We hosted our first Arsenal Advisory Board (AAB) of the new term on Thursday night at Sobha Realty Training Centre, our first meeting of the 2024/25 season.
Our thanks go to the supporter representatives who give their time to table matters for discussion which are important to the groups they represent.
The meeting was chaired by our Chief Communications Officer, Kate Laurens and attended by our Executive Vice-Chair, Tim Lewis, Managing Director, Richard Garlick and Chief Commercial Officer, Juliet Slot.
A full complement of elected supporter representatives attended the meeting: Daniel Bailey (Arsenal Disabled Supporters Association), Drew Gray (Arsenal Independent Supporters Association), Tim Payton (Arsenal Supporters Trust), Kate Holden (Arsenal Women’s Supporters Club), Jely Kikamba (Community Representative), Mick Padfield (Domestic Supporters Clubs), Darce Styles (GayGooners), and Thomas Ballegaard (International Supporters Clubs).
Our Community Representative is a new position created to give a voice to our local community of Islington and supports our purpose to act for a winning team, community and culture. We are pleased to welcome Islington resident, Jely Kikamba into this role. Jely has worked within our local community over several years, being a part of our No More Red campaign, and having delivered coaching sessions through Arsenal in the Community to local young people.
Managing Director’s Update
Richard Garlick kicked off the meeting with some reflections on recent activities, including the start of our men’s, women’s and academy seasons. Richard paid tribute to Jonas Eidevall and Jack Wilshere following their departures from the club, and celebrated Adam Birchall’s promotion to U18s Coach.
We reflected on the strong start we’ve made to our Premier League season with some big results against last season’s top six and being unbeaten in the UEFA Champions League. The group also spoke about our joint efforts to fill every seat at Emirates Stadium and giving everything to get behind our teams in our pursuit of major trophies in every competition.
Richard spoke about the ambition for the community we continue to build around our women’s team with 11 matches at Emirates Stadium this season, including our UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage games.
Football governance was discussed following Richard’s recent attendance at the European Club Association’s General Assembly in Athens earlier this month and the group acknowledged the Football Regulator Bill’s introduction to the House of Lords earlier that day. As the Premier League acknowledged, we must now work together to ensure an effective model of regulation which can work in practice.
To finish, there was a reflection of recent standout moments that bring pride, inspiration and belonging for our supporters around the world. This included the launch of the Black Arsenal book, an exploration of Arsenal’s relationship to contemporary Black identity. British African heritage brand, Labrum’s London Fashion Week show at Emirates Stadium and our collaboration with London streetwear brand, Aries.
Supporter Engagement Structure
Kate Laurens thanked supporter representatives for their insight and consultation on their contribution to our newly launched formalised supporter engagement structure.
This demonstrated how the positive changes to the AAB and our new Supporter Forums will help move us forward, ensuring our structures enable strong supporter representation and encourage greater diversity to help us act for a winning team and community.
Supporter Representative Questions
We answered questions and engaged in positive dialogue on a range of topics including ticketing, concessions and governance. It was agreed the AAB will meet in January 2025 to review and discuss ticketing plans for the 2025/26 season.
We share our thanks once again to our supporters for their time and support on these important matters for our club.
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