In short, Evertonians For Change would still like to talk and our egg chasing CEO is having none of it. The reasons given are apparently twofold; firstly Mr Elstone accused Evertonians For Change of "openly seeking to disrupt Club events and having the ousting of the current Board of Directors as one of its explicit aims." Both of these accusations have since been denied by the group.
Secondly and once again according to Mr Elstone, "the Club works hard on all aspects of communication ensuring we reach as many fans as we can, in a variety of different ways. We are confident our dialogue is open and transparent, our engagement with fans is representative and our agendas are relevant. We believe we do a good job."
- CEO
Yes, a quick scratch of the surface reveals numerous initiatives in which the club strive to meet the demands of interested supporters. Within the last twelve months alone there has been a roadshow, a fan's forum and an exclusive Fans Conference. The club has been mobilised to reach out to supporters, doing their bit to ensure an openness and transparency not seen since the banning of AGMs and EGMs.
I mean we are only the fans, giving up our very hard-earned money and time and as many an Evertonian will tell you; a professional football club and private company such as Everton FC are simply under no obligation to communicate with its loyal supporters.
Well, actually they'd be wrong. It turns out those supporters who felt a manipulative edge to the rather clandestine and secretive, recently implemented fans forum, fans conference and roadshow had it right all along. Not only will Everton FC be required to communicate with supporters, refusal to do so will see the club failing to meet the UEFA licensing requirements and the occurrence of penalties this football club could ill afford.
From UEFA: Under Article 35 of the new UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations, clubs will have the obligation to appoint a Supporters Liason Officer (SLO) to ensure a proper and constructive dialogue between a club and its fans.
The SLO concept, which has been under consideration for some time, has gained full approval from the national associations represented in the UEFA Club Licensing Committee and has been drawn up with the strong cooperation of Supporters Direct.
Supporter liaison officers at clubs already exist in a limited number of European countries and primarily help improve the dialogue between the fans and the clubs they follow. Most importantly, SLOs must be credible with supporters, and therefore should have experience with, and contacts to, the networks in the club's fan base.
They inform supporters about relevant decisions made by the club's management board and, in the other direction, communicate the needs of the fans to the board.
With the scrapping of AGMs and EGMs the current board of directors have left themselves exempt, excluded, unchecked, unaccountable and totally closed to any meaningful scrutiny and whilst on the one hand, the current CEO paints a very rosy picture of openness and transparency, his disdainful refusal to talk to a genuine and organised group of Evertonians tells its own enlightening story.
Whether the new UEFA article will carry enough weight to force Everton FC to do away with the current veil of secrecy remains to be seen but instead of going through the motions perhaps Mr Elstone will feel the need to address the real concerns of Evertonians before he is obligated to do so by the governing body of European football.
Right, have we signed anyone yet..............
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