Do Liverpool fans see the AAA as a blueprint rather than a dire warning? « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
“However, from the outside where supporters find themselves once again, it looks like a football club in disarray.
“Confusion and chaos seems to reign and no one is coming out of this with much credit, particularly the football club’s image and brand. We need clear and pro-active communication, a confident message about the club’s plans that breeds confidence amongst supporters that we are moving in the right direction.
“Instead, we have silence and a lack of information or understanding on decisions being made.”
What makes this powerful stuff is that the complaint is the same as the one made against Hicks and Gillett – that the fans do not know what is going on: “As supporters we have seen all too clearly what a lack of communication from absentee owners leads to. Ultimately supporters remain in the dark once again about the plans for this football club moving forward. We find ourselves experiencing déjà vu, where boardroom decisions lead to more questions than they answer.
“We ask that you speak with supporters – engage with a true representative cross section of supporters and work with supporters to provide solutions to our current problems.”
Arsenal too has an absentee owner. But what we do have is communication with the club. It is achieved through many means, although primarily through the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association and to a lesser degree through the ability of members of Fan Share to attend the AGM of the club.
Last year at the AGM of AISA Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive of Arsenal came along (he didn’t have to, he opted to) and was subjected to an intense grilling by some AISA members that was on occasion somewhat hostile. He knew of course that is what he would get – but he came, and those members of AISA who fancied turning up, could hear the CEO’s explanations of the transfer activity in person.
From what I can gather from the Spirit of Shankly letter, such discussion is simply not there in Liverpool, and that is obviously a significant fact for the club.
Of course it is not for me to suggest to Liverpool fans what they should do. All I can reflect on is the fact that public fighting over the club and its future should always be a last resort. If the Spirit of Shankly group has made a series of appeals to the club for dialogue but has failed to get anywhere, then I can appreciate where they are coming from. But they must recognise that people who don’t join in debate are rarely impressed by public demands for them to do so.
Instead the most likely result of a public row will be for the current owners to go their own way, do their own thing, and ignore the fans even more.
Arsenal does engage with fans. They do it through the representatives of various groups who have meetings with the club several times each season, and they do it through AISA. Which is why the AAA, who steadfastly stay outside AISA, have no communication with Arsenal.
I think communication is a good thing. Which is why I am a member of AISA. I’m rather glad Arsenal treat the Association seriously.
If you want to know more about AISA there are details at www.aisa.org
* AAA = Anti Arsenal Arsenal – the name Untold invented a year or so ago for those people who claim to have been fans of Arsenal for quite a while but who in reality spend their time criticising the players, the manager and the directors.
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