Supporters Direct Europe

Trust Survey

April - May 2014

1 Background

As you know, this year we started surveying supporters’ organisations* on a regular basis. Of

course we’re in contact with you all, and know what you’re up to, but the idea is to build up a full

picture of the movement and its growth over time. We want to pinpoint the success stories,

share them with the rest of the network, and help overcome the challenges we face collectively.

As a reminder, the first survey was conducted in April 2014 (focusing on January-March) and

the second one in September (looking at April-June). The results of the second survey are

presented here.

The main areas covered by this survey are membership and community, communications, and

relationships with stakeholders. These are not set in stone, and if you think we’re missing

something, please do let us know!

* Can be a trust, a national organisation, or a members’ club

2 General facts

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Supporters' organisations

National Umbrella Organisations

Trusts/member clubs

• A total of nine trusts*, one

members’ club** and five National

umbrella organisations*** from

thirteen countries participated in

this survey.

15⁄13 * An officially or unofficially established entity that represents individual members

and is involved or wants to be involved in the decision making of their club

** A club with a direct membership (not ownership through a trust) *** An officially or unofficially established entity that acts as an umbrella organisation of domestic supporters’ groups

2 General facts

• The oldest supporters’ organisation was set up nearly 21 years ago, in

1993, and the youngest just in 2014. Twelve supporters’ organisations* were

set up since 2007 (SD Europe founding year).

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

* Can be a trust, a national organisation, or a members’ club

31/03/2014 30/06/2014 Diff

Organisations 14 15

New organisations 2

Removed organisations 1

Members (total) 2,703 3,487 +29%

Members (can vote) 2,431 3,124 +28,51%

Members (pending) 262 364 +38,93%

Members (<18 or similar) 10 41 +310,00%

Members of NOs 123 126 +2.43%

Volunteers 454 480 +5.7%

Board members 87 100 +15.0%

General Meetings attendance (total) 406 895 +120.44%

Open meetings attendance (total) 854 1,665 +94.96%

General Meetings 7 20 +185.71%

Open meetings 8 20 +150%

General meetings attendance (average) 58 44.75 -22.84%

Open meetings attendance (average) 106.75 83.25 -22.01%

Completed events 7 10 +42,86%

31/03/2014 30/06/2014 Diff

Website visits (total) 94,898 172,969 +82,27%

Website visits (avg) 18,980 28,828 +51,89%

Website visits (domestic) 79% 82% +3,80%

Website visits (abroad) 21% 18% -14,29%

Facebook likes (total) 42,092 54,514 +29,51%

Twitter followers (total) 19,633 22,934 +16,81%

Opinion clubs have for trusts 4.11 3.38 -17.76%

Opinion trusts have for clubs 3.67 2.63 -28.34%

Opinion FAs have for SOs 3.50 3.55 +1.43%

Opinion leagues have for SOs 3.63 3.58 -1.38%

Opinion governments have for SOs 3.86 4.00 +3.63%

Opinion various political groups for SOs 3.57 3.89 +8.96%

Opinion local authorities for SOs 3.93 3.00 -23.66%

Opinion police have for SOs 2.83

Join events with football authorities 9 26 +166.67%

Joints events with political authorities 4 34 +750%

2 General facts

• Eleven is the highest number of board members in a supporters ’

organisation and four is the minimum. Twelve supporters’ organisations have

less than or equal to 7 board members.

5 7 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

average

common

2 General facts

Board members

Chairman/President 14 / 15

Treasurer 14 / 15

General Secretary 13 / 15

Vice Chairman/President 10 / 15

PR / Spokesperson 5 / 15

Ass General Secretary 1 / 15

Legal Advisor 1 / 15

Compliance Officer 1 / 15

Consulting body 1 / 15

The most common structure of the board includes a chairman (legal representative of the board and usually its public face), a treasurer (responsible for the organisation’s accounts) and a general secretary (responsible for the operational and administrative support of the organisation). Most of the boards also have a separate board position for a vice chairman (replaces the chairman in his duties when not available) and for a PR/Spokesperson. Organisations also create board positions to cover their special needs in dealing with internal and external demands and relationships.

2 General facts

• Diversity! Six trusts are supporting clubs that are playing in the top two

tiers. The other four are supporting grassroot clubs of tier 5th and lower.

1 1 1 1 1 2

4 5

6

8

0

2

4

6

8

10 grassroots

2 General facts

• All fifteen supporters’ organisations work with clubs with a men’s football

department.

• Four of these are multi-sport organisations (basketball, volleyball,

hockey, swimming, water polo, athletics, etc).

• Five are active (or potentially active according to their statutes) in

women’s football.

3 Membership

• Registration is free in all but three supporters’ organisations. One

requires its members to contribute with 10€ while the other two between 100€

and 200€.

• In five supporters’ organisations membership is free.

Eight supporters’ organisations have a membership fee

equal to or less than 50€. One supporters’ organisation

has a membership fee between 100€ and 150€ and one

follows a ‘give what you want’ policy.

5

8

1 1

Annual cost

Free

Up to 50€

50€-100€

100€-150€

Give what you want

• No more than three supporters’ organisations have a

special membership for junior members (no right to vote,

eg under eighteen years old depending on domestic

legislation). Just one supporters’ organisation has special

membership categories (unemployed, pensioners, etc).

3 Membership

46,67%

20,00%

33,33%

Membership duration

1/1 to 31/12

365 days

1/7 to 30/6

3 Membership

• At least 480 volunteers (+6%)

are assisting the efforts of the

supporters’ organisations in the

areas of internet (14), general-all

around (12), marketing-campaigning

(12) legal (11), financial (10),

infrastructure (10), lobbying-pr (10),

matchday (6), while at least one

organisation has set up working

groups to assist in each of these

sectors.

480

Lobbying

PR

(10)

General (12)

Fanzine (2)

Matchday assistance (6)

Legal (11) Financial (10)

Infrastructure (10)

Marketing

Campaigning (12)

Internet (14)

3 Membership

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

• The supporters’ organisations offer a variety of benefits to their members in reward to their financial and moral contribution. The most common benefit is access to the newsletter and participation in events of restricted access. Member cards, gift packs and the rest of the benefits are not as popular as one might expect.

3 Membership

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Members

Can Vote Can't vote

• 3,361 members in eight

trusts of which 2,956 can vote, 41

are junior members (no voting

rights) and 364 have not paid their

membership for the current season.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Can't Vote

Pending Underaged 5

National organisations

126 domestic members

At least 184,000 supporters (individual members)

• The five national organisations have a

total 126 members all of which have full

voting rights.

4 Events

• A total of twenty general and twenty

open meetings were held with a total

attendance of 895 and 1,665 respectively.

• 66% average participation at elections. Number

Attendance

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

General Meetings

Open Meetings

4 Events

• From the eleven campaigns planned, two were completed and nine are

ongoing. In a scale from 1 to 5, the satisfaction of the supporter organisations

regarding the planning of the campaign is 3.5, its time management is 3.25,

punctuality to deadlines is 3.38, workload distribution is 3.13.

• Ten events were organized by the supporters’ organisations, with a total

attendance of 960. Six of the supporters’ organisations were invited to

participate in events organized by other, similar European organisations.

Workload

Time management

Planning

Deadlines

5 Communications

• At least 11,829 fans interact virtually on the fora of at least three

supporters’ organisations.

• 172,969 unique visits on the websites of the five

supporters’ organisations that use a statistics engine and

can measure them, 77% of which were domestic and

23% were from outside the country.

• 10,174 people receive a newsletter from 7 supporters’ organisation

every two months, on average. 60% of the recipients open and read the

newsletter.

• Three supporters’ organisations have an official youtube page with a

total of 372 subscribers.

5 Communications

• 54,514 likes in total for the thirteen supporters’ organisations with an

official facebook page.

279 328 449 659 886

1578

2263 2824

3371

4320

6554

7592

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Top facebook pages

23.411

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

5 Communications

• 22,934 total followers on the official twitter account of nine supporters’

organisations.

14.500

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

97 159

506 511

905 932

1266 1327

2729

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Clubs

• All ten trusts are recognized by the club they support. On a scale from 1 to

5, the average opinion of the clubs towards the trusts is 3.38, whereas the

average opinion of the trusts towards the clubs is 2.63.

Opinion of clubs

could be better...

But we are not

happy at all with

the clubs!

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Clubs

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 • Most of the supporters’ organisations have come to an agreement with their clubs and have certain privileges that ensure they can exert influence in the long term on issues related to the identity of their club (seats on the board, veto on club colors-club name-share transfer-stadium location, holders of premium shares etc).

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Football Authorities

• Five supporters’ organisations do not

have an established relationship with their

domestic FA, one has an unofficial

relationship and nine have an official

relationship.

• Six supporters’ organisations do not

have an established relationship with the

league, three have an unofficial relations

and six have an official relationship.

None

Unofficial

Official Some

None

Unofficial Official Some

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Football Authorities

• On a scale from 1 to 5 the average opinion of the FAs towards the

supporters’ organisations is 3.55, the average opinion of the leagues towards

the supporters’ organisations is 3.58.

0,00%

20,00%

40,00%

60,00%

80,00%

100,00%

1 2 3 4 5

Football Associations

Domestic Leagues

• In at least 26

occasions the supporters’

organisations and the

football authorities worked

together in joint events.

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Politics

• National organisations have not been surveyed for their relationship with the

MEPs, as they have changed after the recent elections.

• Nine supporters’ organisations have an

established relationship with their

government.

• Ten supporters’ organisations have an

established relationship with at least one

more political parties.

0%

50%

100%

Established Relationship

• Eight supporters’ organisations have an

established relationship with the local

authorities.

• Six supporters’ organisations have an

established relationship with the police.

6 Stakeholders – Supporters and Politics

• National organisations have not been surveyed for their relationship with

the MEPs, as they have changed after the recent elections.

• On a scale from 1 to 5, the opinion of the government, other political

groups, local authorities and the police towards the supporter organisations is

4.00, 3.89, 3.00 and 2.83 respectively.

0,00%

20,00%

40,00%

60,00%

80,00%

100,00%

1 2 3 4 5

Governments Political groups Local Authorities Police

• Supporters’ organisations

and political authorities worked

together in 34 occasions.

7 Conclusions

Although two surveys don't provide a huge amount of data, we can safely draw the conclusion that the

supporter ownership movement is growing - clearly shown by the rising number of new organisations that

join the family and the 30% increase of overall members.

While the relationship between supporters and the rest of the football and political stakeholders has suffered

a slight dip, there has also been major developments in the dialogue, both internally (over-doubled number

of meetings with supporters and of the people who attended) and externally (360% more meetings with

stakeholders). In terms of communications, we've also seen major growth - 80% more website visits, 30%

more Facebook likes, and 15% more Twitter followers overall. So overall, the picture is very positive.

Of course, the surveying process isn't perfect, and we're still looking for the right formula of frequency,

questions, and so on. So in the future, we're going to:

• Run surveys every six months, instead of every three

• Do our best to make your previous answers accessible whilst completing each survey (if Surveymonkey

let us!)

• Modify some of the questions, based on your suggestions and what we think might help capture better

info

As mentioned above - if you have any ideas about how we could improve the survey, please do let us know.

Hopefully you find the data useful, encouraging, and interesting. Many thanks for your contributions so far!

The next survey will be run in January 2015.