Last week the AST attended the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) Conference in Frankfurt

Last week the AST attended the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) Conference in Frankfurt.

You can read more information about the meeting here, which includes a proposition for Supporters Direct Europe and Football Supporters Europe to merge to create one organisation that will be better able to represent supporters. This motion was carried at the Conference.

UEFA attended the meeting and it is clear that they are beginning to take the issue of supporter liaison and dialogue more seriously including having now appointed a specific fan liaison officer - Siobahn O’Brien. The AST is now in contact with Siobahn and hopes that her role will see improvements in how supporters are treated when travelling to European games and also be a good source of information and advice about forthcoming travels.

During the meeting the AST, working with other Trusts, put down three motions covering:

- Improving Supporter Safety at European matches

- Improving the away fan experience at European matches, including ticketing and access arrangements

- Fairer redistribution of revenues from the expanded European competition formats to ensure more clubs can compete on the European stage

All of these motions were passed and AST will now work with FSE to take forward the proposals. We have copied below these motions in full.

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Motion 5 - Supporter Safety

Proposed by: Dave Pennington, Manchester United Supporters Trust

Also supported by: Arsenal Supporters Trust, Spirit of Shankly, West Ham United Supporters' Trust, and Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust.

Congress notes the many supporter safety issues at recent Uefa club and international competition finals and similar issues for away fans at other competition match venues.

Congress therefore requests the FSE Board to engage with Uefa, and the relevant national, city and policing authorities, to address the underlying issues including, but not limited to:

Creating and maintaining a safe environment for visiting supporters in the vicinity of and inside the stadium, including stadium access, policing and stewarding

Capability and infrastructure to welcome and manage anticipated numbers of visiting supporters to the city and the stadium

Improved and fully enforced provision for disabled supporters including number of tickets, facilities, support and personal safety inside and outside the stadium

The accountability of clubs, local authorities and local police for maintaining a safe environment throughout the event including the use of evidence-based crowd management plans

The process of open ballot ticket sales for Uefa finals to the extent:

- they may create additional risks of fraud and touting

- they limit availability to supporters of the teams involved

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Motion 6 - Supporter experience for away fans in European Club competitions

Proposed by: Tim Payton, Arsenal Supporter Trust

Also supported by: Manchester United Supporters Trust, Spirit of Shankly, West Ham United Supporters' Trust, and Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust.

Congress notes:

- Existing FSE policy in relation to away fans including the successful work it has undertaken on an away price ticketing controls

- That from 2024/25 fans will be travelling to even more matches as the European Club competitions are expanded in size.

- That Uefa is still to determine financial redistribution mechanisms for the 2024/25 to 27/28 season.

Congress calls on the FSE Executive to continue to work with Uefa, its relevant committees and other stakeholders to secure improvements to the supporter experience for away fans in European club competitions, including:

- Introducing further away ticket pricing controls, and then enforcing them, so that travelling fans are not exploited. This should include a further reduction in the pricing that can be charged in the group stages and round 16

- Introducing common best standard practice for the entire match day experience that would include arrangements for ticketing; location of away fans in the stadium, stadium welcome and ground signage, turnstile entry arrangements, toilets and catering (including specified requirements on facilities for female and disabled supporters)

- Requests Uefa to allocate a small portion of central funding from its increased broadcast revenues to support clubs to meet these standards

- Improved arrangements for European finals, including allocating more tickets to supporters of the competing teams

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Motion 6 - The future of European club competitions from 2023/24 - a fair revenue distribution model for competitive balance

Proposed by: Tim Payton, AST

Also supported by: Manchester United Supporters Trust, Spirit of Shankly, West Ham United Supporters' Trust, and Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust.

Congress notes that Uefa has recently announced a new and expanded club competition structure from 2023/24. This new structure will see an expanded number of games played in all three of the competition formats. This will see an increase in central and club revenues from activities such as ticket sales, commercial exploitation and broadcast rights.

Congress also notes and welcomes the existing FSE policy document that has a central aim of promoting revenue distributions that ensure competitive balance across a wide number of competing clubs from many different national leagues so that football does not go even further in being dominated by just a few clubs. There is a real danger that without fair redistribution policies the European competitions will become a closed shop.

Congress calls upon the FSE board to continue their work to secure a more balanced redistribution model from Uefa later this year through further liaison with Uefa and other key stakeholders such as the European leagues.

The aim should be to secure a future of European football that is for the many not the few.