The Newcastle United fan advisory board was launched last year.
With eventually nine supporters appointed onto the board by the club, rather than the fanbase voting on who would be involved.
Now the club have made an official announcement on Thursday, stating who the Chair and Vice-Chair will be on the Newcastle United fan advisory board.
Like all these things, the credibility or otherwise of this latest fan initiative (Premier League rules say that all clubs have to have some kind of direct involvement with supporters along these lines, or very similar) will depend of what comes out of it and how seriously the club take it.
Interesting to see that the club state the minutes of the Newcastle United fan advisory board meetings will be published on the club website. The big problem with this in the Mike Ashley fan forum days, the minutes that the club ended up putting out, didn’t fully reflect what went on in meetings, according to some of the fan forum members.
Transparency, or lack of it, will make or break this new Newcastle United fan advisory board initiative, in terms of how the club handle it.
Newcastle United official announcement – 15 February 2024:
‘Newcastle United’s Fan Advisory Board has appointed its Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board, following a formal nomination process amongst the newly-appointed members of the group.
The club launched its Fan Advisory Board (FAB) at the end of 2023, with hundreds of applications going through a number of processes to be appointed on the board. That resulted in nine supporters forming the group, which will be a conduit for two-way dialogue between supporters and the club’s key decision makers, in line with the club’s fan engagement plan which was launched last August.
Taking the positions are season ticket holders Michael McCarthy, who becomes Chair, whilst Marion Williams has been elected as Vice-Chair of the FAB.
Commenting on the newly-appointed roles, Newcastle United’s Head of Supporter Services, Sarah Medcalf, said: “On behalf of everybody at the club, I am delighted that our FAB have worked together to nominate Michael and Marion as Chair and Vice Chair respectively.
“Both have a long-standing love for the football club and are passionate about representing fans’ voices to help deliver meaningful, long-term dialogue between the club and supporters.
“This is a very exciting time for the football club and our supporters and two-way communication is fundamental to the business and something that we continue to deliver through our Fan Engagement Plan.”
The group will retain a focus on topics including the club’s strategic vision and objectives, business operations, the stadium, key matchday issues, any relevant heritage items, community activities and the club’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) commitments. Sporting and on-field issues will not form part of proposals.
The first FAB meeting will take place later this month with minutes published on nufc.co.uk and available for all supporters to view. If you would like to send feedback or ask the FAB a question, please email [email protected].’
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