 Welcome to Toffy TV. I'm joined by Jaspal, who is here in... Which role are you in? ESSG today. OK. I just wanted to make that show. What is ESSG on then? It's in the fans forum of course as well. I think we spoke in December. I have spoken in December. I spoke a couple of times since then as well haven't we? About the sort of how we got to where we've got to at the moment. And obviously the ESSG is the Everton supporters steering group which is putting a plan in place to have a shadow board and a representative on the main board. Is that right? Yes, so there's two recommendations. One was for a fan advisory board, shadow board, supporter board, however you want to sort of phrase it. And then the other one, the other recommendation that we put to the club was for a fan director. Where we are at the moment is the club have turned around and committed to a seat of board meetings for a fan. But the process for that will be for a fan advisory board to determine and our role now is to determine or to specify the terms of reference so how the fan advisory board will operate, what its roles are, the composition of it and that's the sort of the bulk work that we're doing at the moment. And I think, I think we spoke about this last time, but I think since that, all the stuff that went on in January was just huge up evil amongst Everton fans and Everton football clubs sorry. And we've seen protests and we've seen sit-ins and we've seen all kinds. I think what that actually showed was within January was if we did have someone on the board who could communicate and be part of the process, things may have gone a little bit smoother than they did at the time. Yeah, it's a way of guaranteeing. Both these, the fan advisory board and the sort of the seat of board meetings is direct comms for fans straight to the board. Which is obviously what you need because it is that we shouldn't, we don't want to see or should feel a need to have protest or sit-ins. We should have that direct line of communication as fans, especially with season ticker prices going up and all those kind of things. So today the ESSG is launching a survey for fans. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so when we did the first sort of consultation, that was basically from a sort of a closed group in effect. So nine member organisations and then the sort of net that's cast out from them. One of the criticisms we got was how do individual fans get to contribute to this process. So the next phase we're doing now, which is sort of put a bit more detail on the bones and coming up with the terms of reference, we've obviously had consultation through the same member organisations, but obviously the survey that's launched today is going to sort of open that up even further. So for example, it's going to be looking at the role, whether the fan advisory board should be independent from the club, what the focus should be, whether that's regulation, whether that's strategy, whether that's government structures, heritage, et cetera. There's a whole list of options on there that the fans can turn around and tell us what their top three would be. They'll sort of give us a bit of a steering in terms of the role of the fan advisory board. And then the next bit on the back of that, which is probably the more emotive bit is the composition of the board. So, well, as we spoke last time, the two extremes would be 11 individuals determined by election, but that could potentially just have a voice of 11 individuals speaking on behalf of the whole fan base. Diolch i'r extreme would be similar method to what Liverpool, Manuw Aston have done, where it's formed groups only. There'll still be 11 people, but they'll be speaking on behalf of the whole fan base, but also by representing 10, 20,000. So, there's questions within the survey that try and glean what people's opinions are on that, whether it should be won, should do their combination of both. And then also, it goes a little bit further as well. So, from the individual positions, if that's the stage we get to, should some of them have criteria. So, the criteria could be current season ticket holder. Criteria could be a female. Because the last thing we want is for 11 of the same person to be at this board. We want to represent the full diversity of fan base. So, whether that's able-bodied, disability, bay, whites, a female male, et cetera. I know there's a lot of groups out there already. Is there talk or is the scope for even starting new groups to get that inclusiveness within? Because obviously in the groups at the moment, you mentioned Liverpool. They have like Spirit of the Shankly, which obviously would represent a lot of different people. Is the scope to have maybe more and more groups like, just say Rainbow Toffees for example, which is representing a certain amount of people. Is there something like that that might- Absolutely. And that's where we're anchored with the survey. So, they could fall under two categories. For example, if they could fall under a group that has a reserved position, that represents the diversity of the fan base of Rainbow Toffees, or from the individuals, it may be one of the criteria. If any criteria at all are applied, one of the criteria may be would you like representation from a certain group if so, tell us what it is and that may be the LGBTQ plus community. So, there's an opportunity there for people to contribute to it and let us know what they think. I think I will say is that ESSG's role at the moment is obviously to fit the terms of reference, that's an initial terms of reference for creating the fan advisory board. It doesn't mean that it's going to stay like that forever. Once the fan advisory board's in place, they'll be able to test and adjust and add other groups and remove groups or do whatever they sort of see fit I suppose. Yeah, because it is early days, isn't it? I think a few people, I think when we spoke here in December around that time, I think a lot of people sort of felt like it was at a stage where it was ready to affect things. This is really early in the process, isn't it? This is the group before the group in a way. This is the one who sits down and tries to set the terms for how we move forward. Obviously, that is really important. It is and to be honest, credit to the club too because obviously on the back of the fan-led review report, Tracy Crouch basically turned around and said there should be a shadow board. However, by the time that gets legislated for and whatever else you potentially look in 18 months on the line, the club would turn around and said let's do something now. We're willing to adopt this, we're willing to embrace it, we're willing to work with yet. You go away to develop the terms of reference. That still needs to work with the club. We'll create the terms of reference and we'll put that to the club and in effect it has to work within the club's articles of association, which is how the club operates. There may be bits that we're asking for that they can't give us. We may have to do a test and adjustment but ultimately the fact that they are open to having the fan-advised review board to be in sorts of talks behind the scenes of having memorandums of understanding so it's going to be a proper formalised process, a two-way process. So it makes sense that we're all working together to make sure that those happen. Have you found that more people have come forward who may be from groups that haven't been represented so far because obviously I think they were there trying to get this, Nate. Was it here again too? So that's a little bit separate but in effect that's a campaign that anewtonian called Jackie actually messaged Siobhan from the fans forum and basically said look, there's this movement, this organisation called Her Game 2 they sort of launched their viral video I think it was the epic up final day where they basically showed a load of messages that they had got by attending the games, pasted across and whatever else and that went viral. So Siobhan's basically led with that from the forum side of life and we got to the stage where Everton were the first Premiership team to sign up to the charter which is great news and there's sort of work on going in the background for a sort of formal matchday launch if you like even though the commitment has happened and it's a shame that Leeds only announced theirs yesterday because the derby last week had been a Her Game 2 derby which would have been a brilliant opportunity to sort of highlight one avenue for the competition of this board which may be females. Yeah, because obviously everyone has different requirements don't they, for going at the game or from a team and it's about having someone to represent that isn't it and understanding the processes of that because the traditional boards or the traditional matchgoers or what we think is traditional matchgoers might not always come across the problems or the people come across. So I go with my mates sort of 40 plus we're going to have different wants than under 30s have who have different wants than what families want then I mean who aren't even exposed to the issues that female fans have with limited toilets and facilities not compared to what would happen when you get a brand new more when you'd like to think there's a number of male, female, duty sex toilets I think there's something happening at the Southampton game actually for the LGBTQ community with Rainbow Toffees and Southampton fans and the Hummel have been because of the Hummel kids so I think there's something going on again you mentioned the leads thing that's a good move forward because it's always good to put those things front and centre to see them as well. It's all about football being everyone's game so everybody pays to go to the match everyone should have the same experience when they get to the match they shouldn't have to be worried about racist chants or misogynist behaviour or any of this everybody has to say and write it to watch and enjoy the team they love and obviously we've seen elements of that this week in core cases and other stuff we all pay to go to the match we don't want to be customers but we are customers but all addicts were addicted to them but we should all get the same level of service shouldn't we? It is amazing when you think of the things that some people have had to put up with over the years just because they don't have the same the same as somebody else let's be honest males let's be honest it is very much it it's everywhere you look there's a reason the players are still taking the knee there's so much happening hair game 2 is being fantastic and just raising potential issues that have happened and trying to make it better and hair game 2 is even outgrown what it's an issue set up to do it's not just female fans attending football matches it's going bigger than football it's doing really well it's a shame that we need to do it but it's organising I suppose it's like everything else though once the message gets out there and you keep it in the message and people understand what the message is and then go well actually yeah that's why we've seen something recently I think the campaign I don't know if it's a campaign or such but it's seen more and more talk of when will the first gay football come out just making the situation to educate people so that particular person or people can come out and have no so it's not a big thing that's it you want it to be the norm so it was an Australian player who recently came out wasn't it a referee in this country as well did and it's brilliant that it's happening but it shouldn't have to be oh look what he's done it should just be the norm no and I think that's why it's important that we get the representation isn't it across the board and I think if anyone's asking why or who will be on it then obviously this is all going to be covered so the series out today where can we finally so there's the reason it's taken a bit longer to get out there is we tried to do it independently now there's a few issues that we sort of came across so we made a call based on getting as much input as possible so we're using the club's channels to push it out so it's gone to all season ticket holders all official members and all members of a few dated supporters clubs who sort of all ticked the box for sort of dead party comms cos in effect it's come up from the ASSG by the club now the reason for that is GDPR basically so if the options we looked at was if the ASSG did it we'd have to be a legal entity we'd have to become a data controller in sort of the business terms and because it's only in stream organisations to set up the fan advisory board the efforts almost didn't justify the benefit when we could still go out to the whole to a massive portion of the families that way so the club is sending out the survey there's going to be an option there for fans who haven't received it so they're going to contribute so they'll have to sort of use the contact us form on the club website put like sort of a ASSG survey in the sort of title and then somebody will get back to them with a link so that they can undertake the survey as well but it's not going to be a link that you can share with other people that the email that comes to you targeted through the email is just so that you can do it and again that's a satisfied GDPR as well so the club don't share with us personal identifiers it does complete the survey please don't put your name, your customer number your seat number etc because then that's in effect shared and personal identifiers which is one of the areas we've tried to avoid by going through this route well there you go it's a big opportunity for everyone out there to have their say because the thing about it is and I know this for the fact there'll be people out there now who will be like I'm not interested in this but when there is a fan on the board they'll ever want to go why didn't I get my say why didn't I get my chance who voted these people in this is the process before the process so get involved in it straight away so look out for that email and make sure you get involved and I'll be open till the end of the month as I say anybody who doesn't receive it who wants to contribute just get in touch with those at the SSG or use the contact us form on their website my SSG survey in the title and then the link will come through do you go make sure you check that out keep an eye on the socials as well for the ESSG big thanks to Jads for coming in we'll see him again very very soon when he explains the next part of the process as we follow this on to getting their fan on the board big thanks for watching make sure you give this video a like, subscribe if you want more great videos tune us on page and see you later