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YBIG Mandate - Statement following FAI EGM 28/3/21 |
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Drumcondra 69er 
Jack Charlton 
Joined: 07 Oct 2009 Location: Ireland Status: Offline Points: 6657 |
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 Posted: 11 Mar 2021 at 8:46pm |
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The results of the Return to Stadia surney were published today and are below for anyone interested.
Thanks to all who responded. Fans Back Protocols to Allow for Return to Stadia
Irish football supporters are anxious to return to grounds across the country as soon as possible and the overwhelming majority will adhere to Covid-19 public health guidance in order to do so, a survey has found. Supporters listed financial support of their club, football being their main pastime, and football as a key social outlet as the top motivations behind their desire to return.
On the eve of the new League of Ireland season, a total of 1,826 football supporters responded to a survey led by the Irish Supporters Network (ISN), and supported by their colleagues in the Irish Football Supporters Partnership (IFSP), the Confederation of Republic of Ireland Supporters Clubs (CRISC) and YBIG Independent Supporters Mandate. The IFSP has had two representatives on FAI Council since July 2019 and works to ensure that all fans have a voice within the association’s structures. Of the supporters that managed to attend a League of Ireland fixture in the second half of 2020, there was strong praise for the efforts of clubs as well as their staff and volunteers in making fixtures safe, well organised and also welcoming those that could attend. 95% of respondents identified with a League of Ireland club from across the Premier and First Divisions. Re-opening football Asked when they would like to return to watching live football, 71.5% said they would seek to return “as soon as possible”, ahead of “when there are no restrictions on gate numbers” (9.8%) and “when Covid is no longer an issue at all” (9.7%). Asked if they were willing to adhere to public health guidance and stadium protocols in order to facilitate a limited return when it is safe to do so, a huge majority (98.7%) of respondents answered ‘Yes’. In addition, 89.3% of respondents pledged to publicly support an awareness campaign aimed at promoting public health guidance amongst the wider football community if it helped to re-open/keep football open to supporters in the coming months. Irish football’s financial dependency on supporters was highlighted once again when respondents were asked why they wanted to return to stadia as soon as possible. The most popular ‘Priority 1’ was financial support for clubs and teams. The social and community element of football also shone through too, with the second and third most popular choices being: Football is my main pastime and It’s a social outlet for me. On measures that would encourage supporters to return to grounds once it’s safe to do so, masks were seen as an important consideration:
Just over a quarter of respondents had the opportunity to attend a League of Ireland fixture after grounds opened up again with limited capacity last summer. The vast majority that had this opportunity felt the guidance and instructions provided were ‘Very clear’ and, when asked to share additional feedback, comments strongly commended clubs for their work in ensuring games were safe and followed protocols. Some of these comments are included below. In a further demonstration of supporters’ loyalty, 36.3% of respondents are still willing to purchase season tickets despite the uncertainty around timelines for supporters returning. Slightly less (35%) said they would prefer individual tickets for specific matches, with entry included in club membership (11.5%) third. “Everyone involved in League of Ireland football is anxious to have supporters back in grounds once it’s safe for them to return, and the survey findings include lots of useful information that can help inform preparations in the coming months. The vast majority of supporters want to return as soon as they possibly can and are hugely supportive of any public health guidance and the stadia protocols that will allow that to happen,” Niamh O’Mahony, Secretary of the Irish Supporters Network (ISN), said. “The reasons why are also important to highlight - fans think about their clubs’ finances, football being their main pastime and football being a social outlet. That sense of community and belonging is key. The League of Ireland is underpinned by the dedication of supporters and volunteers and, as one respondent said, fans and passion drive this league more than anything else. That same passion has been largely missing from grounds for the last 12 months. “Feedback from the games in the second half of 2020 was really positive in terms of the clubs implementing public health measures and ensuring fixtures were run in a safe and organised manner. ISN, CRISC and YBIG Mandate have been meeting with the FAI regularly on this issue to ensure the voice of supporters is heard and taken into account in the ongoing Return to Stadia work. The data also speaks for itself - not a single Covid-19 outbreak was linked to League of Ireland games or training in 2020, and clubs, volunteers and supporters can all take credit for that.” For further detail on the survey findings or further information, email: ISN: info@irishsupportersnetwork.ie CRISC: crisc@rissc.org YBIG Mandate: ybigmandate@gmail.com Edited by Drumcondra 69er - 11 Mar 2021 at 8:49pm |
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Drumcondra 69er
Jack Charlton
Joined: 07 Oct 2009 Location: Ireland Status: Offline Points: 6657 |
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Posted: 29 Mar 2021 at 5:39pm |
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To all members, 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. "On
behalf of the three supporters organisations that make up the Irish
Football Supporters Partnership, we want to express our strong
disappointment at how this consultation process has progressed. We highlighted the pandemic would likely impact the format of discussions last Autumn but were assured at the time that full consultation would still be possible and was also a priority for the working group. We’re not doubting the work & effort put in, but consultation is not being invited to a presentation, spending time preparing a detailed written response and, having been assured we would have the opportunity to present said response, then being informed of changes without any further dialogue or a detailed explanation until we pressed for it. Bringing members on the governance journey, particularly within membership organisations, is not optional. It’s essential to ensure the long-term success of what’s being done. The vast majority of people involved in Irish football are well aware that significant change is needed but it also needs to be the right kind of change, change that will deliver a meaningful cultural shift within this organisation." 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. YBIG Independent Supporters Mandate Committee |
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