The football season may be over, but over the summer there’ll be a trickle of events that will keep the denizens of SW6 in touch with each other. The Chelsea Supporters Tournament will be held in early July, some low-key pre-season friendlies at Wycombe Wanderers and AFC Wimbledon will provide relief to those desperate for a footy fix, and, even more importantly, the Fans Summit, organised jointly by the Football Supporters Federation and Supporters Direct will take place at Wembley Stadium across the last weekend in July. Given the findings of the Football Association’s Commission, including the ridiculous suggestion of setting up a League 3 to house “B” teams for Premier League sides, it is has become even clearer that football supporters need to stand together to protect the pyramid. Put simply, the game is not just about the Premier League. The march on Premier League headquarters organised by Spirit of Shankly last June was laudable, but given that it was held on a weekday, meant many of those who may have wanted to attend were unable to do so. A mass demonstration by supporters of clubs throughout the pyramid, to be held on an optimum date (i.e. a Saturday when there’s no football taking place so everyone is free) is an objective to be sincerely wished for.
Hopefully, as many Chelsea supporters as possible will attend the Fans Summit. Tickets are available now to members of a Supporters Trust (i.e. CST) or Football Supporters Federation at an early bird rate of £15.00 – but you’ll need to be quick as this offer expires tomorrow. Non-members are also welcome, at an early-bird rate of £20.00. The price includes entry to the summit, refreshments, lunch and admission to two workshops, covering topics of interest to all football fans, as well as entry to the AGMs of the FSF and Supporters Direct during late afternoon of 25th July. You will also enjoy a tour of Wembley Stadium, which adds fantastic value to the ticket cost. Key speakers will include Clive Efford MP, Shadow Minister for Sport, Malcolm Clarke and Kevin Miles of the Football Supporters’ Federation, and Rory Smith of The Times.
For more information about the Supporters Summit 2014, visit http://www.supporterssummit.co.uk/.
And having attended the Supporters Summit, this might be a springboard for more of our supporters to become actively involved in the Chelsea Supporters Trust. The second Trust Board election will take place at August’s AGM (date to be confirmed as dependent on opening fixture of season) and it would be great to see more members standing for election and getting actively involved with the Trust. Someone told me last year that the reason they didn’t stand was because they didn’t have anyone to sign their nomination form. That was a great pity, and gave me pause for thought. Therefore, if you are genuinely interested in putting your name forward for election to the CST Board, please get in touch with me via Twitter, @BlueBaby67 , and I will assist you with the process. The criteria is likely to be the same as that in 2013, which was as follows:-
- Be a fully paid-up member of the Chelsea Supporters Trust;
- Be nominated by one other fully paid-up member of the Chelsea Supporters Trust;
- Complete a nomination form correctly and accurately (form available when AGM notice published)
- Submit a candidate statement (400 to 1000 words) which will serve as a manifesto and be circulated to all members of the Chelsea Supporters Trust eligible to vote;
- Return the nomination form and candidate statement no later than 14 days prior to the day of the election. Any nomination forms returned after this time (to be confirmed) depending on the date of the AGM) will not be admitted.
Paul Jeffrey, Secretary of the CST, is also happy to answer queries in relation to the AGM and election process, and you can contact him by email through secretary@chelseasupporterstrust.com. If you aren’t familiar with the work of the Chelsea Supporters Trust, visit the website http://www.chelseasupporterstrust.com and find out more.
Applications for election to the Board of CST will open on 20th June and close at the start of August.
Talking of the Trust, a Virtual General Meeting was held via Mixlr on Wednesday 28th May, and covered a range of issues currently being addressed by the Trust. If you missed the meeting, you can download it via the Chelsea Fancast website or iTunes.
Charity Heroes
Chelsea Season Ticket Holder, Gary Wilson, wrote to the CST recently with some sad news regarding his daughter Kirstie, who is also a Season Ticket Holder.
Dear fellow Trust members
I am a member of the Chelsea trust and a long term season ticket holder, been going to Chelsea for 40 years.
My daughter Kirstie aged 20 is also a season ticket holder with me. Devastatingly we were advised last week that she has secondary cancer of the liver and lung and we have started to have treatment this week. As part of our fight I am fundraising for Macmillan’s Cancer Support and am pleased the Board of the Trust have offered to include my link on the Chelsea Supporters Trust website so that Chelsea fans could assist where possible.
My link is: www.justgiving.com/HackersBandits
Every pound helps so hope you can help us via the Chelsea family.
Many thanks
Gary Wilson
We at TheChels.Net would also like to send our very best wishes to the Wilson family, and hope that their fundraising is a huge success.
Still on the charity front, congratulations to Matthew Harding Lower Season Ticket Holder,Kim Youle, for completing the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge over the weekend of 17th/18th May. She is now enjoying a well-earned holiday to recover.
And finally…
Best of luck to Chelsea’s very own George Groves (@StGeorgeGroves) for his massive WBA World Super Middeweight Boxing title fight against Carl Froch, which will draw many Chelsea faithful to Wembley tonight. You can follow the build-up through the handy Twitter hashtag, #FrochGroves2.
Coming soon on TheChels.Net, a look back at how our predictions went this season, in “And Now The End Is Here”, and how sponsorship and branding of football affect our choices as consumers in “Beating The Brand”