The Voice of the Supporters? How Fans can have a Say on Recent Issues.

Trusts, Associations and Fan clubs are the main ways supporters can join together with fellow supporters from a certain place or for people who share more personal similarities. However, someone must be in control of these, and that is where the Football Supporters Association, or FSA, come in.

Logo of the Football Supporters Association. Courtesy of: FSA

Michael Brunskill is head of communications, meaning he is responsible for the communications and marketing of the FSA and is the association's main spokesperson.

Brunskill said: “We campaign on a variety of issues, everything from ticket prices to safe standing to football supporters' rights to policing and stewarding to broadcast matters”

Recently the Premier League, Sky Sports and TNT Sports have agreed a deal to broadcast more games. This means that Amazon Prime and the BBC will no longer be given games, or matchdays in Amazon’s case.

This new deal has raised a couple of concerns despite it allowing fans to view more games from the comfort of their own home. The main concern comes when, considering that the usual TV times are lunchtimes and afternoons, meaning that travelling to a range of games across the UK can suddenly become a difficult journey.

UEFA have been constantly trying to expand their European competitions, as shown by the change to the ‘Swiss-Model’ of a league instead of 8 separated group stages. This model will also make more high-profile fixtures a regular occurrence which, although seeming a more exciting prospect, is potentially going to increase the risk of injury. This may cause players to not be as adventurous as they are usually so they don’t get injured, which will affect how enjoyable games may be.

In addition to this, FIFA proposed a new 32 team Club World Cup, which will place teams into 8 groups of 4 (like the current, pre-Swiss model versions of European competitions). This will mean the Premier League Champions (e.g. Manchester City currently) may have to play potentially 10 games, in addition to the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup. With these proposals, teams could potentially play around 60-70 games in one season.

Just one look on social media will echo this view, as well as people getting excited about the potential of more games, without considering the high effect on the players' wellbeing.

Brunskill said “I think players are obviously well remunerated but that doesn’t mean that the physical demands are not intense on them. I think supporters genuinely understand that and the same things that players struggle with in terms of the extra games are also while a different type of burden but also seen that way by supporters if you want to follow your team every game.”