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THST News - April 2024
The latest newsletter contains updates from the Board and on ticketing, the Quiz night, the BBQ, Policing and safety, Women’s FA Cup Final ticketing, Football Governance Bill, Spurs in the 90s – book and the THST Forum.
Board update
The Board meets six times a year, one of which is the AGM to which all members of the Trust are invited. The most recent meeting was shortly after our AGM.
The Trust officers were confirmed as follows:-
Martin Buhagiar – Chair
Michael Green – Vice-Chair
Tristan Foot – Secretary
Anthony Morkos – Treasurer
The Trust Board underwent significant change in 2023 and it was recognised that 2024 and beyond was a new era. Several workstreams were recognised as needing more detailed attention that could be afforded in a main board meeting in the areas of ticketing, matchday matters, communications, governance, community and operations.
The final activities required to complete the new website were discussed. The new THST website has since been launched and we hope that all members find this to be an improvement.
The Board acknowledged the significant contribution from members responding to the call to action to share responses to the Club’s removal of senior concessions and general price rise. There was a considerable amount of work for board members to communicate this publicly and to continue discussion with the Club.
The next full board meeting is in June and board members continue to meet frequently outside of formal meetings to discuss the various workstreams identified.
Ticketing
The THFC Board invited Trust members to discuss ticketing on March 26 (due to the timing we were unable to include this in our March newsletter). Trust members pushed again for the Club to reverse the price increases and to reinstate senior concessions.
The Trust wrote to the
Premier League inviting it to intervene on these matters. The response was curiously timed for the day before the THFC Board had invited us to meet. The response made clear that the Premier League does not require clubs to submit ticketing policies for approval and further that ticketing pricing and policy was a matter for clubs to determine for themselves. The Premier League is therefore content that THFC meets its requirements.
Premier League Rule R.8 states: “Concessionary ticket prices must be made available by each of the Home and Visiting Clubs for: R.8.1. senior citizens; and R.8.2. junior supporters.”
We would ask our members and wider supporters if they feel that senior and junior concessions have been made available to them?
As the Football Governance Bill makes its way through Parliament (slowly), we reflect on the words of Dame Tracey Crouch MP who commenting during the second reading of the Bill:
“
It is always important to remember that the Premier League asked the Government to intervene when six clubs sought to join the European super league…It was interesting to read in its submission that the Premier League thought that there could be a use for an institution with “step-in powers” and “a capacity to intervene” should it “manifestly have failed to uphold rules”.”
We suggest that when it comes to senior concessions, the Premier League has “manifestly failed to uphold rules” (to use their own words) and that it is time for an independent regulator to hold clubs to account for compliance with their own rules as the Premier League itself called for. To fail to do so will be double standards of the highest order.
Quiz Night
April saw one of our favourite Trust events of the year, the annual Spurs Quiz Night, take place at The Antwerp Arms in Tottenham. The event was completely sold out and we were delighted to welcome Trust members to a lively and very entertaining evening. Our special guest, Michael Dawson, met with everyone who attended, took part in the Spurs staff team and judged our caption competition. In short, he was a complete star.
Part of the Trust’s remit is to support charities and other organisations in the local community, and this event raised over £1100 for the wonderful
Studio 306 Collective.
We are enormously grateful to all the people who helped raise this magnificent total, including everyone who attended and
The Antwerp Arms for their generosity in hosting and donating prizes. Thanks also to everyone who donated raffle prizes: with the star prize being a signed first team shirt donated by Spurs, as well as a very generous meal voucher provided by
The Victoria Stakes and a signed Glenn Hoddle poster courtesy of
Futbolista .
Our evening was hosted once again by Theo Delaney, of Spurs Show and Life Goals fame. Theo also devised a very special round to challenge us all, in which excerpts from Life Goals were shared and we had to identify the scorer, or some other detail. Life Goals feature celebrities who talk about what particular goals meant to them – you can imagine how emotional it was for us all to hear our own late, great Pete Haine describe his feelings around the Lucas Moura third goal in Amsterdam. You can check other episodes out via the twitter account
@LifeGoalsTD
It is always a huge pleasure that Spurs send a staff team to participate in the quiz. They have a huge amount of knowledge between them and have won the quiz for the last two years. This time, however, they were challenged by many of the teams, and in the end six teams were separated by just five points. Congratulations to Spurs Ladies Are On Their Way to Wembley for their well-deserved win. See you next year when you defend your title!
BBQ
Unfortunately, the original date we had for the BBQ is now not available. We will update members as soon as we have a new date.
Policing and safety
Our representative attended the Metropolitan Police Independent Advisory Group meeting with the senior officers responsible for policing football in London and representatives of supporters’ groups from other London clubs.
The agenda covered scheduling of fixtures; concerns regarding “tailgating” at turnstiles; fake ticket scams; anti-drugs initiatives; measures to combat Violence Against Women and Girls; policing of European games; tackling social media abuse; and the use of Live Facial Recognition technology around football and other large events.
We were made aware of the potential police deployment of Live Facial Recognition on the public highway on the day of the North London derby and raised our concerns. The Trust attended a planning meeting with the police, the clubs and representatives of opposition supporters where we reiterated our concerns to the police and sought reassurances. The police explanation was that supporters of these clubs are not being singled out and the reason for deployment is the high volume of attendance and the consequent opportunity for detection and prevention. The police have informed us that there was one arrest as a result of the deployment.
The planning meeting also discussed the police and stewarding arrangements for the derby fixture, with a particular focus on the arrangements for dealing with away fans. Supporters have contacted us with concerns about aspects of policing around the stadium and after the match and we have raised those with the police.
Women’s FA Cup Final ticketing
We are all very proud of the Spurs Women who have reached a historic first ever FA Cup Final, which will be played against Manchester United at Wembley on 12 May. While we were disappointed that so few tickets were being offered to the fans of the finalists, we felt that the Club used a very fair method for scheduling the sales windows, rewarding those who regularly attend the women’s games. The ticket pricing was also to be commended with affordable ticketing and concessions available throughout.
We wish the Women’s Team every success and hope that everyone with tickets has a day to remember.
Along with the Spurs Under 21s fantastic achievement of securing first place in the league phase of the season, let’s hope that silverware will soon become the norm for all our teams.
Football Governance Bill
The long-awaited Football Governance Bill has finally been introduced in Parliament by the Government.
The legislation will establish an Independent Football Regulator and the introduction of a licensing system for regulated clubs, including requirements on fan engagement and consultation. The Bill stipulates licensing conditions which will require clubs to have adequate means to consult fans about relevant matters and to take the views of their fans into account.
On 23 April the Bill passed its Second Reading in Parliament without any votes against. It will now proceed to the Committee Stage with more detailed consideration of the clauses in the Bill and possible amendments.
Many MPs from across all parties spoke in the Parliamentary debate. Every MP supported the Bill, including the official opposition. Some MPs expressed concerns that the legislation did not go far enough.
There was considerable criticism of the Premier League for lobbying against the creation of a Regulator, notably from Dame Tracey Crouch MP who led the Fan Led Review which made the recommendations that led to the legislation. She pointed out that the Premier League had pressed the Government to intervene when clubs threatened to join a breakaway European Super League and had had called for an independent regulator. The Premier League was now lobbying against a regulator with the very powers that the League had itself requested. Fortunately, the Premier League’s lobbying appears to have backfired.
The Trust supports the legislation, the establishment of the Independent Football Regulator and the creation of a licensing system which includes obligations for fan engagement and consultation. As the Bill passes through Parliament, we will continue to lobby and work with MPs to seek changes which strengthen the Bill and to oppose any watering down of the key provisions.
Is Gascoigne Going To Have a Crack? Spurs in the 90s – book now out!
Those of you who attended our Quiz Night will have heard from Gareth Dace who has written a new book all about Spurs in the 90s. Titled ‘Is Gascoigne Going To Have a Crack?’ – the famous commentary line from Barry Davies in the 1991 Fa Cup Semi-Final – the book provides a comprehensive narrative of Spurs throughout the 1990s focusing on the magic, mayhem and mediocrity that I’m sure many of you will remember! The brilliant Julie Welch provides the foreword and there is input from Gerry Francis, David Howells and a host of well-known podcasters and broadcasters including TalkSport’s Paul Hawksbee and our very own quiz host Theo Delaney among others.
Published by Pitch Publishing The book is available in hardback and on Kindle (Amazon) and can be purchased via the author’s own personal selling account
here or through Amazon, Waterstones and WHSmith.
You can follow Gareth on X – @GarethDace
THST Forum
This month on the Forum we’ve been discussing the disgraceful removal of senior concessions for future season tickets, the role of the FAB, moving seats, and the Club’s financial results.
The
THST Forum is open to full and life members of the Trust. Full and life members should apply via the
link on our website and set up an account. We should emphasise Trust membership alone doesn’t give you automatic access to the Forum, you need to register via the link. Don’t forget – full members can start threads of their own so have a think about which off-field issues you would like to discuss.
To join the Trust, please
register here. Whilst everyone who works with the Trust is a volunteer, we do have some costs and would encourage people to upgrade from free Associate Membership to Full membership if you can –
here.
The latest newsletter contains an update from the Board and articles on ticketing, the North London Derby, the Quiz night, the BBQ, Policing and safety, Women’s FA Cup Final ticketing, Football Governance...
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