Fan Advisory Board
In 2022, the Fan-Led Review of Football was held in response to a series of scandals affecting football clubs, particularly the proposed creation of a European Super League. The main recommendations of the Review were that an independent regulator should be established to regulate the football industry through a licensing system. One proposed condition of the new licence was the creation of a Shadow Board, which would scrutinise club decisions and hold them to account. The previous government introduced legislation to introduce the independent regulator, but the Bill did not get through all its parliamentary stages before the general election. The subseqent Labour Government reintroduced the Bill which became law with the Football Governance Act 2025.
In anticipation of the Fan-Led Review, the Premier League adopted Fan Engagement Standards (FES) which its members are contractually obliged to uphold. A key tenet of the FES is the establishment of a Fan Advisory Board (FAB) for each club. You can read the Premier League Fan Engagement Standard here.
West Ham United established a FAB in 2024 as part of its commitments under the FES. We were active in helping develop the terms of reference and in July 2024 we asked our membership whether we should join the FAB on the terms the club were proposing.
Kevin Hind is the Trust’s representative on the FAB and here he gives his opinion on his involvement with it.
The West Ham United Fan Advisory Board is the forum for two-way communication between the Club and supporter representatives. It is a mandatory construct set up as part of the Premier League’s Fan Engagement Standard. The FAB consists of both Club and supporter representatives. There are at least 3 meetings per season, excluding subcommittees. Between meetings, there is regular communication between fan representatives and the Club on matters that may arise and cannot wait until the next meeting.
During the 2025/2026 Season, there have been 3 FAB meetings so far: 13 August, 11 September (extraordinary meeting), and 23 October.
The FAB has discussed a range of topics, including: concessionary ticket pricing; Club Cash and Ticket Exchange; the Newham Safety Advisory Group; playing women’s matches at the London Stadium; safe standing. Working as part of the FAB, WHUST has helped achieve the following:
Preservation of most concessionary ticket pricing for 2025/2026, including concessionary match-by-match tickets for Category A and AA matches for supporters in Bands 5 and 6;
Action on WHU memorabilia, with the Club agreeing to take an inventory of items that could be displayed to fans;
FAB involvement in Newham Safety Advisory Group: following several years of campaigning, Newham Council have agreed to allow a fan representative to sit on Newham SAG. This is a massive step forward for fans, and I attended the December SAG meeting as a FAB representative.
Since August, fan groups have become increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of the Club both on and off the pitch. There is now the possibility of relegation from the Premier League. This led to a vote of no confidence in the Board in September, followed by an extraordinary meeting with the Club. Working with the other FAB representatives, WHUST is demanding action from the Club in relation to business strategy, leadership and performance, as no one wants to see the Club being relegated. Remember: we can criticise the manager and their players for performance on the pitch, but the recruitment and retention of both managers and players is firmly within the Club’s control.
An example of what we are concerned about is when the Club announced that their 2025/2030 business plan will be launched in November 2026, with 40% of the relevant period already behind them. Such a level of incompetence would be swiftly rebuffed in any other business organisation, and indicates short-termism over a longer term vision.
My overall impression of the FAB is that it is effective and that fans have benefited from supporter groups taking an assertive and persistent approach with the Club.
However, one of the reasons for the vote of no confidence is that the Club will still generally only respond to continuous and sustained pressure from fan groups. The task of getting the Club to give a straight answer to a straight question is more labour-intensive than it should be. It still feels like the Club treat fan representatives as an angry mob to be placated as opposed to passionate and engaged supporters, with the necessary implication that we don’t speak for ‘ordinary’ fans who are ‘satisfied’ with the Club’s performance.