Press Release

The Walsall Supporters' Trust's weekend membership drive has been hailed as a major success. The Trust signed up 226 new members and now has a membership of 324. Adam Winnall, one of the driving forces behind Saturday's efforts, felt 'overwhelmed by the numbers of people who were behind what the Trust is trying to achieve'.

The key reasons that supporters voiced for joining up included:

1. the Trust's shareholding which would allow it to ask questions of the Directors;
2. the lack of a dialogue between the fans and the club;
3. the worry that the club was going to slip back into the second division because of the lack of an appropriate transfer policy;
4. dissatisfaction with, and confusion about, the ambitions of the club.

New members are hoping that that the Trust can try to build a dialogue with the club that will answer some of these questions. Richard Hall, the Trust Chair noted that "better communication is our goal because it harms the club if the supporters misinterpret the signals they are sent by the Directors. We need to find a means for democratically-elected fans' representatives to talk to the Board, and this has to be appropriate to the Board and the supporters." Brian Lomax of the Government-backed unit Supporters' Direct has stated that such meetings enable supporters "to learn in detail about the constraints under which the Board operates."

As a first step the Trust will be submitting a series of questions to the club for its AGM on 15 October 2001. These questions will cover last season's accounts, the rent on the lease, the proposed new stand, the directors' vision for the club, and the possibilities of supporter-involvement in the running of the club. They will be posted on the Trust web site (http://www.walsallfctrust.co.uk) next Monday and will be reported on at the Trust's AGM in November.

As a follow-up to Saturday's membership drive, there will be another opportunity for interested fans to talk to Trustees, or to join up for a pound, before the Norwich City game. Fans will be able to sign up at the Joseph Leckie/Bescot Crescent approach to the Sharp stand from 6.30pm.

The members of the Trust share the delight of all Walsall supporters at the club's great successes in the last 12 months. The thousands of supporters played a critical role in laying the foundations for this success. The Trust is seeking to further exert the positive influence of these people by raising its profile and by asking questions at AGM. We hope that the AGM and our work following it can create a forum for true debate. The Walsall Supporters' Trust is seeking to establish a partnership with the Board of Walsall FC.