The Failure of the Fans Groups

[Frankie 8,146]

Felt it was unfair to blame only the Trust in the other thread so have expanded upon my thoughts here...

 

The Failure of the Fans Groups

 

In light of the ownership debacle at Rangers and the continuing supporter frustration over our finances and long term planning, is it about time we, the supporters, examined our own representative vehicles and ask ourselves if they're doing the job they were set-up to do?

 

Before I begin, undoubtedly some people will see elements of this article as unfair criticism or as some sort of attack on individuals/other websites but I'd like to refute that immediately as the criticisms within also apply to my own time as a board member of the RST and, thus, my own failings. I'd like to also make clear these complaints don't just apply to one specific organisation but all the groups that purport to represent us.

 

First of all, I find it astounding that in the last year or two the profile and active membership of these groups has not increased when one examines the various ongoing issues surrounding the club. Unfortunately, these groups don't seem to accept this or, if they do, lack the humility and vision to take steps to address it.

 

For every excellent initiative they do have (e.g. GersPride, NARSA conventions, fan forums and the recent Trust family day), there are many more opportunities that seem to be ignored. It is clear the bulk of Rangers fans are not interested in becoming active members and there must be various reasons why. We can speculate and, while apathy is the main valid argument, there must also be a reason for this apathy when there remains a clear and present danger to our club's future.

 

Of course two titles on the trot will be enough for many fans to gloss over our financial challenges. But most bears I speak to - and certainly large amounts online - are frustrated enough with the situation and are exasperated with the club's attitude towards the fans. They demand improvement.

 

Therefore, there does appear enough people interested in supporters representation to make an independent group such as the Trust especially viable. But the groups themselves seem to lack the ability to turn interest into members and/or projects for everyone to place their weight behind. As such, it is all too easy for the club to ignore very fair statements such as the one the RST made yesterday.

 

At GersPride last year, I believe the Trust board members talked about unity and leadership. Sure, they may have a reasonable working relationship with the Assembly and Association but what is coming from this other than the prevarication that there is no fan division when challenged about this unfortunate byproduct of past arguments? Not much unfortunately.

 

I remain a huge supporter of fan involvement in the club - especially from an independent viewpoint, free from official constraints. After all a strong Trust would mean a stronger fan-base and, despite my own past problems with the organisation, I believe there remains enough talent within it to find improvement and deliver genuine representation to our support.

 

Unfortunately, it is also clear that it is being held back from doing the proper outreach work it needs to achieve its goals. I certainly don't envy the work required to address that - after all, some of the criticism we see is unfair, overly strong and far too personal - but if the Trust really wants to grow, then brave faces must be put and true leadership must occur. The same applies to the other organisations who struggle to even gain the profile of the shareholder-based group.

 

The Trust and the Assembly certainly have a solid base from which to build from. They have easily accessible websites, reasonable finance, plenty of interest and tens of thousands of fans to aim for online and offline. They even have a captive audience of 50,000 people at Ibrox every other week. Add in NARSA, ORSA and all the RSCs then the market is huge - even if I appreciate not always easy (or cheap) to tap into.

 

Why then do we not see them step beyond the confines of Follow Follow (in the case of the Trust) often enough or the BlueNose.co.uk (in the case of the Assembly)? I don't just mean reps visiting other sites and collating information/floating ideas but regular offline meetings to share information and explore strategies together. I'd pay a tenner to help fund either of the organisations willing to go to their members for input. I'd pay more if some sort of socios project can be explored.

 

Almost one year on since I submitted the STS project (itself far from perfect obviously) to the club and fan groups, the Assembly have had one such meeting at Ibrox for selected fans. The Trust have had GersPride which was open to all. Both were interesting and welcome events which had the potential to be repeated regularly - even on a smaller scale to reduce costs. Such meetings need to be more often, more accessible and debate opened up on their own websites (and beyond) to really involve their members. Even better if they could involve credible people within the support - such as club figures, former players, successful businessmen and celebrities.

 

Only then will fans find the transparency and pro-activeness that may catalyse their own interest and make them feel like they're actually members of something instead of just numbers attempting to justify their existence and/or club budget.

 

Indeed, for no large, public fans meeting to have been organised in light of recent events this year is nothing short of negligence by all the fan organisations. Imagine the momentum and pressure that could have been built up if a few of these had happened? Imagine the divisions that could have been healed by olive branches being offered by those elected to lead? Imagine the genuine information that could have been shared to avoid rumours and scaremongering that has blighted our recent title win? This was the ideal opportunity to build and improve. Has this open goal been missed?

 

It is clear that supporters representation remains a key component of any club improvement in the coming years. Our unmatched annual investment is recognised by the club and yet we can't seem to formalise it - despite the promises of the esrtwhile chairman a few years back. That is a promise the supporters groups have not pressured on him to deliver. Probably because they realise deep down, they lack the ability to do so because they are so flawed themselves in so much that they don't have the clear backing of enough fans.

 

Therefore, the current outreach activities of a few (often overly defensive) reps posting conflicting information on one chosen forum and the official reps of another group not even contributing to their online community, is hardly conductive to increasing memberships and influence therein. Sure, some websites may not make themselves attractive for constructive debate giving such reps convenient excuses not to take part, so the critics themselves are not free of blame. But when one suggests they can represent and lead, such challenges should be overcome when looking at the bigger picture. Yet still, the participation in our supporters groups appears to be at an all-time low despite the obvious problems at our club. That doesn't make sense and must be examined - no matter if the answers aren't easy to admit. Unfortunately, as it stands, I see little evidence of supporters led change outwith the usual soundbites in the media. I want to be proved wrong.

 

To that end, one must ask do these organisations even want an active membership? Or are our supporters groups as inaccessible and unrepresentative as the club they regularly complain about?

 

We deserve better.

[ian1964 10,409]

Benfica have the biggest world wide paying fan base in the world,does anybody know how this works and could it not be as successful for Rangers FC?.

 

In Portugal, the large majority of the population, are said to be Benfica sympathisers. Almost every municipality of Portugal has its own Casa do Benfica (House of Benfica), which can also be found in many cities and towns of countries worldwide (Andorra, Angola, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, England, France, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Luxembourg, Macau, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States).[12]

 

Since the 2004–05 championship, club membership figures have seen a significant increase (see reasons above). In April 2006, the number of club members surpassed 140,000.[13] In July 2006, Benfica had 143,000 members, 1,000 more than Manchester United. Since 2006, Benfica has been the club with the most associates (paid club members), known as SÃ?³cios, in the world.

 

On 30 September 2009, Benfica announced that it had reached the 200,000 mark for paid club members. In May 2004, Benfica launched an aggressive marketing campaign, known as kit s�³cio (membership kit), to increase its paid club membership from 94,714 to 200,000. As a result, five years later, Benfica was able to add more than 105,000 new paid club members to their existing membership of 94,714, which more than doubled their total paid club membership. Currently, Benfica remains the leader of international football clubs with the largest number of paying club members worldwide.[8][9]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L._Benfica#Supporters

[Frankie 8,146]

Ian:

 

Glad you've been constructive in your reply. After all we can't moan without offering a few suggestions ourselves.

 

The 'socios' aspect of continental clubs is something that the Trust have explored before but haven't been able to transfer into something tangible. I'd like to hear the reasons why as I'd have thought a membership scheme for Rangers fans is possible.

[ian1964 10,409]

Ian:

 

Glad you've been constructive in your reply. After all we can't moan without offering a few suggestions ourselves.

 

The 'socios' aspect of continental clubs is something that the Trust have explored before but haven't been able to transfer into something tangible. I'd like to hear the reasons why as I'd have thought a membership scheme for Rangers fans is possible.

 

The fact that Rangers FC have such a vast world wide fan base is something that needs to be tapped into,IMO,especially in our current financial plight and I'm almost certain that the vast majority of these fans groups would be more than willing to participate. It really needs a deeper research and I don't see how this can't work.

[ascender 352]

It looks like no matter what happens on or off the park, it simply won't provide the spark or impetus for these groups to start working with each other and uniting the support. What appears to be needed is someone charismatic, strong of character with some good contacts and a lot of time on their hands to try and pull the current groups together, or possibly even start a new, neutral group going forward. I guess the problem is that there appears to be personal agendas at play in at least some of the groups out there, which has been plain for all to see over the last few months in particular.

 

So there's the challenge of overcoming some big egos out there which are visible in the online community, uniting the various supporters groups and also reaching out to those fans who don't spend much time online, no matter what country they're based in. There's clearly a massive fan base out there, but I think they're too often forgotten about by those who just post online and see that as the majority (or most important/relevant?) of the supporters.

 

I've said it before and I understand the irony coming from someone who had to give up their season ticket 5 years ago now, but if we can't pull together as one when things are this bad for the club, then there's no hope that we ever will.

 

 

Mike.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

The reason why i've ever never been interested in being part of a fans group is because the division between our fans on the online community is sickening at times and the idea of these people ever having a say in the running of Rangers is terrifying

[Frankie 8,146]

The reason why i've ever never been interested in being part of a fans group is because the division between our fans on the online community is sickening at times and the idea of these people ever having a say in the running of Rangers is terrifying

 

A fair point which is why we need to take the issue offline.

 

Online fans are vocal but they are the minority.

[bmck 117]

guess the problem is that there appears to be personal agendas at play in at least some of the groups out there, which has been plain for all to see over the last few months in particular.

 

They seem tightly wound and quick to take offense. This won't do for people in their position. People who are after some idea need to be single-minded, and unequivocal, in being motivated by it. Personal agendas and other minor partisan issues just don't factor into people's mindset when they want to bring about difficult and unusual things. When I see their most impassioned and embattled words, like DM, it's often in defense of themselves. From the impression I get, they seem to be far too elitist and partisan to be representative.

 

However, that's not to say that it's easy. They're going to endure irrational hatred, unbalanced naysaying and have to try to fail to be flattered by small fame offered by people who favour things-as-they-are, like being interviewed and invited to the club and being in the know. Despite what anyone says, these things are hard to ignore. If you're taking uninformed abuse when you're trying to do some good its easy to become disheartened and retreat into the safety of where you wont be held to account. While this is natural, and human, and most of us who criticise the RST will be like this more often than not, it absolutely won't do if you are a person who sets themselves up to lead and bring about something fairly big like a new relationship between the fans and the club. As annoying as these things are, you've got to be able to rise above it for the Greater Good. The RST and presumably the RSA undoubtedly have really talented people, many of whom can speak well, but they seem to have bite and dignity the wrong way round - I think they need to be more tempered in dealing with those who oppose them, and put more bite into pursuing representation. At the moment I think it's the other way round.

 

Still hope they can turn it round, but I'm skeptical.

[Frankie 8,146]

A great post bmck...

[ascender 352]

This forum is a great example of how there can be reasoned and constructive debate about the club no matter who you are or what connections/leaning/feelings you have about subjects connected with the club. I'm sure there's some individuals on here and other forums who could get together and make a positive contribution to "something" going forward.