On Tuesday 29 October I’ll be running a seminar at the Social Science Centre in Lincoln entitled “Moving the goalposts: some realities of democratic football governance”. I intend to open up a discussion about my time from 1999-2009 as Chair of the Walsall Supporters’ Trust. The Trust was set-up with help from the national body Supporters’ Direct, in order:

to be the vehicle through which a healthy, balanced and constructive relationship between the Club and its supporters and the communities it serves is encouraged and developed. The business of the Society is to be conducted for the benefit of the community served by the Club and not for the profit of its members.

The seminar will raise the following issues.

•      Some realities of being a football fan in England

•      Some realities of being a football fan in Walsall

•      Some realities of democratic football governance

In it I will discuss how my involvement in the politics of Walsall FC almost destroyed my love of the game (detailed on YouTube as Disillusioned Saddler). I intend that we will also be able to focus on the realities and limits of co-operative practices in social change.

My slides are here.

NOTE: there are connections from football governance, regulation and funding for education, as I noted in a post on The Communal University. Andrew McGettigan has also highlighted this analogy between education and football.