Financial journalist Kieran Maguire claims that Arsenal is still a very long way from giving their fans a say in how the club is being run.
After the fallout with their fans because of the European Super League, the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool have now included their fans in their decision-making process by giving them some representation.
Arsenal signed a deal with Socios on 19th July which will see the cryptocurrency provider create a new Arsenal token that fans can own to have access to interacting with the club.
This was seen as a huge development and seemed to show that they are thinking about the fans.
However, Maguire says this isn’t a small step towards giving real powers to the club’s fans and insists that Arsenal isn’t even close to doing something like that.
“Cryptocurrencies are still very much a minority sport,” the financial analyst told Football Insider.
“We are talking about a very small proportion of the Arsenal fanbase who will sign up for this.
“So I don’t think you’ll have a representative sample size if decisions are being made.
“The decisions will be along the lines of deciding the name of the new mascot or the colour of the new third kit.
“Stan Kroenke had promised to invest money in the squad this summer and this one sure way that they can get the fans off their backs. It would interesting to see how much they spend.
“The significant decisions in terms of setting budgets, the culture of the club, the responsibilities of senior management, all of those decisions will continue to be made at board level.
“And that’s rightly so, because they should be made by people with massive experience of being in the industry.”
Anyone who thinks a fan presence at a football club will have any influence on the way a club is run etc is clearly deluded.
No fan representation will be ever more than mere window dressing and trying to fool the many non thinkers among fans everywhere that they have a say in their club, when they do not!
The truth is that we never will have a proper say in how our club is run, at core level. At best we can bicker about tiny matters of little real import that will not change the way the team plays.
It sounds a very democratic idea to have fan control but any 1000 fans have hundreds of different opinions.
Fans, at least those who think, know that perfectly well, as do the owners. It is nothing but a sop to fake democracy when the unpleasant but realistic truth is that no successful club can ever be run by a committee of millions. No more than any government can either. And it is really is as simple as that.
The only time fan power could have any real effect is in the virtually impossible scenario that all fans act as one against the owner, eg a total fan boycott. THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. REALISM!
But when they buy club products like kits the bosses are there ready to pocket the money happily yet they don’t want to do or think about the fans who are the reason why they are getting the money. Yet all that fans want is just the team has to go a winning way to make them happy. of which needs re-investment in the squad to make the team strong which is not happening in time.