January 2026

Part one

As 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 two

The main part of this episode is where I try to get my head around a major recommendation of the Fan Led Review’s proposed reforms - and a major plank of the Premier League’s new Fan Engagement Standard. I chat with Shaun Lockwood COO of Doncaster Rovers and Dave Matthews Jones, Fans Elected Director of Cambridge United. This is part of my attempt to create and contribute to the discussion I think we need. Both clubs are at different stages of implementing Shadow Board structures, and I chat with them about where they are, and why they think the structure matters to their clubs - and football more widely.

I’ll be continuing this theme in the coming months, announcing some exciting news soon about how. Keep an eye out on https://fanengagement.net @thinkengagement or look for us on LinkedIn or Facebook. Email us via hello@fanengagement.net

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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 the key pillar for every club to adopt?
• What are the overlaps between the research and the Fan Engagement Index?
• What are fan engagement challenges are for clubs in crisis?
• How to connect fan engagement with the separate but related areas of fan experience and community engagement.
• We ask how to close the gap between research and practice
• And finally, we discuss what the best practice should be in the growing women’s game.

We’ve provided a breakdown of the questions we ask in the episode description too.

Enjoy the episode.

Don’t forget you can download the full report via fanengagement.net Just click on the research tab at the top of the page and you’ll find it.

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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 leadership enables staff, encourages their good instincts and helps develop good practice.

We also touch on Think Fan Engagement’s upcoming research report on fan engagement which is out very, very soon, and we sing the praises of Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers. Intrigued? Listen on.

Go to fanengagement.net to signup for news about our plans.

Like, share and subscribe, on all major podcast platforms and at fanengagement.net

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/fan-engagement-pod.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.