At Lewes FC, what was once a supposed beacon of fan ownership, has now become a hollow democracy. The original model was meant to empower the local community, where fans who live and breathe the club would have the most significant say in its future. Instead, voting power has shifted to a majority of distant members, many of whom have never even set foot in Lewes. This has effectively shut out the very people who should have the greatest influence—the passionate, local fans who support the team through thick and thin and keep the club going.
This isn’t just a minor issue; it’s a fundamental contradiction of the fan ownership ethos. The model was designed to give local fans, the ones who live with the club, a real voice. Yet now, decision making is largely in the hands of those who bought into an idealism, Equality FC, from afar, with no real connection to the town or its football team. What was supposed to be a democratic, community focused structure has become a distant, top down system that no longer represents the people who matter most, the local supporters. Overseen by successive boards seemingly incapable of recognising that if you screw up the democracy, as they have, you have a moral right to adhere strictly to the idealism of the excellent club constitution. Currently they are instead hellbent on dismantling the democracy even further.
Another less than complimentary blog from last week here:
Successive boards have failed to protect the integrity of fan ownership, and it feels as though they’ve abandoned their responsibility with a simple gay abandon. Rather than fostering a robust, engaged local community, the leadership seems more interested in satisfying the whims of far flung members, a culture of cash for distant members, leaving the roots of Lewes FC to wither.
Why are the current board hiring people who are making it perfectly clear they think the club should go further still in breaking our core values, by expanding our membership to far flung places, at huge cost, confirming the direction of play and it ain’t, dear reader, for your benefit.
Can someone explain to me why we invest vast sums of money to build a phoney membership base, but we cannot hand out leaflets promoting membership with someone at hand to try and sell the idea by the turnstiles? Why not forego a beech hut and use it as a membership recruitment centre once a month?
We all know that over half of game attendees are not members. Maybe if you asked them, you could get another 500 high-quality members. Why do we have a culture at our club where the bleedin’ obvious is always eschewed for some fancy-schmancy way of moving forward, involving hiring more staff and simply jettisoning the most obvious, cheap, and effective way? Why is throwing financial and human resources always the way to solve problems at Lewes FC when the track record of this every time is a fail.
There has been a breathtaking arrogance at the helm of Lewes Football Club for 15 years, where successive boards of directors have taken the view that community fan ownership is not defined by the constitution but by their own interpretation of it. If their definition has little to do with everyone else’s perception of what fan ownership should be, then so be it. This arrogance has accelerated over recent years as board members seem to more and more believe the club is their own personal fiefdom, jettisoning the accompanying principles at their convenience. Members are not people to influence how the club is run, they are a commodity, a useful resource, a tick box exercise with a return. It is ugly.
Which only compounds this problem when the club should be mending it. This apparent focus on further diluting democracy, yes another membership drive, a cash grab, sends a troubling signal: that Lewes FC is no longer committed to building a sustainable, community driven club. Instead, the priority seems to be making quick financial gains rather than fostering long term growth sustainability based on the amazing, generous community of Lewes.
The Missed Opportunity for True Fan Ownership.
The saddest thing is that we have a fan base perfectly suited to fan ownership, a dedicated and proactive group of people that any football club would envy. This is partly due to the town’s culture of volunteering, community-driven activities, fundraising, and event management through the bonfire societies. If these values were harnessed correctly, as I have always pushed for, Lewes Football Club could thrive through community driven activities rather than desperate and failed gimmicks carried out by people with no history with the town or the club.
As for our ‘democratic’ fan ownership credentials, the lowest point came when a 23-year-old woman was elected to the board despite never having attended a game. That was a nadir in our journey into fan ownership, as members who joined for gender equality purposes rather than the health of our football club and teams, and couldn’t give a toss about Lewes, held sway over the direction of our board for the wrong reasons. Electing a nobody who meant nothing to the town or club rather than true and dedicated fans on a political whim.
Two months ago, there was suddenly a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. At an online meeting, one of our board of directors finally did what no previous board member had the courage to do: spell out our dreadful record of community ownership. Not even 20% of our membership is from Lewes, and only approximately 5% of all sponsorship comes from local businesses. He suggested that the way forward for the club was to correct this imbalance. Hoorah for that.
Of course, this is glaringly obvious, but within two weeks, it was back to the rinse and repeat cycle of boom and bust, another harebrained scheme to get us out of financial trouble, a situation we brought upon ourselves by being overambitious and failing to build a proper community backbone.
The Systematic Corruption of Fan Ownership
What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. Board after board at Lewes Football Club has corrupted the fan ownership model. Instead of fulfilling the moral and constitutional obligations of fan ownership, they have systematically stripped members of their ability to hold the club to account and failed to uphold many of these basic principles of fan ownership:
- Decisions should be made with the club’s long-term future in mind, not just short-term financial gain.
- The club should reject excessive commercialisation.
- Grassroots football traditions should be maintained rather than catering to tourists or investors.
- There should be no risk of the club being relocated, rebranded, or sold for quick profits.
- The club’s traditions and heritage must be protected for future generations.
- The club should be less vulnerable to reckless ownership or financial collapse.
- The club should serve as a focal point for the local community.
Lewes Football Club has given a two-fingered salute to the excellent Crouch Report, a quintessentially pro fan ownership document, by doing the exact opposite of its recommendations. We all know where that has led us. Again we rinse and repeat with the proposed Lewes FC Holdings conniving to thwart yet again the recommendations of the universally heralded report, for another cash grab. How can real members and owners fight this. We can’t.
The insidious decline in proper democracy and the attack on true fan ownership has been orchestrated through club policies. Over three years, the club ran an international membership drive, which improved membership numbers on paper. But to what end? Sure, the stats look great—3,000 members. But 2,000 of them have never even been to a game. At the last online members’ meeting, only eight out of 3,000 members attended. One even asked where Sussex is. During the Murky 13 embarrassment, when questioned about this anomaly a club spokesperson merely retorted, we are chasing the ‘international community.’ I acknowledge that of those 2000 political tourists a few have genuinely engaged with the club.
The thing about that is this:
Towards the end of this process, the club admitted that it had failed to attract the number of members it was hoping for and signalled that it would shift its focus back to local membership. This did not last long. We have swapped democracy for cash on a failed business idea.
The Disastrous Agenda
As with any membership organization, there is a difference between quality members (local supporters who care about the club and participate in attendance and governance) and passive members (those who pay their £50 a year and have no real interest in how the club is run). The upshot is that our democracy is broken.
During the Murky 13 debacle, I contacted the FSA several times about the club’s poor governance. The response was always the same: “Well, you can vote them out.” But how can you, when two-thirds of the electorate are disengaged or uninformed? The FSA should have done more to guide Lewes FC, but here we are.
The result? Incredibly low voter turnout at elections. Anyone who stands can get on the board, no matter how weak their credentials. Board after board has shown disdain for the election process, making no effort to promote it beyond the bare minimum. Board membership is treated like an inheritance.
The only other option for fans to change the club is a members’ resolution. Before the club sold its soul and had 1000 quality members, it would have been possible to garner the member signatures required to bring a game changing strategy or policy before the club for a vote. To get these signatures required, a percentage of membership, with basically 2000 disinterested dud members is absolutely impossible.
The two methods available for fans to effect proper change at the club are now non-existent.
The Failure of Fan Ownership at Lewes FC: A Call for Change
The fan ownership model at Lewes FC has been undermined by years of mismanagement, particularly by the boards over the last five years. Well done to those responsible for stifling democracy at a football club that once stood as a symbol of grassroots support in a town deeply rooted in the history of British democracy. What an achievement of monumental farce.
The current board must act to halt this decline before it becomes irreversible. The push for an expansive membership drive aimed at further accelerating this downward spiral needs to be stopped. Instead, the club’s focus must shift to rebuilding the broken relationship with Lewes itself—the town, the local community, and the passionate fans who have long supported the club. Like the board were suggesting a couple of months ago before an easier but crappy option appeared.
This approach, reconnecting with the very people who made the club great, is the only way forward. It’s the only path to long term sustainability and respect for the foundation that Lewes FC was built upon. Words about community are meaningless if they are not backed up by real, meaningful action. True, long-term planning must centre on local support and volunteers, like Bonfire, not just in rhetoric but in genuine commitment. It’s time for the club to stop paying lip service and start truly prioritising the people who matter most: the local fans and the town of Lewes itself.
The Rights of Fans. 