UNITED FANS KICK-OFF ELECTION CAMPAIGN
- Campaign launch at Leaders’ Debate in Manchester
- Top political PR professionals signed up
- Marginal seats membership database of over 100,000
- Blueprint for Future of Football & Independent Regulation
On the day that the leaders of the three main political parties are to meet in Manchester to go head-to-head in the first ever live televised debate in a UK General Election, the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) will be kicking off its own election campaign outside the Granada Studios later today. (United fans will gather on Quay Street from 5.30pm Thursday 15th April with banners, etc)
MUST’s 150,000 online membership includes more than 100,000 UK residents of voting age, for whom the Trust holds postcode and constituency details on its digital database.
According to Labour’s election co-ordinator, Douglas Alexander MP, “the outcome of the 2005 election was determined by just 12,000 voters across 30 marginal seats.” The 2010 election promises to be a much more closely fought affair.
Recent research carried out for Co-operativesUK by pollsters YouGov found that there are 3.8 million Manchester United fans of voting age in the UK.
"MUST has already signed up Blue State Digital, the online grassroots campaigning company, which powered the technology behind Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign.
Today it also unveiled its team of top political, public affairs and public relations consultants, which include individuals from leading firms Luther Pendragon and Edelman, who will help drive MUST’s agenda all the way up to the election and beyond, ensuring that they can go punch for punch with football vested interests when it comes to lobbying those in power.
Now, having secured manifesto commitments from both Labour and the Conservatives on the issue of supporter ownership, MUST is taking its campaign to the doorsteps of Britain with a nationwide campaign aimed particularly at the 100 key battleground marginals and all the constituencies across the North West.
MUST chief executive Duncan Drasdo said: “In many cases MUST already has more members in a constituency than the majorities recorded at the last election, but this isn’t just about the 150,000 MUST members already signed up through www.joinmust.org, it’s about all United supporters – and there are millions of us spread throughout the land.
“Fans at other clubs with large followings such as Liverpool, Newcastle and Arsenal are also trying to buy their clubs and are likely to be keenly motivated by the same issues as us.
“How many people who wouldn’t bother to vote otherwise could be encouraged to turn up to the polls or indeed switch their vote if they were voting for the future of their own football club? In this election for the first time in a very long time every vote is going to count.
“We’re greatly encouraged by the progress we’ve made so far with the inclusion of the issue of supporter ownership in the manifestos, but we’re looking to get harder commitments from all the parties on what they’re willing to do to clean up football, making it financially secure and transparent, tackling dangerous levels of debt, and giving the fans the right to own a stake in their clubs.
“We’ll be targeting all the candidates in all the constituencies, as we want to be able to hold individual MPs to account after the election, not just the party leaderships.
“We want cross-party support, and in the event of a hung parliament or minority government, or even one with a slender majority, the politicians are going to have to work together, so every potential MP we get signed up to our football reform agenda the more likely supporter power can be brought to bear after the election in ensuring that those essential reforms are enacted in the first months of a new parliament.
MUST will also be commissioning polling during the campaign, asking such things as: “Do you think football clubs should be able to be taken over with borrowed money and then those borrowings be shifted onto the football club itself for the supporters to pay back through increased ticket prices?”
In the coming days, MUST will also be making public its own blueprint for the future governance of football, which has been worked on by top lawyers and academics and in conjunction with the national trust body Supporters Direct, detailing proposals for an effective system of independent regulation to ensure that essential reforms cannot be blocked by the vested interests that have for more than a decade frustrated any and all attempts to significantly change the game for the better and protect it from carpet-baggers and financial mismanagement.
MUST is a non-party political organisation. MUST’s elected committee includes members of all three major political parties.
MUST Patrons include Lords and MPs, including Labour’s PLP chair and Manchester Central’s MP Tony Lloyd, who hosted a Westminster Hall Debate earlier this year calling for better regulation of football, Oldham’s Labour MP Phil Woolas, Lib Dems Withington member John Leech MP and Tory MPs David Ruffley (Bury St Edmonds) and Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley).
MUST has recently held meetings in Downing Street with senior government advisors and with leading Conservatives, as well as with members of a number of relevant Select Committees and All Party Groups.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
MUST recently launched a poster campaign across Manchester, with the slogans “Are You United?” and “One Love” see www.joinmust.org/posters
LABOUR MANIFESTO:
Registered Supporters Trusts enabled to buy stakes in their club bringing mutualism to the heart of football. We will promote the use of community shares that support investment in football clubs.
We will work with governing authorities to ensure that professional clubs are accountable to their stakeholders, and run transparently on sound financial principles, with greater involvement of local communities and supporter representation.
Sports governing bodies will be empowered to scrutinize takeovers of clubs, ensuring they are in the long-term interests of the club and the sport. We will develop proposals to enable Supporters Trusts to buy stakes in their clubs.
CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO:
We will ... reform the governance arrangements in football to enable co-operative ownership models to be established by supporters
Possible polling questions could include:
1. Do you want to see the issues surrounding better governance of football being addresses by politicians in this campaign? YES
2. Do you think there should be greater transparency of football finances to prevent clubs going to the wall? YES
3. Do you think the levels of debt in football are dangerously high? YES
4. Do you think football clubs should be able to be taken over with borrowed money and then those borrowings be shifted onto the football club itself for the supporters to pay back? NO
5. Would you like to see a system of independent regulation to ensure fairness, scrutiny and transparency in football? YES
6.a) Do you think the FA is capable of providing this regulation? NO
6.b) Or do you think it should be an independent body? YES
7.a) Do you think the FA is capable of regulating the Premier League if it needed to? NO
7.b) Or do you think the Premier League is too powerful to take any notice unless it was forced to by an independent regulator? YES
8. Would you like to see supporters given a better chance to be involved in owning stakes in their football clubs? YES
9. Do you think supporters should have the right to own a stake in their football clubs? YES
10. Do you think the Green & Gold campaign at Manchester United (and the response of the politicians including pledges in their Manifestos about supporter ownership) is likely to have a positive effect on the plights of fans at other clubs in financial difficulty such as Liverpool, Portsmouth, Newcastle, West Ham, etc? YES
SUPPORTERS DIRECT statement in response to Labour manifesto:
"Against the backdrop of a tight election, the political parties have cottoned onto the fact that millions of people care about our national sport and are concerned at the state the game is in. The proposals to tackle the exclusion of fans from the boardrooms of clubs and governing bodies and giving trusts a real chance of a stake in our clubs are the biggest and boldest commitments made to sports fans in a party's manifesto - yet. We'll be looking at the other parties as they publish their plans later this week."
SD chief executive Dave Boyle writing this week about MUST:
“A big part of the reason for that is because of the Manchester United Supporters Trust. The astonishing and unprecedented growth of MUST has been impossible to miss, and takes the issues to an audience well beyond the usual suspects who have been banging on about this stuff for years with seemingly minimal impact.
“It’s a thankless task being a lobbyist when all you have is good ideas. Those with money can make their influence count, as can those with lots of angry voters on their side. Football fans groups have traditionally had neither, and have thus been pressure groups with little pressure to apply. That all changed with Manchester United’s bond prospectus.
“MUST has profited from the anger of fans who have seen how little productive use their increasingly hard-earned, inflationary ticket money is being put to, and how much of United’s income is tied up in the payback for the Glazer takeover in 2005. The organisation has grown from 30,000 in January to more than 150,000 today as a result.
“The thousands who’ve worn green and gold scarves as the club has played a series of important televised matches means that for the first time, TV has not been unable to ignore the protests. Commentators were discussing the ins and outs of leveraged buyouts, and with David Beckham’s clever intervention, the next day’s papers were talking about it too, on the front and back pages.”
Hugh Robertson MP, Tory sports spokesman, April 6th, Evening Standard:
“The national game needs to deal with four issues: the fit and proper person test for club owners; transparency so that people looking at football clubs can see exactly what's going on; the whole question of debt as a percentage of turnover, and governance. There are far too few people that sit on football boards, either in clubs or the organisations, that act independently. Most are part of the game's vested interests.
“If, by the end of the summer the Football Association, the Premier League and the Football League have not come up with a proper plan to address these four issues, then the Government will have to step in. One of the options would be an independent regulator to run the game.”
Guardian, Matt Scott, Digger column this week: “With Worcester Woman having swept Tony Blair to power in 1997, the two main parties are targeting Man United Man for 2010. Recent research conducted for Co-operatives UK by YouGov suggests 6.8 million voters count themselves as United or Liverpool fans – factions that would be attracted to community-based club ownership.”
Biographies of some of MUST’s political lobbying and public relations team, working for MUST in a personal capacity:
(we also have a number of others who wish to remain anonymous)
Robert Phillips
Robert Phillips is the UK Chief Executive of Edelman, the world's largest independent PR agency. He has been a leader in the field of communications and marketing for two decades and writes extensively on Trust and citizenship. He is working for MUST in a personal capacity.
Chris Rumfitt
Chris Rumfitt is a Director of Edelman and former Head of Communications for Network Rail. His early career included working in the Downing Street Press Office for Prime Minister Tony Blair.He is working for MUST in a personal capacity.
Oli Winton
Oli joined Luther Pendragon in January 2010 with over five years experience previously in public affairs. Having worked for a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Parliament and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Football Group, Oli has a keen interest and detailed understanding of sport policy. Oli specialises in DCMS issues and currently works with British Horseracing, the Rank Group and the Bingo Association. He has also previously worked for Team Stadium (the consortium building the 2012 Olympic Stadium), and the Gambling Commission.
Howard Borrington
Howard Borrington is Director of UK Government Affairs
at a leading European aerospace engineering company. Howard is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR), a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS) and an Industry Fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust.
David Wild
David Wild is a Partner at Jefferson Communications.
