National League (NL) and women’s game – that solidarity principle is now well established, and we believe they can go further. The PL’s success is based on a football ecosystem that extends deep into our communities and our culture. No other country attracts 38,000 supporters to a fifth tier play-off final as the NL did last season.

The chance that any club can rise through the system to achieve the top prize is central to our game, and tens of thousands of fans showed how much they valued that when they showed their anger at the plans by the top six PL clubs to break away into a European Super League. That attempt could have destroyed the English game, but instead it sparked the fan-led review, which led to the Football Governance Bill and a potential new lease of life for football.

Clubs throughout the league develop players and coaching staff that PL clubs recruit. The game, our national game, is embedded in the nation’s psyche and loved by so many because it is played at so many levels from Sunday league youth games right up to elite level. That is what generates the loyalty and the passion that makes football such a lucrative and successful business.

Left unchecked, the PL club owners will destroy the fertile ground that nurtures its roots. And that is more of a commercial threat than a Bill that seeks, as the PL admits, to embed more normal business practices in the game. The PL sees the Bill as a threat because it sees the money its clubs have as PL money. But it is not. It is football money, generated by this national game of ours.

Facts and figures

Recent media stories reporting that the PL would pay £106m to fund a regulator have been jumped upon by opponents trying to portray this as an unaffordable cost. But let’s put the figure into context. That’s £106m across 10 years, equating to £10.6m per season, or £530,000 per club. Club sources tell the FSA the Premier League currently spends more than £20m per annum on legal and governance – twice as much as what a regulator would cost.

Let’s look at some more facts and figures to put regulator costs into perspective:

· £400m spent by Premier League clubs on agent fees in one year.

· £4bn spent on player wages during 2022/23 with a median wage of £70,800p/w.

· £3bn spent on player purchases, up by 57%, with £979m recouped on sales.

· £9.4bn total squad purchase costs.

· £54m spent across all clubs on director and executive staff pay.

· £3m bonus for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy – rewarded in the aftermath of 2022/23 when the club’s pre-tax loss increased from £61m to £95m, despite competing in the Champions League. Fortunately for the club Levy’s bonus will be covered “thanks” to an increase in season ticket prices and the phased withdrawal of concessionary rates.

· Parachute payments fact #1: Between 2019-22 the PL shared £887m via what it terms “core funding” - but £663m of this went to relegated clubs via parachute payments. That is 75% of the total given to the Championship as a whole. A small group of recently relegated clubs get most of the money leading to competitive imbalance.

· Parachute payments fact #2: The PL shared £97.3m with League One and League Two teams across three seasons (2019-22). PL clubs have spent more than four times that amount (£400m) on agents fees since February 2023. £97.3m across three seasons equates to an average of £675,000 per club, per season.

· Parachute payment fact #3: The EFL argues that instead of parachute payments there should be a solidarity fund combining the Premier League and EFL media incomes with 25% of that being awarded to EFL clubs. This would lower the cliff edge and be less likely to encourage risky financial behaviours by those desperate to claim a top-flight slot.

Premier League: A threat to itself?

We’ve explained how the commercial model the Premier League has created is storing up problems that can threaten clubs. But so are the Premier League’s attempts to regulate the financial monster it has created. It took 22 years for the Premier League to introduce a set of profit and sustainability rules for its clubs to follow. The clubs themselves voted for those rules, but some found they had to break them to try and compete in the distorted landscape the PL has created. So the Premier League had to punish them.

But the League’s belated attempt to regulate itself has resulted in a bungled process that is opaque, contradictory and which has failed to gain the confidence of fans. This is damaging the integrity of the brand, as people question why and how points are won and lost, with many supporters arguing that not all clubs are treated equally.

An independent regulator can restore faith by introducing clear rules and a clear regime of governance. That is the sort of system that has enabled many other industries to gain confidence from investors and consumers that has driven success.

Far from being a threat, the Football Governance Bill protects and strengthens a great British success story.

We will write a further article (Part 2) with a view to seeking amendments to clarity within the Bill as to how it looks at present. This will give an idea to members what work still needs to be done.

Say how much you love Bradford City on TV

Fri, 17 May 2024 09:07:27 GMT

How many family households love Bradford City? You and your family household could be on Look North and tell them how much you love your match-going routine.

Look North, the BBC’s regional news programme want do a big spill into a City fan household to find out how much Valley Parade mean to City fans and link it to the Trust’s application to list the ground as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

Find out more about our application to list the stadium as an ACV and how it can safeguard the stadium here .

If you would like Look North to come to your home and interview you and your devoted City supporting family contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk and we can put you through to the dedicated BBC reporter.

The deadline for this is Wednesday 22 ^nd so you need to get in touch as soon as you can.

Total Amount Raised from Bucket Collection

Thu, 16 May 2024 07:59:30 GMT

On the 15 ^th May the Club announced the total amount raised from the bucket collection before the last game of the season on the 27th April.

The Supporters Trust played a leading role in organising the collection by getting the volunteers, this year with the support of Bradford City Disability Football Club and Shipley Bantams. There were approximately 30 volunteers raising £4,176.71 before the last match of the season against Newport County last month. A further £1, 1,130.36, collected by and donated on behalf of Co-op Funeralcare, at the annual memorial service in Centenary Square on Saturday 11 ^th May, marking the 39 ^th anniversary of the disaster. Read the Club’s article here .

It is a fantastic amount raised by those dedicated to help out last month and the total must be up there as one of the largest amounts we’ve raised. It is something that has been traditionally been done every year since the fateful tragedy and should be continued as a way of paying our respects to those who we should always remember.

The Trust would like to give a special thank you to all involved in the collection that day.

The Trust Always Remembers

Fri, 10 May 2024 08:06:31 GMT

Remembering the 54 Bradford City supporters and two Lincoln City supporters who went to watch a game of football but never returned home.

We stand with everyone today at the Memorial Service in Centenary Square and those that join us from all parts of the UK and the world to mark the 39th anniversary of the Valley Parade Fire Disaster.

Memorial Service on May 11

Fri, 10 May 2024 07:48:30 GMT

There will be a Service at Centenary Park this Saturday 11th May, from 11am in Centenary Square marking the 39th anniversary of the Valley Parade Fire Disaster.

The service, jointly organized by Bradford Metropolitan District Council and Bradford City will be attended by relatives and friends of the 56 people who lost their lives and were affected in 1985, as well as club and council officials and members of the public.

The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Gerry Barker, will host a Civic Party from Lincoln who will also attend the service together, with City’s men’s first team players and staff in attendance alongside representatives from the club, and from Lincoln City.

The disaster claimed the lives of 54 Bradford City supporters and two travelling Lincoln supporters, injuring hundreds more, in one of the world’s most devastating sporting tragedies.

Bantams Supporters Trust representatives will be laying a wreath on behalf of the Trust.

A Summary of the Season from a Trust Point of View

Tue, 07 May 2024 08:39:59 GMT

This season has been one of the most turbulent roller coaster rides a Bradford City team has given us for many years.

As we have said in previous articles, we have all been frustrated with the lack of consistency and many of us have questioned our own loyalty at witnessing at times such inept performances.

So quickly confidence has evaporated from the players when they have struggled against opponents over the course of the season, but it is a reflection of the weaknesses of the league we’re in.

Many fans simply stopped going when form dipped, however, even with such an inconsistent team and set of results as they were played out in real time, our team were never that far away from the lowest play off spot.

Fans have despaired, raged, left early, booed and missed games, and a minority even protested, but many fans came back for the last game of the season.

Concerns for the Club

This season, not since the departure of Edin Rahic, has there been lots of concern around the lack of success and a perceived lack of a plan for success, and an overall anxiety about the future of the Club and stadium under Stefan Rupp and the stewardship of Ryan Sparks. We have covered it in our perspectives article and touched on it in other recent articles too. But what we would like to bring out is that the concern for the Club has definitely brought fans together.

Of course, Bradford City’s came back from the last dip of 4 defeats on the trot, like a phoenix rising in spectacular fashion with an unbeaten run of 7: Six wins and one draw, has definitely helped. But the concern about the clubs’ finances and perceived lack of investment has stimulated much debate and encouragement to renew season tickets at the Early Bird price of £249. 13,571 is a great achievement for the Club, especially when there has been a real worry that many would simply not renew.

Finishing the season on a high

Graham Alexander must be feeling much more confident for his prospects of taking his team up next season. That will be the expectation. His approach has been questionable for much of the season, but the team rallied together, putting on a real fighting performance against Tranmere at Valley Parade back at the end of March which was the start of their unbeaten run and ended with a 4 – 1 win over Newport, the last game of the season, and we were so close to a play-off place.

There are so many games we could’ve won. The home game against Crawley Town in early January when we were winning 2- 1 with 11 minutes to go and then they equalized before the 90, and came out 4- 2 winners in injury time. And then there was the Grimsby away game more recently, which was poor as we couldn’t find a route to goal against a team fighting for their lives to stay up and we fortunately saved our blushes with an injury time penalty equalizer. And I’m sure there will be lots of other examples we should’ve won supporters will be able to cite from this season’s games. But at least the Bantams as a team have shown some promise in the end.

The late run made the Player of the Season evening a successful evening, with Brad Halliday scooping up most of the awards, and ‘he’s one of our own’ Bobby Pointon, picking up the Trust’s Young Player of the Year award.

Fan Engagement

What was also significant about this season is that in the background, English football has been going through a huge amount of reform via the Football Governance Bill, which is all about making the game more sustainable, with a large amount of emphasis on fan engagement. On the 23rd April, it went through its second reading in Parliament. You can see more about it here . And we will have a more detailed piece on it in the coming months.

What is significant about the Bill is that it comes with an independent regulator to review all aspects of how Clubs do business and engage with supporters. However there is still a lot of work to be done with regards to the Football Supporters Association (FSA) lobbying MP’s, broadly speaking in tightening up the detail of the Bill with the aim of making football clubs more accountable to match going supporters, who we feel are the most important stakeholder football clubs have.

Supporters have an important role

As we have said before in our previous perspectives article , there needs to be a form of fan unity in keeping abreast with the range of developments the Club has in terms of how it sees itself progressing, with regards to club identity, heritage, ticketing and loyalty points, match atmosphere, food and cost to supporters etc., and not only that, but engaging with the many groups and organisations that exist within the supporter base.

Without doubt, many supporters are members of many groups, however, one aim of the Trust is to communicate with as many groups or key individuals from the groups as possible in a season in an informative informal way, discussing and debating the various controversies that come up. It is remarkable how much we all have in common.

Working together with the Supporters Board (SB) for example in finding common ground is something to work on, and it is the same with identifying with other groups, there can be a great amount of trust and solidarity built amongst supporters, and a more united view can be found and fed back to the Club. This can be through surveys of course but also feeding directly to the Club in meetings with them.

The Trust is affiliated to the FSA and through its Networks we can draw out points where other Trusts have developed new ideas and strategies to improve their fan engagement with their clubs, and hopefully we can have an effect on improving our Club’s engagement with ourselves, the SB and the loyal fan base more broadly.

Do you want to make a difference? Join the Trust today .

Bucket Collection Thank You

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:42:04 GMT

We would like to thank all of you who participated in the Bucket Collection on Saturday April 27th at Valley Parade, our last fixture of the season against Newport County.

The traditional one minute silence we have to remember those that failed to come home after that fateful day on May 11th 1985 was impeccably observed.

But ahead of that we had up to 30 volunteers with buckets all around the ground. It must be quite a record for some years, and whilst we don’t yet know the total, hope fully we will break a record with the amount.

We would like to give a special thanks to Jaimie Dorward and Paul Jubb for getting numbers involved from the Bradford City DFC, and Steve Gorringe for getting volunteers from Shipley Bantams.

We would also like to give a special thanks to Manny Dominguez who got volunteers from the Supporters Trust and co-ordinated the activity.

So, well done everyone for doing their bit. Whatever we have raised, this has been a great traditional collective exercise and a great achievement.

The Winner of the Young Player of the Year is...

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:44:15 GMT

We would like to thank all of you who voted for the Supporters Trusts’ Young Player of the Year 2023/24.

No-one could’ve written the script as to how the Bantams roller coaster season has gone. Just as we thought it was over, there is a very slender outside chance of a Play Off place as we come to the last game of the season on Saturday against Newport.

Congratulations is very much in order to Brad Halliday who picked up so many player of the year awards from the Club’s main sponsor, JCT600, and all the supporters travel clubs, and from the team itself.

Young Player of the Year

The winner of the Trust’s Young Player of the year is of course, Bobby Pointon! He won by a country mile! We would also like to give a special thanks to Manny Dominguez, representing the Trust, who gave Bobby the award.

To see all the winning categories please click here .

Once again, thank you for all of you for taking part. You know who you are and we very much appreciate your involvement in this event and making it a success.

The End of FA Cup Replays

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 09:20:45 GMT

Bantams Supporters’ Trust, along with many other Trusts, supporters and EFL and non-league clubs are bitterly disappointed with the FA’s recent announcement that FA Cup replays will be scrapped from the first round onwards .

As well as replays there is real concern across football that many of the things which make the FA Cup special – its history, heritage and tradition – are also under threat.

The fourth and fifth rounds and the quarter-finals all will be exclusive of Premier League fixtures for the first time, and the fourth round will have an extended window from Friday to Wednesday to allow fans to watch consecutive days of Emirates FA Cup football.

Taken from the FA’s Statement

Stretching a “weekend” from Friday to Monday causes travelling problems to supporters but the FA have agreed to extend that to Wednesdays for the fourth round! Yet even more TV disruption for match-goers.

The abandonment of replays means that planning train travel for matches now has to take into account possible extra-time and penalties.

Support from the FSA

The FSA (who we are affiliated to) supports replays in the competition. In its’ submission to the Fan-led Review (July 2021, see p84 ) they argued that the remit of an independent regulator should extend to the FA Cup in order to offer another layer of protection and supporter engagement. This was not included in the Football Governance Bill which is currently passing through Parliament.

UEFA to blame?

No football competition organiser exists in isolation. The FA rightly should be held to account and facing protests, but UEFA and the Premier League’s richest clubs are equally complicit. It is their greed that is the basis for this decision.

“The start of this process can be traced back to UEFA’s capitulation to the demands of the richest Champions League clubs for whom nothing was ever enough. The competition format never satisfied them as they wanted more and more games (translation – more and more money).

This ultimately led to the expansion in European competition which we will see next season with an extra 4-6 Champions League games per club “thanks” to the Swiss Model – and it’s the FA Cup which has paid the price to free up those additional dates.”

Taken from the FSA article on the replays .

The last national FSA survey

Their National Supporters Survey (released August 2023) asked a range of questions relating to the FA Cup – they showed that support for replays still exists.

69.5% of fans said replays were an important aspect of the FA Cup.

26.1% were in favour of abolishing replays in the FA Cup.

Meanwhile 38.8% of respondents felt that if both clubs agree in advance then they should be allowed to avoid a replay and go straight to extra time and penalties.

Those stats are based on the responses of almost 10,000 individual supporters.

See more here .

Premier League talks with EFL

From September 2023 the PL have been in discussions with the EPL in view of a draft proposal to them on the structure of potential financial arrangements for them. In those proposals were conditions linked to future funding including cost controls, distribution mechanics, the football calendar and the impact of the Government’s proposed Independent Football Regulator (IFR) as part of the Football Governance White Paper. These proposals were put to the EFL in the knowledge that the PL would be tying up their TV deal arrangements by December.

They included proposals wishing to abolish FA Cup replays and have single leg EFL Cup semi-finals but, at the same time, wanted the 16 PL clubs invited to enter the EFL Trophy to play more games! See our article The Premier League TV Deal & It’s proposals to the EFL we put out in December.

What we think

Bantams Supporters Trust believe that the broadcasting companies must also be held accountable signing up to these deals to take advantage of selling / televising a ‘product’ to millions of supporters, making vast amounts of profits in the process.

The broadcasting companies are inexorably linked to all the major football competitions as they provide the competitions so much wealth where the richest clubs are rewarded the most.

As part of the FA and PL’s proposal to do away with replays was to compensate smaller clubs by investing more in grassroots football, but that should be a given anyway and there is no sign of an agreement from the PL to redistribute it’s wealth as part of a commitment to sustain the game, and it is a requirement of the Football Governance Bill.

The magic of the FA Cup is real, but only just, and like a star it fades, and it is fading every year through decisions made by the few, to the detriment of our beloved game. It shouldn’t be this way.

Supporters being organized and active as a collective voice is the key to begin to turn that around.

Burns Research Unit bucket collection volunteers appeal Update

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:23:15 GMT

Please arrive at 1pm outside the WD Gate entrance - the large gates opposite the club shop. There will be a quick safety briefing at 1.15 before we all stand outside the various entrance points around the ground.

We all need to meet back at that entrance around 2.45 to hand buckets in so you can all get back to your seats before Kick off.

If you would like to be involved in the bucket collection please contact us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk and / or ring or text 07833390902.

If you don’t have a ticket for Saturdays match you may get a free one if you are prepared to volunteer. We do need you to let us know in advance so that we can let the Club know.

Last year the collection raised £2,455.11 with a handful of volunteers.

Hopefully with a high number of volunteers we can raise much more vital funds for something we all care deeply about.

See our earlier Volunteer Appeal here .

A Trust Perspective on the direction of our football club

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 09:26:18 GMT

With the season more of less over, for fans, it is difficult to feel any sense of achievement for our Club. It has been one of the most difficult season campaigns to watch as the team have failed to find its’ form.

It has been said by many fans, as we have discussed in the pubs, and in football grounds, that fans have been losing faith and turning away from attending, after years of mediocrity. But it depends on who you speak to. Most with longer memories are familiar with it but at the younger end, many won’t stand for it.

But from whichever generation you speak to, the majority feels it has been bad, particularly at home. The inconsistency of a team that has never seemed to get going has be been peppered with some bursts of enterprise (?) and good effort. Reaching the semi final of the EFL Trophy, and then playing and losing what has been considered the best home game of the season at that semi final against Wycombe has been a key moment for those that were there, or watched it on Sky. From November through December we showed our best form, and then we won a few in February to early March before losing 4 in a row which included the 5 – 1 drubbing at home to Mansfield in March, making any hope that we could ever reach the Play Off’s extremely remote.

Each downturn as it did last season, brought on a meltdown on social media, but only this season, feelings about the state of the Club felt much worse.

Discontent and pressure for change

As we have commented on before, the bubbling discontent has been simmering for a few years now, and particularly in the last three or so those concerns with the team have brought cause for concern at the top – the ownership, control and management of the Club. But it is this season more than any one since the departure of Edin Rahich in 2018, where we have seen a demand for the owner Stefan Rupp to leave.

It’s clear that the primary motive for this demand is a lack of investment in the team by the owner, to increase our prospects of success, which then concludes a lack of knowhow about bringing the talent to the Club (managers and players alike) and knitting it together, by those that run the Club on a day to day basis.

Brought to the surface

There had been concerns about Stefan Rupp’s interest and lack of engagement with supporters and investment for some time. Indeed reflecting that, we, at the Trust have been requesting that he engages with us at our structured dialogue meetings with the Club for a number of years now, and certainly at a Supporters Board level, this has been raised.

Requests for supporter engagement and more investment from other groups have come largely in the form of letters and the threat of protest in particular, which became more real after the Mansfield defeat.

Stefan Rupp’s open letter response to fans was well written, and covered all ground, in particularly, investment to compete in the transfer market and in terms of his presence at the Club and his communication with the fans, although it is not clear how he will communicate with us. He did talk about the ground and the issue around the lease, and the possibility of buying it. He also made known his commitment to his ownership and his considerations to sell and ensure the Club sale to those with the best intentions to bring greater success to the Club. He also promised to add someone to assist in the football department – this has already come in the form of the recent appointment of David Sharpe, as the club’s head of football operations.

No doubt fan pressure has brought things forward. The protest that did take place before the Tranmere game was very real, and was a reflection of how bad things had got, and made on the regional news and had nation media attention. If Stefan Rupp was sitting on this statement for a while, it's a mystery why he didn't release it sooner - it would have helped to reassure fans and defused some of the discontent.

Fan group unity is important

Among the Bradford City fanbase there a number of supporter organisations, clubs, forums, media outlets, and all have a presence on social media. All these groups represent fans in different ways and some have specific remits for this.

On the ground, as fans, we all want the same thing, a successful winning Bradford City on the pitch, with the Club engaging and communicating very well with the fanbase. Many supporters are members of several groups.

Whilst there are differences within specific groups, the Trust feels it is imperative that groups should work together on things we can all identify with. For us, whilst we all worked in different ways, to the Club we must all sound remarkably similar.

The Supporters Board is an ideal forum that fans groups can be a part of. Historically it has been made up of a mix of individual supporters and supporters groups. The Trust and travel groups for example. Some groups meet the Club separately. There is the atmosphere group and diversity groups as well, so the aims vary, and some are more limited than others.

Although we are not currently on the Supporters Board we do have a direct channel of engagement with the Club. The Independent Supporters Group, who have been the most publically vocal in its criticism of the Club’s perceived lack of ambition, are a relatively new group and sit outside of any fan engagement with the Club.

Next season if stagnation continues to play out on the pitch, it cannot be ruled that protests will continue to be organized, demanding the ousting of the owner and its representatives charged with running the Club. Therefore it is important for the Trust and other groups to work together to encourage the Club and owner to improve their communications and engagements with supporters.

In 2017, the Government Expert Working Group (EWG) on Football Supporters Ownership and Engagement reported good progress with EFL and PL Clubs implementing their recommendation which was that club leaders (owners/senior executives) from every one of the 92 professional clubs meet with a representative group of supporters (including the Supporters’ Trust) from their club at least twice a season has been agreed by the Premier League and English Football League (EFL).

Today there is somewhat a mixed picture of how well clubs engage with supporters.

Supporters Boards are called many things these days, shadow boards, advisory boards and all have varying intricacies of how clubs engage with Supporters Trusts.

Six years from the Government EWG on fan engagement we now see the Football Governance Bill, and it still recommends that a Supporters Trust should be part of a supporter representative board.

The state of the game and what the Football Governance Bill is supposed to bring

Lets be clear, football cannot manage itself. As we’ve indicated in previous statement about the Football Governance Bill , the ‘greed is good’ Premier League wealth from its national and international TV deals has widened the gulf between the top half, or the ‘big six’ of the PL and the rest. It can’t even agree how much money it should distribute to the EFL and National League.

There is deep distrust of the football authorities and what the mainstream political parties have to offer on football let alone anything else.

The ‘let’s sack everyone’ voices are not exclusive to a layer of Bradford City supporters, when frustration reaches a certain height. It is linked to a state of alienation and anxiety caused by a lack of control football supporters feel when progress is not been made on the pitch, because everything is down to money. It is tough for clubs competing within the EFL when the wealth amongst all of them is so uneven.

What we are promised in the Bill

The key feature is that all aspects of governance including aspects of club heritage, as well as fan engagement, are that they will be licensed, in the same way that stadiums have to have a license today for safety. These licenses will be overseen by an independent regulator under the Bill.

*What the Football Governance Bill and the Independent Football Regulator will do

The legislation will strengthen the governance and financial resilience of football clubs and the link between clubs and their fans. The legislation will do this by:

Establishing a new independent regulator. The IFR will operate a licensing system, where all clubs in scope will need a licence to operate. It is intended that all clubs in the top five tiers of men’s English football will be in scope of the regulatory regime.
Establishing strengthened Owners’ and Directors’ Tests to make sure club custodians are suitable.
Enabling the use of targeted financial regulation to improve the financial resilience of individual clubs and the system more broadly.
Setting a minimum standard of fan engagement and requiring clubs to comply with club heritage protections.
Requiring clubs to seek IFR pre-approval for any sale of, or relocation from, their home ground.
Preventing English clubs from joining prohibited competitions that do not have the support of the fans or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.
Giving the IFR targeted backstop powers to intervene in financial distributions if necessary and subject to certain thresholds being met, in order to ensure financial sustainability.
Establishing a ‘Football Club Corporate Governance Code’, requiring regulated clubs to report on how they are applying the code of practice.
Periodically prepare and publish a comprehensive ‘State of Game’ report, which will act as a market study for football and provide the IFR with a key evidence base.

*This is taken directly from the government website .

Cross party agreement

All three main establishment political parties support the Bill. What matters however is interpretation, and therefore its effectiveness. This will become more real once the Bill has finally gone through the parliamentary process of making it statute and of course, after we know which party is in power after the general election.

It is likely clubs will continue to slide into financial trouble, and continue to get points deducted or cease to exist after this legislation is passed, so it will be likely that there will be fan pressure to make these reforms work effectively.

The stadium

As mentioned earlier, Rupp did acknowledge the ground situation and the possibility of buying it, and as we have mentioned in a previous article we produced in March, we did apply for the stadium to be an Asset of Community Value.

“Assets of Community Value are designated under the 2011 Localism Act in recognition of provisions, services or buildings that occupy a key place in the hearts and minds of local communities. The Act was designed to provide an element of devolution of power to communities and community organisations.

As far as the Trust is concerned, the main advantage of listing Valley Parade as an ACV is that it would:

Grant Valley Parade the public recognition it deserves
Give City fans an undeniable voice in the future of the stadium
Prevent the owner from selling the asset from under our noses, without the knowledge of the fan base.”

The Trust as we are a community mutual benefit society, we are the only supporter organisation that can apply to the local authority for the stadium to be an ACV, as such, we can raise some serious amounts of money, and our rules allow us the potential to democratically own a football club or a stadium, or both.

We explained to the Club of our intention to apply for the ACV in Novembers meeting with them.

Vote for your Young Player of the Year

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 08:47:35 GMT

It is that time of year again, as Bantams Supporters’ Trust Members you have the opportunity to vote for the 2023-24 Bradford City Young Player of the Year.

This season has been probably one of the most difficult to watch in years as the Bantams have floundered around mid table in a season that never really got going, but with a few exceptions.

This season, from the first team we have 5 young players making an appearance as defenders and forwards.

Daniel Oyegoke , signed on loan from Premier League side Brentford in July last year until the end of the season. The London born defender has made 19 league and 1 League Cup appearances this season.

Jonathon Tomkinson , signed on loan from Norwich in September last year until the end of the season. The US born defender has made 19 league appearances and 5 EFL Trophy appearances this season.

Bobby Pointon , signed again in July last year for 1 season after securing a professional contract in 2022. He is one of our own, as the chant goes and has made 19 appearances this season. As a forward, he is has scored 2 goals, including the one he scored against Tranmere where he got Man of the Match.

Jake Young , a forward, joined in the Summer of 2022 on a 3 year contract from Forrest Green. Since been recalled in January of this year from playing at Swindon Town on loan, he has made 4 appearances in the League and 1 appearance in the EFL Trophy.

Tyreik Wright , a forward from the Republic of Ireland, is a loanee that joined in January of this year, from Plymouth for a second time. He was on loan under Mark Hughes a year earlier. He has made 9 appearances for City this season.

All five candidates eligible for the Bradford City Young Player of the Year 2022-23 have made valuable contributions, but who has been your stand out performer?

Daniel Oyegoke (Defender)
Jonathon Tomkinson (Defender)
Bobby Pointon (Forward)
Jake Young (Forward)
Tyreik Wright (Forward)

Voting starts today, Monday April 8th and end Friday 12th April. The Player Of The Year Dinner and results announcements will be on Tuesday, 23rd April 2024.

To vote, simply email us your number 1 Young player at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk .

You can also let us know via our Facebook Group and Likes page as well as our Twitter page.

Football Governance Bill Introduced

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:40:28 GMT

On Tuesday 19th March The Government introduced the Football Governance Bill to parliament and it has been well publicized in the press.

The reason why campaigners and football needs this Bill is because we know that Football cannot regulate itself.

The Premier League was created with the help of TV money when 20 League clubs resigned from the Football League to sign up for it in May 1992. Since then, the financial chasm between the richest clubs and those at National League level further down the pyramid has widened. The enormous disparity between the wealthiest and the less well-off mirrors the increasing inequality within society as a whole.

The scale of the PL’s bigger and bigger national and international global TV rights packages has piled pressure on all the clubs beneath the PL. Club owners have been tempted to overspend in order to compete, to turn to crooked behaviour, to profiteer for themselves or to gamble too much on club success. We know that this has caused many clubs to go out of business, or to be in danger of going out of business.

It is this continuing financial danger faced by smaller clubs in the EFL that has created the perceived need and the political pressure to introduce legislation that will protect football clubs and help to sustain their identities and the communities they serve.

Fan-led Review

The fan-led review, conducted by Tracey Crouch MP, consulted with supporters group through the Football Supporters Association {FSA) and she concluded her Football Governance Report in November 2021.

It was the storm created domestically by the threat of the European Super League, with the PL’s big six announcing their intention to break way in April 2021, that finally pushed the government into action.

The central proposal of the fan-led review was to introduce statutory independent regulation of the game, and now it is here, in the form of the Independent Regulator for Football (IREF).

As well as blocking clubs from joining a breakaway league the regulator provides an opportunity to stop clubs being run into the ground, it protects the heritage of clubs and give supporters a much bigger voice in the running of the game.

The FSA’s response

Kevin Miles, CEO of the FSA, the organization to which we are affiliated, says, “The FSA warmly welcomes the tabling – at last! – of the Football Governance Bill arising from the 2021 Fan Led Review, and particularly its central proposal to introduce statutory independent regulation of the game.

“The regulator must be given the power to impose a financial settlement in the interests of the sustainability of the game as a whole; it’s far too important to be left to the squabbling between the vested interests of the richest club owners.” His full quote can be found here .

The EFL Statement is certainly more favourable to the introduction to the bill, compared to the PL’s more apprehensive response .

Below are some of the FSA’s key recommendations that went to the Fan-led Review:

To ensure financial sustainability of the professional game, IREF should oversee financial regulation in football which should be based upon prudential regulation in other industries recognising that football is obviously sport but also now big business.
New owners’ and directors’ tests for clubs should be established by IREF replacing the three existing tests to ensure that only good custodians and qualified directors can run these vitally important community and cultural assets.
There should be a new corporate governance code to support a long-term sustainable future of the game. This should be mandatory for all professional clubs with common requirements tailored to different leagues.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) plans should be mandatory for all clubs with EDI action plans regularly assessed by IREF.
As every club’s most important stakeholder, supporters, should be properly consulted by their clubs in taking key decisions by means of a shadow board. Effective supporter engagement should be a licence condition and overseen by IREF.
There should be additional protection for key elements of club heritage through a “golden share” requiring supporter consent and overseen by IREF.

How could the Football Governance Bill help Bradford City?

Ownership - there should be regular owner’ and directors ‘ tests as well as for new owners overseen by an independent regulator.

Fan engagement – The Government report, ‘A Sustainable Future –Reforming Football Club Governance’, February 2023, recommends that Supporters / Shadow Boards, ‘should at least include a club’s Supporters’ Trust and adequate representation for the women’s team if the club has one affiliated’, as well as other representative groups of fans.

The ‘Golden Share’ - should be held by a Community Benefit Society (CBS) such as a Supporters Trust which would act as extra protection on ‘heritage’ issues such as:

The sale of a Club stadium; The re-location of a Club; The Club joining a new competition; Club badge; Club home colours; Club name.

Any changes to the above would require consent of Trust members. The Government doesn’t object to Clubs using the Golden Share model but prefers giving the independent regulator further powers to protect these heritage issues.

Greater financial distribution of wealth

Key to the whole desire to protect and sustain the game is seeing a greater redistribution of wealth from the top of the English football pyramid to the bottom. The Premier League cannot agree among its member clubs how an overall sum of around £900m over 6 years, partly tied to future TV revenues, would be paid. It should be those clubs with the biggest profits who can afford to pay more that should fund most of it.

The football governance bill is supposed to include new backstop powers around financial distributions between the Premier League and the EFL, so that if the two parties continue to fail to agree on a 'new deal', the regulator can ensure a settlement is reached.

Concluding remarks

The Bill has not been debated in parliament so it is not yet enacted, but eventually when it becomes law, football governance's big moving feast will no doubt need constant tweaks to tighten up the many moving regulatory parts, and to beef up the powers of the independent regulator.

The debate and pressure from below – from the fans in particular, will continue to attract public attention if clubs continue to slide into financial trouble, continue to get points deducted or cease to exist after this legislation is passed. The campaigning work of supporters certainly doesn’t rest once the Bill gets over the line.

Report of Meeting with BCAFC

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 10:42:20 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust met with the Club on Monday 26th February. It was a useful and productive meeting.

So much has happened since the last meeting. On the pitch we have seen improvement and the game against Wycombe in the semi-final of the EFL Trophy, despite losing, was widely seen as the best home performance this season so far. However, progress on the pitch has been halted due to the weather more than once this year.

Much of our discussion goes over our recent survey findings, and the survey itself covers some of the national picture as well, and the topics are regular features of what we discuss in these meetings. So, without further ado lets dive into it.

Report of the Meeting

Survey

The Trust reported that over 160 supporters took part in the survey and explained that 60% were non-members, and 40% were members of the Trust, and that the majority taking part were of an older age group, predominantly white male living in Bradford and west Yorkshire area, and 17% identified as Women.

Season tickets

The survey covers last season as well as the take up for this year, so, most supporters who took advantage of the early bird offer renewed in this way this season, and there was a slight increase on this seasons.

Digital

We also explained most pay in one go and most were satisfied with the process of purchasing season tickets. Breaking that down further, the levels of satisfaction are lower when it comes to digital ticketing over a physical card. It is likely that this is an age preference.

Matchday tickets

The vast majority, 87% strongly agree that they represent good value. 45% strongly agree with an online discount, whilst 41% strongly agree that £20 is a fair price for a matchday ticket, and 46% strongly agree that £15 is a fair price for the advance online ticket price.

The Club were clear that matchday prices were not going to become cheaper.

Bantams Membership Scheme

We explained that 70% of our participants were not members of the scheme. This may have been an age thing. 58% said that as a season ticket holder they felt they were Club members. And 49% said the benefits we not worth the price.

Of those that were members, there was no overall majority in terms of what enticed them. 54% said it was the loyalty points, 52% felt they wanted to contribute more to the Club and 4% said they were induced by the special offers.

Loyalty Points

There was no overall majority. Most people at 33% felt they didn’t have enough points to buy the away tickets they wanted. 25% said they had enough loyalty points to purchase all they wanted and 23% said they couldn’t buy any at all due to not having any points.

The Club found it hard to believe that some couldn’t buy any for not having enough points as most away tickets ended up being made available to season ticket holders and many went on general sale.

Perhaps there is a layer of supporters not constantly looking when away tickets come out with the perception they are not going to be able to get one because they don’t think they have enough points.

It was asked about whether the times of ticket release have changed as sometimes they’ve gone on sale at mid-day. It was said that they do sometimes resale in less than 24hr hours.

It was pointed out that if the team vastly improves on the pitch, the demand will be greater.

A point was made that smaller grounds with limited away capacity was a constant issue in the lower leagues.

It was pointed out that the loyalty point scheme was still fairer than the priority card. It was said that the Priority card didn’t work as it was taking money off supporters on the premise they’d get a ticket.

It was suggested from the Trust that the Bantam Membership Scheme acts in a similar way to the old priority card as it costs and the 100 loyalty points is an incentive in a competition to get more in order to buy away match tickets.

The programme

There was no overall majority view on this. No, probably not like to see it back won out at 37%. 27% did definitely want to see it back, and yes probably came in at 19%. And 15% said definitely not. So, it is likely that certainly the older age bracket would’ve liked to see it back but there is a wider reluctant acceptance that it won’t return.

The Club definitely said it was not cost effective to produce, and even the sponsors were not bothered about it as not many were actually bought. Colchester’s free programme was mentioned but theirs was run at a loss.

It was said that it was not only waste in money, and cost club money, but had an environmental impact. There was a lot of waste.

The Club were committed to souvenir programmes – if we are in a glamour cup tie for example. This was felt to be a good concession.

Kiosks and bars

35% visit them every game and 20% rarely / occasional, 16% never, and 13% most games.

Value for money

The majority answer was ‘adequate’ at 37%. The second highest answer was poor at 27%. Very poor scored as much as 19%, whilst ‘good’ got over 19%, with ‘very good’ receiving over 1%.

Many popular additions to catering options Tiffins can’t do for the moment. Most supporters who took part in the survey want chips, 60%. Everything else was inconclusive. Gravy and mushy peas both scored 15%. Bitter / ale scored 18%, vegetarian alternatives scored 17% and both Bhajis and Samosas scored 21% and 20% respectively.

Other suggestions to improve in-stadium offerings reflected a dissatisfaction. Better quality of service, food and cheaper prices were all suggestions. Less queuing, cash sales, opening more kiosks pointed to the need to improve the services.

It was said that takings on the catering were on the up, and requests for things like gluten free products or vegetarian options for example were not done in general because the demand for them was not enough.

It had been said by Doug, the Manager of Tiffins catering that food requests could be emailed in. However, it was said that supporters who had arranged for something to be brought in would have to pick it up at a bar /kiosk.

Indicating levels of agreement on a range of statements/topics

The Trust doing a good job in representing supporters

Almost 24% strongly agreed, almost 37% somewhat agreed, and over 32% sat on the fence saying they neither agree or disagree, while nearly 5% somewhat disagreed and over 1% strongly disagreed.

The Supporters Board do a good job in representing supporters

15% strongly agreed, with 36% somewhat agreeing. 39% neither agreed nor disagreed, and 4% somewhat disagreed while nearly 5% strongly disagreed

Feeling that Bradford City’s supporter engagement is good

Over 15% said they strongly agreed, and over 46% somewhat agreed, and over 29% neither agreed nor disagreed. Only 6% at the time somewhat disagreed and over 1% strongly disagreed.

The Club felt quite pleased with this.

Feeling that Bradford City cares about you and your views

Only 8% strongly agreed with that statement. 40% somewhat agreed, and almost 32% neither disagreed nor agreed. Nearly 14% somewhat disagreed with over 5% strongly disagreeing with that statement.

Swearing and bad language is part of watching football

Over 13% strongly agree, with over 30% somewhat agreeing. Slightly less, 27% neither agreed nor disagreed with over 17% somewhat disagreed and nearly 11% strongly disagreed. There was no overall strong opinion about this.

We agreed with the Club on this one that swearing and bad language is widely accepted at football, and it is a society problem, and if we are trying to make football more inclusive to wider, diverse groups, then it needs to improve.

Importance retaining the 3pm blackout to protect lower league clubs

There was a stronger opinion felt about this one. 41% strongly agreed with this, and just over 26% somewhat agreed, with over 19% of you sat on the fence. Only 8% somewhat disagreed, and only 3% strongly disagreed.

This is in line with the national view of football fans.

The Club’s opinion was that football would be better if it was removed, saying that if fans couldn’t get to a game they should be able to have a choice of watching it on TV. They didn’t feel that smaller clubs would lose their regular footfall. They feel there is a fear that supporters may choose to be sitting at home over coming to the game.

It’s right to ban fans from drinking within sight of the pitch

There was no really strong view about this one. Although nearly 28% of you strongly agree and 24% somewhat agree. Just 16% sat on the fence on this with the same percentage somewhat disagreeing. Almost 13% of supporters strongly disagree.

It was said that fans on the continent drink on the terraces. The Club thinks it is a draconian law. The club felt current ban means that people are more likely to binge drink before a game, rather than drink slower during a game. The Trust felt it was a justifiable point.

Football is doing enough to encourage diversity and welcome Women, LGBTQ people and ethnic minorities to the game.

There was no strong majority opinion on this. Almost 15% strongly agree and over 35% somewhat agree. 34% are on the fence on this one, whilst only 6% somewhat disagree and 4% strongly disagreeing.

There should be an independent football regulator to ensure football clubs are run sustainably.

There is a stronger opinion felt about what you think this. Over 47% strongly agree that there should be an independent regulator. Over 34% somewhat agree whilst over 10% are sat on the fence. Over 4% somewhat disagree and just over 2% strongly disagree.

It was pointed out that time is running out before the end of parliament and it is difficult to see the White Paper (Fan-Led Review Report) being voted on at this stage

TV companies having too much sway in deciding kick-off times/schedules

There is definitely strength of feeling on this. Over 64% strongly agree with this whilst 28% somewhat agree. Nearly 7% are sat on the fence and only 1% strongly disagrees.

The Club believe this is the direction of travel for football, but at the same time there is a concern supporters could be over saturated by the power of the broadcasters.

We know that there is a heavy reliance on the expected income of TV broadcasting deals that can help clubs competing in the transfer market, but if broadcasters are dropped or fail to make a profits this could affect the continuity of expectation from club, which in turn may increase the likelihood of financial concerns.

Purchasing a season ticket TV package that exclusively shows all Bradford City’s away matches.

30% strongly agreed whilst 28% somewhat agreed. 23% were on the fence, and 5% somewhat disagreed while 9% strongly disagreed.

The difficulty with this one is in the lower leagues Clubs will always prefer bums on seats, and of course there are of course issues around the 3pm blackout which would mean none of our Saturday away fixtures would be at 3pm.

The bigger clubs can always not worry about bums on seats as they pretty much sell out away ends, and not worry about teatime or evening weekend kick offs as demand for tickets nearly always exceeds capacity.

The Club strongly agreed with wanting this. They referred to the 3pm ban saying that we have been living with the ban for so long that people have got used to it, and there is a fear of removing it because smaller clubs feel they will lose out to the armchair fan.

I consider myself a supporter of the Bradford City Women’s team

Only, nearly 8% strongly identified with it. 18% somewhat agree, and 44% where not that really bothered one way or another. 12% somewhat disagreed and 10% strongly disagreed.

It shows that despite the razzmatazz around the national women’s team and the bigger brand clubs, it has not had that transformative effect with our support base, and it is probably the case at many other clubs in League 1 and 2.

The Club agreed that the Womens’ game hasn’t really hit beyond some of the leading Premier League clubs.

Of the various initiatives supporters would like the Trust to focus its campaigns and communications on:

Improving the atmosphere came out top with 47%;
Linked to that was safe standing / railed seating at 34%;
Registering Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) received 38%;
33% selected Working to lower ticket pricing/reciprocal deals with other clubs;
28% opted for Supporting diversity initiatives such as Kick it Out and Fans for Diversity campaigns;
Nearly 27% want to see us working to improve the policing and stewarding at home games;
and 26% want to see us work with the Club and police to improve away travel and matchday experience;
and 24% of you want us to support local community initiatives.

Other suggestions were: disabled parking, catering, events, the steps up to the pavement behind the Kop get too congested and there's ample space to widen them.

The Club said regarding widening the steps to the pavement from the kop, that the road is the responsibility of the Council.

Liaison Officer developments

It was reported that they now have taken on three volunteers for the disability SLO role, and Marco Townson overseas the different SLO areas.

Season ticket prices and special offers for next season

It was reported that the Club hadn’t yet decided on their options, and whilst freezing the price at £198 was an option, over the last 3 seasons it had stayed the same price, but the cost of running the Club operations have increased, their overheads have increased by 32% and they may have to look at increasing cost.

Railed Seating

The Trust suggested using this opportunity to raise the £70 - £80 estimated cost to fund the implementation of railed seating for those wanting to create the atmosphere and who would like the choice to stand in a designated area through marketing a specific area of the ground through season tickets. So for example, the Trust suggested, if everyone paid an extra £3 over two seasons for two railed seated areas of 2,000 it would pay for itself.

It was explained however that the Club had more immediate pressures in maintaining fixtures and fittings within the stadium. Roof repairs was cited as an example.

Premier League Proposals

This largely refers to offers to the EFL from the PL money to be cascaded down where there is no agreement yet. An element of this is linked to the PL’s deal with TV Broadcasters, and linked with the TV package is FA Cup proposals which would mean no replays and rescheduling. Semi final and final ticket pricing among other things are also been discussed.

Improving our Structures Dialogue with the Club

It was explained that the Trust felt whilst there is much gained with the Club in terms of it’s ongoing discussion and debate through our structured dialogue, the Trust has not been on a same level playing field as the Supporters Board (SB). A Trust aim is working with the Club on projects. For example, consultation about the season tickets for next season could’ve involved both the Trust and SB. Club publicity of its structured dialogue with the Trust is another example raised.

At some clubs they publicise jointly agreed reports of meetings is another good practice example.

The Trust feels it is fantastic that the Club gives the amount of time it gives us, and we discuss things that are national as well as all things Bradford City in a way that is not done with the SB.

We meet three times a season with the Club, which is well within the recommendations for structured dialogue.

It is true that as we are an independent organization it is important to maintain that independence, however, building a partnership for example, being involved in any consultation exercises, being involved in a process, a community partnership, a diversity or inclusion campaign, joint work on policing and stewarding of away matches, and being part of something which raises the profile of a specific project and the Trust’s profile is something that many other Trusts have achieved and we have achieved in the past.

In many ways, the Trust feels that it has made progress in being able to have this structured dialogue with the Club that it hasn’t had before, however, it is always good practice for both the Trust and Club to be jointly looking at ways of improving in building on the good relationship we have.

Finance

Commercially the Club is growing, on the ticketing side the Club is down, and catering the Club is doing better.

Paperwork will be published for all to see when the accounts are done.

Ownership

It was asked about Stefan Rupp coming to attend. It was suggested that he didn’t have to physically attend, it could be on a Zoom call and it was suggested with both the Supporters Board and ourselves.

The Trust applies to list Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:44:14 GMT

Bantams Supporters Trust are pleased to inform our members and the wider City supporter base that we applied to the Local Authority on 21st March 2024 to list the stadium at Valley Parade as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

We are taking this step because we feel that Valley Parade deserves to be recognised publicly for the role it plays in the lives of City supporters and the wider community of Bradford. For 120 years, the stadium has brought the community together with a shared focus of activity that reaches into many corners of the Bradford District's collective life.

Assets of Community Value are designated under the 2011 Localism Act in recognition of provisions, services or buildings that occupy a key place in the hearts and minds of local communities. The Act was designed to provide an element of devolution of power to communities and community organisations.

As far as the Trust is concerned, the main advantage of listing Valley Parade as an ACV is that it would:

Grant Valley Parade the public recognition it deserves
Give City fans an undeniable voice in the future of the stadium
Prevent the owner from selling the asset from under our noses, without the knowledge of the fan base.

The procedure for listing Valley Parade as an ACV is now under way at City Hall. Council Officers must first satisfy themselves that the application conforms with the requirements of the Localism Act - it must be put forward by a recognised community organisation, such as BST, for example. Once the Council Officers approve the application, it goes to a meeting of Full Council for decision.

We hope that the application process goes through smoothly, and that Councillors from all political parties will feel able to support the initiative. The Club has indicated to the Trust that it will not stand in the way of an ACV listing for Valley Parade.

The Council will inform the owner of the asset - the Gordon Gibb Family Pension Fund - as part of the procedure. Once a decision has been taken by the Council to list the asset as an ACV, there are certain limited rights of appeal, but these are designed to be time-limited, so that the listing cannot be held up indefinitely by legal process.

The main powers assigned by the Localism Act come into play at the moment that the owner of the asset declares an intention to sell. If that were to happen with Valley Parade, the Trust would have six weeks to decide if it wished to make a bid to buy the ground. If it was decided within that period that a bid was on the cards, BST would have a further six months to raise the cash in order to put in the bid. The owner is not however obliged to accept the bid from the community organisation in those circumstances - market principles apply, and the owner might still sell elsewhere.

Listing as an ACV does not give us a right to buy the asset, but it does give us the right to know about a potential sale, and the right to bid. These rights provide important safeguards on the future of the stadium.

There are many other clubs, who’s grounds are listed as an ACV. Elland Road, The Madjeski Stadium, and the Hawthorns are 3 of them.

The Trust's plan to apply for the listing of Valley Parade has been in the pipeline for some time, but it comes now at a moment when there is widespread concern about the future direction of the Club.

We hope that City fans can unify around this initiative as a testament to the deep attachment we feel for Bradford City, with our home at Valley Parade, and as a positive statement for future developments at the Club.

We will keep members and the wider City fanbase posted in due course about the progress of the application.

The State of our Club

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:45:57 GMT

On Saturday 16th the Bradford City team had a real chance to bounce back from a banana skin losing to Forest Green Rovers on the Tuesday night.

Instead City fans witnessed probably the worst home match of the season, failing to cope with high flying, top of the table Mansfield Town.

It felt like the season had quickly come to an end already, just at a time when the Club had done a deal with Ticketmaster, which has caused some issues unfavourable with supporters and the new season ticket was launched with much less sparkle than previous seasons.

Most fans were aware Stefan Rupp was present at the Mansfield game, and he must feel a certain amount of pressure and responsibility for the team’s inability to do well at home consistently.

The re arranged home fixture on the 19th March against Notts County also saw City lose by 3-0. Most fans are shocked, apoplectic or resigned.

The team is running out of time to impress and it must be a concern to the Club if season tickets take a tumble in sales.

There has definitely been fewer highs to celebrate this season and there have been lots of questions put to the Club this season bubbling underneath the surface, mainly about accountability of it’s owner and the sustainability of our Club going forward. And with the lease of the ground coming up to renewal time in 2028, the stadium too is much talked about, especially with the amount of rainfall it’s had over the last couple of months.

Season tickets

The £50 increase in the Early Bird price has not come at the right time especially when the cost of living is so high and affects all of us in our lives, and whilst it is a modest increase, £249 is the second cheapest in the EFL, it is the prevailing mood about the team that will be weighed up before renewing above most other things. And at this moment in time fans are feeling exasperated.

Asset of Community Value (ACV)

Bantams Supporters Trust has made some steps to assist particularly on the stadium; we have let the Club aware of our intention to make an application to Bradford City Council to allow it to be an ACV. In last Novembers Structured Dialogue with the Club , they said they would not stand in our way. The longevity of an ACV is five years, and can be renewed. It also lets all parties know who is bidding for the ground and gives community groups such as the Trust, the right to put a bid in to buys the ground. If we did put in a bid, it would be seen as a ‘Community bid’ – in other words a ‘fans’ bid’ to own the ground. We will have more on this very soon.

Accountability and Sustainability

In our meetings with the Club we have always been asking about the ownership situation, whether Rupp can engage in discussions with us. The response has always been that he’ll be asked. We have also asked if Rupp will cover any losses made this season and we were reassured about this – See our November 23 Structured Dialogue with the Club .

We like many of you supporters would like the Club to be run as a sustainable model, and the concern around these matters can only grow as log as the team cannot find a consistent formula that gets the team back to winning ways.

The Football Governance Bill

Over the last two years, following the recommendations of the Fan Led Review, there has been a campaign from the FSA, EFL and others to push the Government to enact the Fan-led Review to be enshrined in law.

On Monday 18th March, the Bill got introduced to Parliament. It needs to be debated and voted on before the end of the closure of Parliament for Summer Reses before it becomes legislation.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Press Release’ key headlines are:

‘Independent Football Regulator’ to be enshrined in law that will give fans a greater voice in the running of their clubs
Regulator will promote financial sustainability and will have the ability to fine clubs up to 10% of turnover for non-compliance
Breakaway closed-shop competitions such as the European Super League to be blocked under new legislation
Regulator will implement strengthened owners’ and directors’ tests and be equipped with backstop powers to impose a ‘new deal’ on financial distributions.

We will have a fuller article with more info about the Football Governance Bill and how it can work to benefit football as a whole as well as our Club.

Bantams Supporters Trust Rule Changes

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:48:00 GMT

The AGM is the focal point in the Trust calendar that allows us to demonstrate what we have done in the year, including providing our financial accounts, voting on nominations for prospective Board Members (volunteer directors), and giving the Trust an opportunity to review its policies and procedures.

Last year, we used the AGM to authorise selective changes to the Trust Rules, and the minutes of the AGM have now been approved. As we are obliged to do by law, we have provided the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with our accounts, AGM minutes and updated policies for the year and they have now been registered and approved.

Our updated policies take into account the latest set of Model Rules provided by the

Football Supporters Association (FSA), from 2022. These offer guidance about what our own Rules should contain, including what we are about, what constitutes being a member, any shares, rights of members, the functions of volunteer directors, how our meetings are conducted, how the Board is constituted, elections, general meetings and the Annual General Meeting, disciplinary procedures, disputes, financial arrangement and much more.

What we have updated and added

It has always been a requirement that members must obtain a share in the Trust, but over the years we have changed the amount that members pay for their share. In the recent past, the amount had been set at 1p, in order to accommodate free annual membership. This was consistent with the Model Rules originally supplied by Supporters Direct but is against the advice of the FSA Model Rules from 2022, which set a minimum annual membership subscription of £1. We have simply changed our Rules in line with these new Model Rules. This means that there will be an annual subscription of at least £1. The first £1 of any new member's first subscription will then be used to purchase a share in the Trust. The requirement for the rule changes agreed at the AGM are covered by Membership, Point 13 and Ordinary Share Provisions point 19 in the FSA Model Rules.

Where we publish these documents

These documents are published on our website in the Board and Constitution

section here .

It is within our Rules to give members a minimum of 2 weeks to voice any objections to what has been agreed at last years AGM, and you can do this by emailing us at hello@bantamstrust.co.uk until 21st March 2024.

Railed Seating comes to Oakwell

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:57:11 GMT

In early February, Barnsley signalled their intention to introduce rail seats at their famous old Oakwell ground – becoming the latest EFL club to offer their supporters real choice.

The League One club has applied to the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) for a safe standing section in Oakwell’s south stand, following their first ever fan advisory group meeting.

Barnsley’s interim chief executive office Jon Flatman said: “Completion of the recently announced lease with Barnsley Council has accelerated plans to implement safe standing at Oakwell, the club have now submitted an application to the SGSA for rail seating (safe standing).

“There are several steps in the process including council support, Safety Advisory Group approval and it is subject to structural surveys, however we believe it will create a safer and better environment for fans.”

Progress across the EFL and Premier League

Clubs are now free to apply to the SGSA for licensed standing areas and Barnsley join a raft of clubs in the EFL and Premier League that have decided to press ahead with rail seating in their grounds since it was given Government approval in 2022.

Barnsley’s application for safe standing shows that choice is possible in even the oldest of grounds – Oakwell, built in 1888, proves that fitting rail seats retroactively isn’t just an option for modern grounds or new builds.

Clubs with similar older grounds, like Luton Town, have also been able to make the switch. The Hatters announced plans to introduce rail seats at Kenilworth Road in January and are aiming to have the standing option available in both home and away ends later this month.

They join the likes of Brentford, QPR, Wolves, Cardiff City, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur who have adopted rail seating in home and away ends.

Safe standing tracker

Stand United, a supporter campaign group pushing for safe standing at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, have produced a safe standing tracker showing all the EFL and Premier League clubs who opted to pursue a safe standing option at their grounds.

“Since Stand United launched, we have aimed to raise awareness of and support for rail seating and safe standing among Sheffield United fans, and to engage fans on their own preferences on how this might look at Bramall Lane,” they said.

“We have also engaged with existing fan groups such as Rainbow Blades and the Official Supporters Club as part of this process. At every stage, there has been a clear appetite for bringing safe standing in.”

Read more: Check out the Stand United – safe standing tracker…

Rail Industry seeks fans' view on train travel

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:59:34 GMT

The FSA, our national organisation that all Supporters Trusts are affiliated to, has partnered with key rail industry stakeholders the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) to help them understand the issues that matchgoers face when travelling by rail throughout the season.

If you ever travel by rail to games, complete the survey here

While the survey has an away fan focus we are also encouraging “home” matchgoers who travel longer distances by rail to complete the survey, as they face many of the same issues as away supporters.

Who are the Rail Delivery Group? The RDG was established in 2011 by the major passenger and freight train operator groups and Network Rail to take responsibility for coordinating and leading on initiatives across the whole rail industry. In matters which relate to football, they include stakeholders such as the police, the Premier League and FA, as well as the FSA, in their discussions.

This survey is part of their work to better understand the motivations of fans travelling by rail, the issues they face, and the improvements they would like to see made to ticketing and the rail network more generally on matchdays.

If you ever travel by rail to games, complete the survey here

The responses are anonymous and the survey only takes around five minutes to complete, and the data will be be useful to the train operating companies who are looking at various ways of improving rail travel for football fans.