The Fan Engagement Pod

It's been four years since the Premier League announced that every club in the competition would have to have a Fan Advisory Board. It wasn't long after the collapse of the European Super League, around the time the fan-led review began, so we've had quite a long time to take stock. I think we need to be much clearer about what they are, what they're not, what they do and why that matters. Read th...

January 2026 - This is the first ever episode of the pod, and the second most popular episode we've ever recorded. Dan is now at Eleven Sports Media running Global Partnerships Development. Find him on LinkedIn as Daniel McGeachie. Our guest in Episode One is Dan McGeachie, who most recently led the marketing for one of City Football Group’s new businesses within Manchester City FC (read Dan McGea...

January 2026 Part oneAs we head towards a new season (2022/2023), I lay out the position we appear to be in when it comes to Fan Engagement as part of the government’s Fan Led Review. This is after all the context for every discussion about reform of Fan Engagement. I look at where The Premier League are and where The EFL are on this critical issue. Part twoThe main part of this episode is where I...

Series 2 Episode 4 is all about our research paper, ‘Establishing Fan Engagement as a core value in the Football Industry during a New Era of Regulation’, with my colleagues Natasha Simms and Andrea Rossi. It’s a slightly longer episode than normal, so to help you navigate it these are the questions in the order we ask them: What makes the research distinct and what are the four pillars? What is t...

This episode is with James Gibbins, Experience & Engagement Director and part of the senior leadership team at Walsall Football Club. In it we talk about a wide range of subject, from personalisation to in-person engagement, structured fan engagement’s overlap with community engagement and their success in using this to grow their average attendances, and one of my go-to subjects: how good lea...

This week it’s Aarayaman Banerji, Head of Football Governance at LCP. In it we discuss what the impact of the Independent Regulator is likely to be on fan engagement, looking at: Overview of what the regulator is likely to focus on What could regulation look like in practice Minimum standards across the pyramid – different clubs are in different starting positions Resources, leadership and culture...

We’re returning the pod to a regular episode. From now on we’ll be publishing an episode once a month on various subjects.  This week is a chat between me and my new colleague Natasha Simms, our new Fan Engagement and Communications Associate, who was appointed in the summer. In it we go ‘back to basics’, asking what is fan engagement, what some of the misconceptions are about it and how fan engag...

This year’s fan engagement index comes on the verge of the biggest shakeup in the way football is run in decades. The new independent regulator for football will for the first time see clubs regulated in part for their fan engagement. This is an important step, but not the only one.  The fan engagement index has been running since the 2018/2019 season, and we’ve helped to drive standards in footba...

Join Everton FC, Lincoln City FC, Manchester United & Chelsea Supporters Trusts, plus Rhion Jones, Consultation Guru and Lane Clark and Peacock on the 14th May in London for Life with Football Legislation; Preparing for meaningful fan engagement and consultation. Go to https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thinkfanengagement/1650506 to book or use the QR code in the episode. Thanks to LCP for th...

This episode is the first of what I hope will be several with the UK’s expert on consultation, Rhion Jones. Known professionally as the Consultation Guru, we’ve been collaborating for some months now as the Football Governance Bill makes its way through parliament, paying specific interest to the provisions on consultation and engagement. You can read the letter we wrote to the minister in charge...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Pod.  Don’t forget the first event of the Fan Engagement Network is on the 26th July at Bristol Rovers. It’s a joint event with Rovers and CEO Tom Gorringe will be speaking. If you work or volunteer in a fan engagement role at a club, a CEO, MD, director or owner and want to attend, drop us a line at hello@fanengagement.net and we’ll reserve you a place. This episode...

This episode is with Aaryaman Banerji, author of the Civitas report, Governing the Beautiful Game, The Future of Football in Civil Society. Aaryaman produced the report as Lead Football Analyst at Civitas, a political think tank based out of Westminster. Civitas is an independent think tank which conducts forensic research and analysis into critical topics within the British political ecosystem, i...

This is our first face-to-face recording, done at the RSA in John Adam Street, just off the Strand in London, where I’m a fellow. Apologies for some background noise at times. This episode is with Kat Law and Martin Cloake, who until last year were co-chairs of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust, and who formally stepped down from the board this year.  If you want to know what meeting with Spu...

This episode is a chat with Deborah Dilworth, Head of Women’s Football at the Football Supporters Association.  Our paths very nearly crossed, as she joined Supporters Direct not long after I left, though then working in the men’s game with supporters’ trusts. She took up a role post-merger of SD & the FSF, and now leads on The FSA’s work in the women’s game. She meets with The FA and other ke...

This episode is a chat with Gerard Lawlor, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Football League. Gerard has been CEO since 2021. Professionally, he was in the hospitality industry as a chef for years, but crucially, always a fan and latterly director and chairman of Cliftonville FC.  He has clear understanding of the needs of his member clubs both as institutions but also as businesses that nee...

This episode discusses policing, at risk fans. We look at how to change the approach of dealing with anti-social behaviour and problem fans from one of removal and banning, to education and helping them to become better citizens.  Guests Owen West, former Chief Superintendent at West Yorkshire Police and now Senior Lecturer in Policing at Edge Hill University: https://research.edgehill.ac.uk/en/pe...

Part oneAs we head towards a new season, I lay out the position we appear to be in when it comes to Fan Engagement as part of the government’s Fan Led Review. This is after all the context for every discussion about reform of Fan Engagement. I look at where The Premier League are and where The EFL are on this critical issue. Part twoThe main part of this episode is where I try to get my head aroun...

It's a Fan Engagement Index 2020/2021 season special. As well as running down the table from 92 to 1, we chat with special guests including club CEOs, directors, supporters' trusts and fan groups, and experts in the field. Find out the full results at fanengagement.net/fan-engagement-index Please like, subscribe and share. It really does help our visibility. Support this show http://supporter.acas...

This episode takes a stark look at what it's like in the middle of a crisis with Adam Keely from Oldham Athletic activist group, Push The Boundary. It was recorded in mid-December, before the owner, Abdallah Lemsagam, publicly declared his intention to sell , though given the litany of broken promises, I suspect fans are holding their breath. Adam talks us through what it's been like organising ag...

This week we’re chatting with Geoff Wilson, expert in engagement at a strategic level across sports businesses and organisations. He’s the owner of Geoff Wilson Consultancy, which focuses on Sports Organisations/NGO's, Businesses involved in Sport, Community and Government organisations across the world. This includes FIFA, UEFA, The Asian Football Confederation, and other sports including work in...

This week we’re chatting about access to and diversity in football with Anwar Uddin, who heads up the Fans for Diversity project for the Football Supporters Federation. Anwar’s one of the few people with his perspective, having played and coached before he went into the side of the business he’s in now. He was part of the Dagenham and Redbridge side that won promotion to League One in 2010, their...

This week we’re stepping back into the sport of Rugby League, in a chat with fan activist and Bradford Bulls fan, Andrew Foster.  Andrew is a keen student and lover of the game, and has for some time been very concerned about the near permanent state of change and crisis that things appear to be in. Think Fan Engagement carried out an extensive survey in the summer of this year about the state of...

Marco Sansoni is an expert in the role of spectators in sports events, steeped in expertise in both Fan Experience and Fan Engagement. He’s a former Senior Advisor to the World Cup in Brazil, worked in senior spectator roles in some of the biggest sports events in the World including the Summer and Winter Olympics, for FIFA advising on spectator services, and now teaches at the prestigious Luiss B...

Welcome to the Fan Engagement Pod. This is the Fan Engagement Chat, where we hear about someone’s approach to Fan Engagement. This week we chat with Leigh Pomlett, Chairman and owner of Walsall FC. Leigh has a long career in business, working in freight and logistics, and remains Chairman of the Freight Transport Association. I can imagine he’s busy enough with that, but he’s also a progressive th...

Seb White is from Mundial. Seb is a fan and director of Hampton & Richmond Borough FC, but also still holds a candle for Yeovil Town FC, the club he was born into supporting. Go to mundialmag.com to find out more about Mundial, the sometime magazine, full-time agency and consultancy celebrating football and fan culture.  Go to fanengagement.net to find out more about the work of Think Fan Enga...