Our final Arsenal Advisory Board (AAB) meeting of the 2024/25 season took place on 1 May at Highbury House, marking the conclusion of the first year of the newly formalised AAB term.
The AAB continues to play an integral role in shaping meaningful dialogue between the club and our supporters, and this meeting was another step forward in that shared journey.
The club was represented by Richard Garlick, our Managing Director, Kate Laurens, Our Chief Communications Officer, who chaired the meeting, and Tom McCann, our Venue Director.
Representing our supporters at the meeting were: Daniel Bailey (Arsenal Disabled Supporters Association), Drew Gray (Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association and AAB co-chair), Nigel Phillips (Arsenal Supporters’ Trust), Rachel Yafet (Arsenal Women Supporters Club), Darce Styles (GayGooners), Mick Padfield (Domestic Supporters Clubs), and Thomas Ballegaard (International Supporters Clubs).
Richard Garlick opened the meeting with an update on recent club-wide activities, answering supporters’ questions as part of the discussion which followed. Richard’s update covered both our women’s and men’s teams, and encompassed a range of themes, including:
- Our progress to the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final in Lisbon, and how the club is gearing up to connect with supporters around this historic occasion.
- The future of the women’s game and our ongoing strategic goal to accelerate women’s football, building on Arsenal Women’s strong community of supporters.
- Ending our men’s first team season strongly with a look ahead to our Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain.
- Andrea Berta’s recent appointment as our Sporting Director and our commitment to building squads that can win major trophies.
The meeting also served as a timely moment to reflect on a year of progress and look ahead to the club’s Fan Engagement Standard (FES) requirements. Discussions focused on building on a successful year, with an emphasis on raising the profile of the AAB and going further to embed our co-chair model with supporters at the heart of shaping discussions with our senior leadership.
Richard and our club representatives answered further questions from supporters on a range of topics including partnerships and ticketing.
We are grateful to our supporter groups and their representatives for their constructive engagement and ongoing collaboration. The work of the AAB remains central to our formalised supporter engagement and our ongoing commitment to putting supporters at the heart of everything we do.
We look forward to further engagements with our AAB and supporter forums ahead of the summer break, and to publishing our Supporter Engagement Plan for 2025/26, which is a key element of our approach to the Premier League’s Fan Engagement Standard.
