Hard truths

There are a good number of people at Bristol Rovers, past and present, who I like, respect and admire. Indeed, some have become the closest of close friends. They include former directors, employees, volunteers and fans. Someone I have known longer than most, John Malyckyj, has written a brilliant and excoriating piece in today’s Bristol Post. No Gashead should let it pass them by.

Even those who have not always shared John’s views have always accepted his totally honesty. He is a man who will always prefer to tell someone a hard truth to their face rather than through an anonymous forum. His comments about the current stand off between Bristol Rovers Football Club (BRFC) and Bristol Rovers Supporters Club should be understood. And his conclusion, that BRSC should be dissolved, is the correct one.

I have argued for many years that BRSC has become an irrelevance at BRFC. Since 2006, the directors who were on the board on the basis of the Supporters Club Share Scheme, and on the basis of £1.3 million of Gasheads’ money, were not carrying out the functions for which the posts were created. The longest serving BRSC director, Ken Masters, recently resigned in a fit of self-pitying faux pique, supposedly angry at how he had been treated by the new owners. But in truth Masters succeeded only in exposing his own inadequacies, having achieved literally nothing over 14 years.

BRSC promptly launched into an angry tirade of attacks on the board of directors, something which has astonished Gasheads who are already concerned about the future of the football club under its absentee Jordanian owners who have managed to rattle up debts of over £24 million. Given the statements made on BRSC’s website, it is clear the differences between the current BRSC committee and the football club are irreconcilable. In different times, this might be important. In these uncertain times, it isn’t. BRSC has had its day.

Nowadays, BRSC has little to offer supporters. It’s functions are limited to:

• Selling tickets for the half-time draw
• Booking buses for away travel for BRSC members
• Access to one of the stadium football club bars
• An annual news magazine
• Priority tickets for big games, something already enjoyed by season ticket holders
• Er…
• That’s it

Not much for £12 a year, is it? It’s an old people’s club – and I was one of those old people – and it offers little or nothing to supporters young and old.

John nails it with this comment: ‘Rovers supporters should be organised as the board should still be held to account, but it needs to be done in a completely different way, acknowledging that people now engage with each other using a myriad of different forms of communication. It should be driven by young people because they are the future, the days of membership cards and committee meetings are now gone, business is now done in a different way. Sadly, the once great Bristol Rovers Supporters Club has been overtaken by time.‘

Bristol Rovers Supporters Club has had its day. It has nothing to offer Gasheads. What comes next is up to them. God knows there have been enough attempts to modernise both the football club and supporters club and all have failed. It needs young people with compassion and vision to create something new in the digital age, a million miles away from cardboard membership cards and committee meetings.

Those who have been there before will, I’m sure, offer advice and guidance to anyone who wants to take on the mantle of representing supporters. More than ever, Gasheads, like supporters everywhere, need meaningful representation at their football club. Having had virtually none at Bristol Rovers since 2006, they need it more than ever.