The Fan Engagement Standard is the latest in a series of measures that the English top flight has designed to strengthen the commitment of clubs to ensure long-term collaboration and communication with their fans
The clubs initially approved the development of the Fan Engagement Standard last June but it was only really introduced after detailed planning, and will be officially in effect from the start of the 2023/24 season.
In England, fans are considered the lifeblood of clubs and it is for this reason that the League has decided to dedicate a series of activities to them that all clubs will have to include in order to encourage fan inclusion.
The goals of the Fan Engagement Standard
The Fan Engagement Standard has introduced a framework that clubs will follow when designing and implementing their individual approaches to fan engagement, which you can read in full Who.
The Premier League wants to get closer to American standards of NBA, NHL e NFL, where the fan is the center of attention of the show. The “American” Fan Engagement sees the relationship between clubs and athletes, in relation to the individual experience of each fan. If a club or a League improves the way it reaches its fans and manages to guarantee them memorable moments, as a result the fans will want to live the experience again and this will lead to a tangible increase in performance for Leagues and Clubs.
In the American sports mentioned above, the league has centralized power; in Europe and in football, the Fan Engagement Standard aims to create a new paradigm in which standards are also inserted for activities that go beyond the commercial-technical part, but which make the fans an integral part of the project in a more integrated way in the logic of growth .
The model will be clearly observed by the rest of Europe and ready to be applied in all nations, with the necessary structural and executive differentiations.
Increased inclusion with the Fan Engagement Standard
Another important point introduced by the Premier League is the involvement of all realities, not just the most important ones. This Standard aims to level all clubs and all fans alike, to ensure that fans of all teams, both small-medium sized and top clubs, can fully live their passion and faith.
The fact that all Premier League teams are involved in the activation of these fan engagement initiatives is a symptom of the constant research and commitment not only of the league, but also of the clubs themselves who show a real interest in their fans , leading to what can be defined as a sort of democratization of fan engagement, aimed at including fans at all levels.
Themes promoted by this Fan Engagement Standard
- Club Leadership and Culture Each club will publish communication channels for all fan-related queries and will promptly respond to fan queries raised through the club’s official communication channels.
Each club will be required to appoint an officer to lead the club’s fan engagement activities.
Each season, the designated officer at Board level will prepare and submit to the club’s Board of Directors a fan engagement report outlining the engagement activities undertaken and the key issues/concerns raised by fans that season. - Fan Listening – The club will continue to engage with supporters, representative groups and the wider fan base by allocating resources to involve all official fan clubs.
- Collaboration and participation of the fan in club activities (FAB), please refer to the above
- Fan Engagement Plan (FEP): Clubs to publish a fan engagement plan at the start of the 2023/24 season and beyond, which will share how fans can make their voices heard.
- Learn and improve: Commitment of clubs to provide support and assistance to their supporters
The favor of all clubs and the most important answers
All 20 Premier League clubs had already approved the League’s Fan Engagement Standard last June and, starting from March this year, will include a section dedicated to Fan Engagement activities for their fans on their official website .
Before the start of the 2023/24 season, all clubs will publish a fan engagement plan, setting out their approach to FES activity throughout the season.
Each club’s strategy will be guided by an officer appointed at board level to oversee fan engagement and the functioning of the fan advisory board.
Chelsea’s answer: between fan engagement and CSR
For example, the Chelsea informed that he will continue to work in the Fans Forum with a particular focus on match days and operational matters and encourages all supporter groups to speak to the club on a regular basis, about what may be projects such as the Chelsea Supporters ‘Trust or the Chelsea Pride, in the campaign to kick homophobia, biphobia and transphobia (HBT). This last aspect helps to better understand how fan engagement can increase inclusion and also have social responsibility as a further objective.
The new paradigm of fan engagement, through the FES, fulfills ethical, cultural and social objectives.
Wolverhampton and ‘the supporters committee’
Wolverhampton, of which we have already analyzed one of its fan engagement initiatives, to comply with the Fan Engagement Standard, have introduced the Wolves Fan Advisory Board which will take shape before next season. The aim of this supporter-led advisory board is to create a group that will work alongside the club with the main purpose of engaging in dialogue, exchanging information or ideas and obtaining feedback from a fan’s point of view.
Wolverhampton’s supporters’ advisory board will have to discuss a range of topics over the course of a season, such as the club’s vision and strategic objectives, and will meet at least twice a season. The club will publish a dedicated fan engagement plan ahead of the 2023/24 season, detailing the full terms of reference of the fan advisory board, as well as details of all fan engagement and consultation initiatives that will be in place during season.
Manchester United: i pionieri del Fans’ Advisory Board
Pioneer of the fan advisory board was however the Manchester United, the first Premier League club to set up a Fans’ Advisory Board (FAB), which held its first meeting in January 2022. The FAB has so far already discussed topics such as stadium redevelopment, fan sharing scheme, capital needs and the club’s vision and goals. The FAB meets 4 times a year.
Like Chelsea, Manchester United also have their own “Fans Forum”, made up of representatives from different constituencies of the Manchester United fan base and senior members of the club. Four times a season it offers an open forum to promote a better understanding of issues facing supporters and helps maintain a constructive dialogue between the club and supporters.
The experiences of Chelsea and Manchester United are also shared by other top English clubs, such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle. Soon, all the other clubs will also have to have a Fan’s Advisory Board.
Special mention deserves the Manchester City, which has activated a series of initiatives to encourage engagement, even for the furthest away fans. We talked about it here:
1) Manchester City measures fans’ emotions with the “connected scarf”
2) Manchester City runs towards the metaverse. The initiative in collaboration with Sony
On the Tottenham instead, let’s remember the latest fan engagement initiative dated March 2023:
Agreement between Tottenham and Formula1: the first karting facility is born in a stadium
Fan Engagement and inclusion: the new goals of the Clubs
We have seen how fan involvement is evolving towards different and broader forms, going towards inclusion and other values that until now were considered marginal to the sporting aspect. The lever of fan engagement is also raised to convey positive values, also creating greater synergy with CSR activities, and increase the level of involvement and participation by fans which leads to greater experimentation by sport makers. Between developing trends and new opportunities to create and exploit, the step taken by the Premier League to make fan engagement an integral part of elite football represents a new way of understanding the football industry and its evolution, no longer driven by the sporting result or by the rules of the sport, but by the needs of its fans.
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