Back in December when we had just lost away at Stockport County on TV, we all felt we were at rock bottom. That evening CAST spoke to representatives of different fan groups, and all agreed that we should call an open fans’ meeting to discuss our club.

Before the meeting, we worked with members and non-members to draw up the prototype Addicks Charter. At the meeting, fans gave overwhelming support for its contents as the red lines for Thomas Sandgaard and the starting point for any engagement with new owners. As we have reported before, Sandgaard failed to commit to it and as a result we called on him to sell the club and he is now doing so. Game over Sandgaard.

There were just over 600 fans at the original meeting. However, we recently put the clauses of the Addicks Charter to more fans via our survey. Doing this also enables us to make sure the clauses stand the test of time.

The CAST Survey was completed by 1199 people of whom 59% are members of CAST and 41% are not. 88% of the respondents were male.

We asked respondents to rate the importance of the clauses in the charter and then we asked them to score the club on how well they see it delivering on those issues at present.

As can be seen in the table below, only a very small number of fans felt that the clauses were not important to them. In fact, in every case, the majority of fans who responded to the survey felt that the clauses were extremely important to them. Given that (until the brief tenure of James Rodwell as COO and the recent arrival of Peter Storrie as CEO) Sandgaard has run the club on his own from Colorado, it is interesting and probably no surprise, that running the club properly with proper management from SE7 is the clause with the strongest support. (81% saw it as very important)

As to be expected, The Academy (79% very important), our welcome to all (71%), The Valley (73%) and our traditions (75%) are right up there as things that our fans care a lot about (don’t mess with our song!). Given Thomas Sandgaard and son had a strong hand in player selection, it is also no surprise that fans feel that football matters should be left to the men’s and women’s team managers (76%) not to the Sandgaard family or any other owner for that matter. Fans will, no doubt, have recalled Roland Duchâtelet’s interference in Chris Powell’s squads too.

We were interested to know which of the clauses constituted the reddest of fans’ red lines. So, we asked people ‘Now please choose a maximum five which are the most important of all to you?’ You will see in the table below that, after the need to run the club professionally and from SE7 (75%), the next most important item on the fans’ agenda is ‘a clear, considered and costed plan to reunite the ownership of The Valley & training ground with the club’ (65%).  This is not in the stated plan of the prospective owners. However, we must continue to push for it. We fought hard to get back to The Valley, for Addicks, The Valley is personal.

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At time of writing an SPA has been signed to sell the club, but we don’t know how long it will be before there is a full regime change. When it happens, the new owners will be able to see from these survey results, the gap they need to bridge between expectations and the perceived performance of the club on the issues that matter to fans. We asked respondents: “Thinking about Charlton Athletic right now, do you agree or disagree with the following statements?”

As you can see from the table below, most fans do not think that the club is run competently from SE7 (only 32% agree at all), nor do they think that the club involves, listens to, learns from and feeds back to fans (only 35% agree). Somewhat more reassuringly, more fans agree that Charlton’s community and family values are at the heart of the club (60%). No doubt the latter is because those values are contributed to by supporters and by the supporter-employees who are still at the club. Even so, the level of agreement is not as strong as fans would like it to be. Fans feel those values are ‘very important’, whereas the largest number of respondents agreed, rather strongly agree that those values are present now.

 

Answer Choices	Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree	Don’t know	Total
Charlton’s community and family values are at the heart of the club	22.03%	47.88%	18.91%	4.16%	7.03%	1153
All are welcome and respected at Charlton Athletic	31.74%	55.25%	7.11%	1.56%	4.34%	1153
It is affordable for fans to watch and attend matches	20.21%	40.94%	27.06%	8.93%	2.86%	1153
The club is run from The Valley by a competent and experienced CEO with a board of directors which follows legal and best practice governance principles	20.21%	11.71%	31.83%	26.54%	9.71%	1153
Engagement with the community, partners, sponsors and businesses enables all to thrive	13.62%	42.93%	23.16%	4.25%	16.05%	1153
I feel proud to say I support Charlton Athletic	25.76%	37.03%	24.72%	8.67%	3.82%	1153
The club involves, listens to, learns from and feeds back to fans	14.74%	19.43%	40.07%	21.16%	4.60%	1153
The club would not change any of our core traditions - red and white home colours, playing at The Valley, running out to The Red, Red, Robin - without the definitive consent of fans	26.80%	29.92%	25.33%	6.24%	11.71%	1153
Men’s & women’s team managers are given freedom to build squads and play to win without day-to-day ownership interference in on-the-field matters	18.13%	20.90%	34.17%	15.70%	11.10%	1153
The Academy is supported and developed as part of our DNA	27.67%	49.96%	15.26%	2.52%	4.60%	1153
There is a clear, considered and costed plan to reunite ownership of The Valley & training ground with the football club	17.09%	7.63%	24.80%	41.02%	9.45%	1153

 

 

Based on the findings of the survey and conversations we have had with other fan groups and CACT, we have tweaked the Addicks Charter slightly. We have added specific mention of the Community Trust as this is very much part of what makes the club special. We have removed the point: “I feel proud to say I support Charlton” - several respondents to the survey highlighted that this is really an outcome of the other points rather than something tangible to deliver.

The Charter now reads:

                                                                        THE ADDICKS' CHARTER

In recognition of the fact that a football club is far more than a commercial asset, Charlton fans will work in partnership with the owners of our club to ensure the following:

• Charlton’s community and family values are at the heart of the club and exemplified by Charlton Athletic Community Trust
• All are welcome and respected
• It is affordable for fans to watch and attend matches
• The club is run from The Valley by a competent and experienced CEO with a board of directors which follows legal and best practice governance principles
• Engagement with the community, partners, sponsors, and businesses enables all to thrive
• Fan engagement is integral – involving, listening, learning, feeding back
• Our core traditions – red & white home colours, playing at The Valley, running out to The Red, Red, Robin – are upheld and require definitive consent of fans to change
• Men’s & women’s team managers are given freedom to build squads and play to win without day-to-day ownership interference in on-the-field matters
• The Academy is supported and developed as part of our DNA
• There is a clear, considered and costed plan to reunite ownership of The Valley & training ground with the football club

 

We look forward to engaging with new ownership on the points within the Addicks’ Charter and reviewing the club’s performance against it on an ongoing basis.

 

If you are not already among the 2,700 Charlton supporters who are members of CAST, do join today - it only costs £5 annually.