Communication Must Improve

Amid the euphoria of England’s World Cup exploits, you may have missed the launch of a new independent supporters group for fans of Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night. Named The Railwaymen, their mission statement is to ‘safeguard the long-term future of Crewe Alex by building a strong relationship between the club and its supporters’.

The group has been formed four years after the last supporters group, Crewe ASi, was disbanded after a lack of committee numbers, combined with concerns around co-operation from the club, had eroded many fans enthusiasm for the scheme. Crewe, for the last four years, has been one of the only professional outfits without an official supporters association.

What many fans are now asking is whether The Railwaymen will be able to succeed where Crewe ASi failed; will they be able to successfully provide a link between the club and its fans? Nobody would argue that it is a link which is in desperate need of some TLC.

Many too, will be feeling that a considerable amount of responsibility for the group’s success lies with the board. It is their duty to ensure they are approachable and put a framework in place through which this new group can thrive and go some way to repairing a relationship between themselves and the fans which has been verging close to divorce.

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Back in February at the fans forum, Chairman John Bowler stressed to supporters that, ‘rest assured, we are all on the same side.’ Relations before the night had soured to the extent that Bowler had to confirm to fans everyone was pulling in the same direction.

Shortly after this speech, a fan reminded Bowler, ‘if we are a community club then you need to engage the community.’ The reply was that the club were getting a lot of hits on its official website.

Undoubtedly, the club site is useful for football related news, but there is precious little shared about developments at boardroom level. A fans forum every two years so we can all sit through the inevitable question about throw-ins is simply not good enough. That is why regular, structured dialogue between both parties with clear objectives is so crucial.

It was therefore promising to read that director Charles Grant has attended early meetings with members of The Railwaymen as they plot their path forwards. 

After the last 12 years of smoke and mirrors, it is more important than ever that supporters are aware of the discussions taking place behind closed doors.

At the moment, there is still a long way to go.

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The legal case with majority shareholder Norman Hassall reached a conclusion seven weeks’ ago, yet no one has been told anything about that. Even the fans forum that was hastily arranged in February was only organised on the back of my Hassallnomics piece some three weeks prior.

Despite this, there have been some attempts made to improve communication with the fans over the last few years. Shortly before the Crewe ASi was dissolved in 2014, there was the creation of the Crewe Alexandra Supporters Liaison Officer (SLO), which aimed to bridge the gap between the club and its supporters. It was decided that this position was to be shared between Stadium Operations Manager Beverly Dyer and fan Dave Tomlinson.

The aim of these officers was to act as a key contact point for supporters and, amongst other things, they were appointed to:

1. Improve the dialogue between the club and its supporters.
2. Enhance the relationship between Crewe Alexandra supporters and other Football stakeholders.

There was also a quote from Alison Bowler, whose role as Business Operations Manager no one has quite got to the bottom of, which says, ‘These (SLOs) are important appointments for the Football Club and we aim to facilitate stronger communication between supporters and the Football Club’.

I actually only stumbled across the Supporter Liaison Officers after trawling through just about every hyperlink on the clubs website whilst in the throes of boredom on a lunch break at work. A quick Google search even unearthed that they had in fact been nominated for SLOs of the year in 2017. Why has their role, its responsibilities, and its success in improving match day experience for supporters not been shouted about more?

Surely, the very essence of communication means there should have been some communication about the people who have been assigned to do that communicating?

And, utilised correctly, could this role have been the voice that the fans were looking for?

Or rather, as the conspiracy theorists amongst you may have noticed, is the abbreviation SLO actually just describing how long the club are anticipating it will take for the initiative to get off the ground? Email in, and receive a reply before Qatar 2022.

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There are, however, some fantastic initiatives which should be recognised, such as the annual Family Fun Day at Gresty Road which, this year, will include an open training session, magic show and free ice cream.

There is also a huge amount of respect and admiration amongst the fans for the board. Without their financial support last season, the club would have been in very real trouble. The hours of unpaid work they put in behind the scenes does not go unrecognised, either.

All fans ask for is to kept in the loop.

And with plans that are afoot to make shares available to supporters, communication will become more important than ever. Although it may not be until the ownership situation is resolved that the communication fans seek does eventually materialise.

Several months ago, the clubs ostrich like response to the Barry Bennell scandal only served to highlight these shortcomings to the wider public and national press. Whether you believe the ensuing media coverage was warranted or not, there is no doubt the clubs handling of the situation was poor and appeared insincere.

In my belief, the board were wrong not to hold their own independent investigation into Bennell’s time at the club. Outcomes of this inquiry could have covered measures that have since been put in place to ensure something like this never happens again. Have all staff taken part in a safeguarding children program? Or could the club have reached out to the Offside Trust, a charity that supports survivors of child sexual abuse in sport?

The chief sports writer of the Daily Mirror, Andy Dunn, who lives in Nantwich, wrote that, ‘if it was possible, the earth Crewe Alexandra existed on should be scorched.’

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The founders of The Railwaymen independent supporters group have a very busy few months ahead if they are to set about rectifying the communication issues that have plagued Crewe Alex for a number of years. Establishing a two-way link between Crewe’s directors and the fans will be vital to the modus operandi of the club moving forwards.

The excellent uptake in membership over the last few days has proved that there is a willingness amongst fans to become involved and help where possible. But for the club to get fans truly back onside, greater transparency is required in many areas of their operations.

With the huge potential that the group has to effect positive change, there is no doubt that fans should throw their weight behind the scheme with vigour and zest.

This is your chance to make a difference. The rest is up to the club.