Partick Thistle FC Working Group: Programme Notes – 7th November 2020 v Falkirk

Sunday 8th November, 2020 at 11:46am

As you may recall from our last programme update we were increasing the level of the Working Group’s direct engagement with the Thistle fan base, albeit virtually rather than face to face. Such are the challenges that we all face in the current climate.

One of the means of doing so was by hosting small Fan Consultation Zoom meetings to discuss the concept of fan ownership. It was felt that by limiting the attendees to these meetings to small numbers, but having multiple meetings, was the most constructive way to have these discussions given the constraints that come with virtual meetings.

The first of these meetings took place on Tuesday October 27th with around half a dozen in attendance at each meeting and they proved to be hugely informative and allowed the Working group to engage with those not just fully supportive of the move towards a fan owned Partick Thistle but also with those that have concerns and/or are sceptical of the whole process and what it means for Partick Thistle both in the short and long term.

These meetings will remain ongoing and if you haven’t received an invite to attend a future meeting and would like to do so or can suggest someone who you feel has an important contribution to make to these important discussions then please drop us an email at  

In addition to those zoom meetings in the last programme we posed a number of questions that we were keen to gain your thoughts on. Those questions being:

• What the term fan-ownership means to you?
• What you would like to see from a fan owned Partick Thistle?
• What issues you might have about the concept of fan ownership

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to respond and in many respects those responses mirror what we are hearing in the aforementioned Fan Consultation Zoom meetings.

In terms of what a fan owned Partick Thistle means to you there was a broad feeling that that mean that the fans should be treated as shareholders in the Club with the ability to hold the Board of Directors to account.

In the response to what you would like to see from a fan owned Partick Thistle there were some recurring themes namely:

• An elected Board of Directors rather than directors being appointed to their position on the Board
• A Board of Directors more reflective of society as whole with an increase in women directors and overall younger in age
• The Club should be run on a not for profit basis
• The Club should become a living wage employer
• The club should set a target for becoming carbon neutral and should aim to reduce overall waste

When it came to expressing concerns about the concept of fan ownership there was an encouraging level of support for the principal of fan ownership but with some very important caveats namely;

• There has to be a clear and transparent consultative process
• It can be demonstrated to the fans, who will become the owners of the Club, that this represents something different and that there is an acceptance of greater level of scrutiny

In other news we are close to launching our new, The Jags Foundation, website.