Top of the league – Do we still need a Supporters Trust ?

The following article has been submitted by forum member Henry Irving.

Six weeks ago when the idea of a Supporters’ Trust was floated it was greeted with generally positive response. Even those who were sceptical mostly took a “let’s wait and see” stance. The organisation that oversees the 140 trusts across the UK was amazed that 50 people would turn up for an initial meeting such was the response.

Back then the season was yet to kick off and fans, bruised and blooded by the preceding few years, were worried about what the season would bring. Some new but unproven players had arrived, all on free transfers, the star players were regularly being linked with moves away while the transfer window seemed a long, long way off.

The manager who had overseen the final few months of our relegation season was still in charge and beyond ever more outrageous rumours little was known about any proposed takeover or who would be running the club next year, next month or even next week.

So it was perhaps fertile ground to suggest that fans start to act, to organise and prepare themselves for an uncertain future.

But a few weeks on the mood has changed. The team is winning and winning well, gates have held up and that much maligned manager is winning over even some (although by no means all) of his fiercest critics.

So has the need for the Trust gone?

It’s the team that we go to see and if they are winning playing the type of football they are then what is there to worry about? Even the pies taste better when you are top of the league.

Success on the pitch is what every fan wants but to sustain that success in the long term that we need stability and growth behind the scenes.

Over the summer fans often said how far removed they felt from their club and that they no longer felt listened to. We still don’t know who will be running the club or what the aims or motives will be of any new investors.

It maybe that new owners, or even the old ones if it is they who stay in control, will be in tune with the fans and be able to deliver the long term success, stability and growth that we all want and in a way that we as fans feel is in line with our traditions. The “Charlton way” that is so often referred to.

But that doesn’t mean that ordinary fans shouldn’t have an active part in shaping that future and be independently organised in such a way that they can call to account the board of the Club and influence the direction it is taking either now or some time in the future.

There has already been an initial meeting of fans. The next step in an open public meeting where fans can vote to decide to start the process of forming a Trust.

That meeting is taking place next week on 15th September starting at 7.30 pm.

The Venue is the Conservative Club in Charlton Church Lane just a few minutes from the Valley.

All Charlton fans, and especially those who have their doubts or want to question the idea of setting up a Trust, are welcome.

A trust is not an easy or quick solution to all the challenges that face the Club but it is a model that has worked well elsewhere. From the likes of Man Utd and Rangers to Lincoln and Brentford the Trust model has been taken up.

At some clubs the aims is to own and run the Club, such as at Brentford. Other clubs have secured a directorship of the Club through gaining a large enough shareholding. Others work with their clubs to foster better relationships with the community or to influence decision making over pricing and facilities. At some Clubs the Trusts have played a big part in a monitoring the actions of the owners to ensure that they are working in the best long term interests of the Club and not themselves.

These are just some options. A Charlton Trust would have its own aims. What those aims are will be decided by the fans themselves but being Charlton fans we will do doubt do it in our own special way.

Come to the meeting, bring your sceptical friend with you, and have a voice.

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