Wolves FP AGM 14th January 2021 6pm via Zoom

Present: Peter Abbott, Glenn Aston, Dave Azzopardi, Jas Bahra, Steven Bailey, Ciaran Barker, Darren Bennett, Simon Bennett, Peter Bradburn, Anne Bott, Mark Bullock, Steve Cooke, Neil Dady, Christine Endean, Carl Falconer, Jack Finch, Kerry Harris, Kevin Harris, Kashmire Hawker, Simon Hodgkinson, Rob Lawton, Anita Midha, Dave Milton, Anita Millard, Sam Payne, Clive Smith, Ian Smith, Jonathan Taylor, Irene White

Also: Simon Archer, Dave Wood (Wolves SLO)

Apologies were received from: Steve Brown, Daini Flower, Diane Jordan, Richard Southgate, Alan Stuart, Ian Walker, Ben Woodall.

Glenn Aston advised that Steve Brown had been admitted to hospital as a result of Covid-19; all those present wished Steve a speedy recovery.

 Neil Dady opened the meeting by summarising last week’s meeting re the creation of a supporters’ trust rather than the current set up of the Fans’ Parliament. Notes from that meeting have been circulated to the FP members. No further questions about the supporters’ trust were asked.

Neil expressed thanks for the work done by the committee over the last year which has been a difficult time for all. Despite the difficulties, significant progress has been made with an increased social media presence (Facebook and Twitter – Steven Bailey and Dave Azzopardi) and the creation of the FP website by Steven Bailey. 

The FP has made contributions to FSA topics over the last year, especially the objection by all PL supporters’ groups to PPV. The FP had also contacted local MPs on this subject which has raised our profile.

Our FSA representatives, Neil Dady and Glenn Aston, have raised a motion re VAR and how it can be improved for match-day fans (once back in grounds). The FSA will be conducting a national survey as a result.

The FP committee have also had regular communication with the club via Dave Wood eg. return of supporters to Molineux.

The agreed proposals were voted on anonymously by members present at the meeting using Zoom polls.

 Motion 1 – Do members support the establishment of a supporters trust in principle?

Proposed: Neil Dady, Seconded: Peter Abbott

For information, both London Wolves and Hatherton Wolves have conducted a poll re the above and the majority of those who voted were in favour.

 From 29 votes at the meeting – 27 in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention.

Motion 2 – Wolves FP elected committee play an active role in forming a supporters’ trust and update members on a regular basis throughout the process.

Proposed: Glenn Aston, Seconded: Peter Bradburn

Voting: 28 in favour.

Motion 3 – Following the establishment of the trust, an extraordinary general meeting (approximately May 2021) will be called whereby a vote will be taken to allow members to merge FP into the trust. A new trust name is be confirmed, perhaps voted on by fans, and agreed with Wolves, any suggestions are welcomed.

Proposed: Jas Bahra, Seconded: Anne Bott

 29 in favour

 Motion 4 – The FP members require the committee to develop guidelines for members posting on the Members’ WhatsApp and Facebook closed group page. Both have been set up for the benefit of members to improve communication and feedback on FP matters; some content is therefore inappropriate. To assist members a short bullet point list should be developed to indicate acceptable and unacceptable content. 

Proposed:  Kerry Harris, Seconded: Steven Bailey

Voting: 29 in favour

Voting for Committee and Officers

On a positive note, there had been a lot of interest in becoming committee members.

The nominated steering committee was voted for en bloc: 

Peter Abbott, Jas Bahra, Ciaran Barker, Simon Bennett, Neil Dady, Kashmire Hawker, Sam Payne, Ian Walker

Voting: 28 in favour 1 against

Officer roles voted for as follows-

Chairman – Glenn Aston

Vice Chairman – Steve Brown

Treasurer – Mark Bullock

Media Officer – Steve Bailey

Membership Secretary – Peter Bradburn

Administration Secretary –Anne Bott

 It is proposed that in future the Vice Chairman will step up to become Chairman once their time in office is finished (time period to be agreed).

Neil asked for help from all members to set up the trust particularly around social media and administration. Several members offered their assistance re admin: Christine Endean, Jack Finch, Anita Midha and Ian Smith.

General Questions were raised as follows:

Jas asked Dave Wood what was the club’s view of a supporters’ trust.  Dave replied that to date he felt that he and the FP had communicated well, however at this stage it was important that the club takes time to listen and understand the aims of  the proposed supporters’ trust and that a good working relationship between both parties could only be a positive.

Simon Bennett asked if the club had volunteered the use of Molineux as a vaccination centre. Dave said that he would inform us within the next day or two.

Dave advised that should government guidelines change and a limited number of supporters are allowed into Molineux the club is ready should they receive the green light. Everything depends on government guidance as it can, and does, change regularly. All Wolves personnel apart from essential match-day staff are still working from home.

Peter Abbott suggested that the committee hold a meeting in a few months with the club management team to discuss moving to a supporters’ trust.

The meeting finished with a discussion about VAR and what suggestions for improvement would fans inside the grounds make?

The main themes were lack of communication and the time taken to make a decision, it was suggested that a time limit be introduced. 

Allow fans to view the incidents on the TV screens in the grounds.

Refs having microphones – it’s done in the A League in Australia and in rugby matches. VAR was also used more effectively by FIFA in the 2018 World Cup than is currently the case with the PL.

There could be safety implications within the ground if people do not understand what’s going on.

It would be ideal to hear the conversation between the VAR official and the referee and have some clarity re the decision making.

Each team to be given an allocated number of reviews as in cricket.

The lines used on the screen for offside are too narrow, need to give some leniency to the attacking team.

Retrospective punishment for diving.

Consistency of decision making between games; a penalty is given in one game but for the same incident in another game no penalty is given.

VAR officials should be independent and ex referees used rather than current ones

Currently, there is no accountability from the referees; what analysis is done by the officials throughout the season?

Meeting closed.