YBIG Mandate: AGM set for March 8th at 7pm

We hope this mail finds you and all your families safe and well as we pass through yet another international window that saw us unable to give our support to the team in Belgrade or Dublin.

While hopefully there are better times ahead, both in terms or getting back into grounds and results, our work in relation to the governance reform process within the FAI has continued throughout lockdown.

The latest stage of this saw an EGM held online yesterday during which a number of changes were voted through, the main one being the approval of the new FAI Constitution, giving rise to the disbandment of the FAI Council and AGM groups which have been replaced by a new General Assembly.

Although YBIG Mandate believe there are positive changes involved, such as the tightening up of the constitution itself and the rule detailed in the Memorandum of Understanding that sets a ten-year term-limit (including time served) as the maximum anyone can sit on the new body, and, along with our colleagues in the Irish Football Supporters Partnership (CRISC and Irish Supporters Network), agreed to support the motion, all three groups have serious concerns over the manner in which the process was handled.

To provide some context, following the Governance Review Group report in 2019, supporters were awarded two seats on FAI Council and two committee seats, one on the International and High Performance Committee and the other on the Club & League Development Committee. This representation was conditional on an umbrella organisation being founded to cover ourselves and the other two supporters groups who submitted to the GRG, CRISC and ISN. To meet this condition, the Irish Football Supporters Partnership (IFSP) was formed and we have been working well together since.

After being made aware that changes to governance structures were coming, IFSP contacted the FAI at the end of October requesting a meeting to put forward some proposals we had been considering, Despite an acknowledgement, no further contact regarding a meeting was forthcoming and after sending a second request in a month later, we were informed that a briefing on the changes would be held the following week

In early December, we attended that FAI briefing during which the proposals for the new General Assembly were shared. Within those proposals, supporters were allocated two seats out of the 131 Assembly seats being proposed. The International and High Performance Committee seat was retained and a second committee seat on a new National Football Leagues’ Committee was allocated as the Club & League Development Committee was to be disbanded. At that briefing we were assured that written submissions for changes would be welcomed and that a chance to present those submissions to the FAI would be accommodated.

Given the changes meant we were moving from a situation where supporters had two seats on a Council of 79 to one where we had two in a proposed General Assembly of 131, a significant proportional reduction, we requested that an additional seat be allocated to supporters. This would also have meant that all three groups in the IFSP would have a General Assembly seat.

In making that request, the IFSP prepared a detailed submission in which we also raised queries about our move from the 'Special Interest' constituency which we had been part of, into the new "Professional Chamber", which impacts on the supporters' path to potential board representation, and some additional points regarding term limits and gender balance. When we sent that in on December 12th, we highlighted that we were still looking forward to the opportunity to meet and present our proposal.

Despite a number of reminders, a consultation meeting was never scheduled. On February 13th, we received a letter from the FAI stating that our request for an additional seat had been denied and not only that, the proposal for a supporters seat on the Club & League Development Committee had been withdrawn, halving the number of committee seats assigned to supporters by the GRG process.

We issued a further written response on February 24th, once again requesting to reopen these discussions and give the process due diligence. Once again, following an initial acknowledgement, no further contact was forthcoming until a letter from the FAI on March 23rd denying our request. This is despite 10 additional General Assembly seats being created and allocated elsewhere since the original pressentation, bringing the total to 141.

At the EGM yesterday, the IFSP read the below statement in order for it to be noted on the record.

From a Mandate perspective, it is our belief that in efforts to bring about the reform that the association badly needs, taking the correct path is as important as the final destination. It is not our belief that the steps taken on this process did so.

We will continue to work on your behalf on the supporters agenda and for the betterment of the game in Ireland and will advise you on how we will manage the impact of the changes voted in yesterday in due course.

Thank you for your continued support.

You will have probably heard reported in the news last week that 25,000 supporters are to be allowed back to Lansdowne Road for our World Cup qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Serbia on September 4th and 7th. 

Representatives from our committee have met with the FAI this week regarding how the tickets for these games will be allocated and can confirm the below. 

Finally, Mark McGivney was the lucky name out of the hat for the signed Seamus Coleman canvas and Callum Fearon won the YBIG Zippie.

Thanks to all your contributions €1170 was raised and an order for eight new flags has been placed. We will share photos with you when the new flags arrive.

As we have said before, there is always scope for members to get involved informally on any initiatives and we would encourage anyone with any interest to contact us at ybigmandate@gmail.com.  

 

Thank you for your continued support.

Yes, cheers for all the hard work. 

It's not, it's all games in the September window 

Following on from the 2021 FAI AGM, at which a draft strategic plan for the years 2022-2025 was presented, the FAI are now engaging in a process of consultation with stakeholders. YBIG Mandate, along with our colleagues in the Irish Football Supporters Partnership (IFSP), are seeking the views of Irish football fans on the direction of football in the country.

These views will form the basis of the IFSP’s written submission to the FAI on the strategic plan, which is due to be finalised by the end of the year.

We have prepared some questions to help supporters send their feedback to the IFSP, and they can be accessed at the below link. The survey should only tale a couple of minutes of your time and the more responses we have the more feedback we can provide.

For any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us at ybigmandate@gmail.com.

Finally, many thanks to all who donated to the flags collection recently undertaken. We're looking forward to displaying the new flags and tifos that you paid for at the Portugal game on Thursday week.