The European Super League went down in flames. Fans’ anger followed. Chelsea and Tottenham stepped forward offering fans representation on their boards. How can these clubs level their ESG scores after scoring a spectacular own goal?
When the “big six” clubs of the English Premier League joined the mirage called the European Super League all hell broke loose. Under tremendous pressure from fans, players, media and politics all six clubs pulled out of the project originally aimed at establishing an elite European football competition. All six stood accused of being greedy and completely out of touch with their key stakeholders, football fans.
Two London arch rivals soon announced that they were extending invitations for fans to join their boards. On May 4, a club statement said “Chelsea Football Club announces that, as from 1 July, there will be supporter presence at the Club’s board meetings. The Club will now consult with the Fans’ Forum and several non-official supporter groups to discuss the Club’s proposed process for picking the three supporter advisors.” On May 11, Tottenham Hotspurs followed with their own version: “We have all learnt lessons from recent events and have reviewed fan engagement as a priority. As a result we shall be liaising with key stakeholders and establishing a Club Advisory Panel, comprised of elected representatives from the different constituencies of our fanbase, inclusive and reflective of our fans’ diversity. The Chair of this Panel will be appointed annually as a full Non-Executive of the Club Board.” After nothing less than a shock to the system, the two clubs are making supporter engagement a priority. How does the move measure up by ESG standards? Is presence of fans on the board all that it takes to revive fans participation in running their beloved clubs?
Stakeholder engagement Maslowed
In my view, many of the best practices of public participation processes could be applied to make fans contribution more meaningful. Stakeholder engagement is scalable.
When ‘maslowed’, it starts with presence, but representativeness of that presence depends on clubs’ future selection criteria. Chelsea stated: “criteria for nominations as well as final selection will ensure that the supporter presence is representative of our supporter base generally and is inclusive and diverse.” While Spurs stated that “the selection criteria, mandate and constitution will be developed by independent advisors in consultation with fan groups to ensure it is truly representative of our supporter base.” Both clubs emphasize diversity and being inclusive, however equity is not mentioned. Public participation practices usually seek to develop equitable processes. My definition of equity is the inclusion of underrepresented communities in the coproduction of emerging public processes ensuring their presence, voice and influence in decisions that prioritize their needs and contribute to changing the social structures that reinforce inequality.
If clubs truly want to end inequality of fans, presence of fans in running their corporations is just the first step. Inclusion isn’t just engagement. It’s not a one-off. Inclusion is an emerging process that is developed with the fans rather than for them. In other words, clubs may want to adopt a bottom-up rather than top-down approach and find out how fans might want to get more involved.
Once fan representatives are on board, clubs may want to focus on voice: managing power dynamics, conflicts between expert (football management) and local (fan) knowledge and find ways to empower fan representatives through access to information, facilitation, language, speaking and presentation abilities. Not all fans will be natural board members from day one. Influence is at the summit of the Maslow pyramid for stakeholder engagement. Once present and given a voice, fans will need to be granted influence in the decision making of boards prioritizing their needs. Chelsea and Spurs did not go that far. Chelsea stated: “the supporter advisors will not have any voting rights and will not participate in any meetings relating to players, staff, the Academy and related matters.” Spurs talked about authentic, genuine representation and consultation without providing specifics.
Presence is the end of the beginning
Fans presence is set to open a new era in running the biggest English football clubs. However, clubs, especially those that are public, must find ways to improve their governance and overall ESG performance in the near future. According to the ESG framework developed by the World Economic Forum, “effective stakeholder engagement should ensure a robust process for identifying and selecting relevant stakeholders and for proactively soliciting their input, while outlining the frequency and method of engagement.” From putting stakeholders on the board to establishing stakeholder boards or even steward ownership by stakeholders, the opportunities for inclusion are almost limitless and improvements may benefit football and stakeholder capitalism overall.