The Trust met with CEO David Bottomley on Thursday to discuss various matters. The meeting is now a monthly event proposed by the club following the changes at Boardroom level, but was brought forward following the events that took place during the match with Bradford City on Saturday 29th December.
As is the case with all matches, the club had been in contact with Bradford City and Police Intelligence ahead of the game. Bradford had requested 1106 tickets for the game as they believed this would be sufficient for their travelling support, and the Police had indicated that they believed that there would not be any potential trouble makers making the trip, and as such the Police were not insistent on it being a “Police match”.
The resulting following from Bradford City was bigger than anticipated, down to a change at Boardroom level at Valley Parade and an upturn in form in preceding fixtures.
The problems inside the ground started at the second half with flares being thrown by Bradford fans and thrown back by Rochdale supporters. The problem with the flares results in the ease with which they can be concealed. They are smaller in size than you may imagine, and can be easily hidden in areas that can only be identifiable with full strip searches which obviously isn’t practical or legal.
Previous issues had been dealt with by a reallocation of seating by away supporters following the Doncaster game, but with Bradford taking up the full stand, it allowed for a repeat of flares being thrown by supporters. The club accept that the response of the stewarding to the incidents could have been improved upon.
Seven supporters contacted the club following this fixture via email with complaints. All seven have been contacted back via email, of which four have been spoken to. Two of those spoken to have been Bradford City supporters. A further meeting with a supporter who complained is planned for later this day.
The club are continuing to work with their counterparts at Bradford City with regards to a follow up to the issues, with our club working closely with regards to CCTV with Paula Watson who is the Operations Officer at Bradford City with further action expected in accordance with the authorities. She had previously been remarking at the friendliness and family atmosphere that she had encountered on the day up until that point and was horrified at what had gone on especially with her own supporters .
There was an amount of rubbish left to the right at the Pearl Street Stand, including a tyre that was thrown at visiting supporters. The club have ordered skips and this area should be cleared ahead of this Saturday’s game with Burton Albion.
A full review of our matchday operations will be taking place. There is always a great deal of preparation that takes place in advance of matches, with plans already in place for the Burton, Manchester City U21 and Fleetwood games.
At time of writing, there is only really the Sunderland home fixture which will see the Willbutts Lane Stand filled in the remainder of the season. This game despite being three months away is already being planned out with regards to matchday operations and ticketing with supporters from the North East expected to sell out their allocation.
Following the discussion of the Bradford City game, conversations turned to more recent issues with the club.
With the changes at Boardroom level in recent weeks, coupled with departures from the club, inevitably the financial state of the club was discussed. The local rumour mill had been filled with talk of a financial crisis at the club. David was very keen to dispel such talk. It is true that the wage budget is higher than it has been, coupled with an increase in expenditure off the field as well, . The club are always looking at all financial matters , and in accordance with the prudence of the last 12 years, the club continues to pride itself on being solvent, moving forward the club will be happy to discuss these matters at the forthcoming forum. They have recently invested in the pitch, with a new tractor and verti drainer purchased, and the state of the playing surface at Spotland reflects that. Further work is being done with regards to a number of Health and Safety matters around the ground.
It was pointed out that there was a feeling amongst the supporters that the club needed to improve their levels of communication with supporters, with the transfer of Andy Cannon cited as an example. Cannon’s departure was announced by Kenny Jackett in response to a journalist’s question following their defeat at Gillingham on Boxing Day. David Bottomley responded by stating that whilst pre-agreements had been completed, the transfer was not completed until January 2nd meaning that it could not be confirmed beforehand. EFL rules prevent such announcements and the club as always were keen to adhere to them, and trust that all supporters continue to applaud their club playing by the rules.
Discussions took place as to what the club could do to improve levels of communication with the supporters with regards to both on and off the field matters. It had previously been stated by ourselves is that one of the issues that exists is that supporters are completely in the dark about the work that takes place at the club, and such silence will inevitably lead to an escalation of rumours and negativity. The club agreed that this is something that needs to be looked at and would work on, though they acknowledged that the forthcoming Fans Forum was one example of addressing this communication.
The support for Keith Hill remained strong at the club, and this has remained consistent both before and after the recent changes within the Boardroom. David was keen to dispel suggestions about Keith Hill not attending training stating he was as hands on a manager as you could get in League Football. The manager has always seen the training ground as being at the heart of his work and nothing had changed with that respects. The club also see acquiring training facilities within the Borough of Rochdale as a key ambition for the club.
Recent online suggestions that the Board were looking to be paid as a Directors were immediately quashed, no director at our Football Club has even claimed expenses for away fixtures, nevermind received payment for attending them., and also the rules of the EFL prohibit Full Directors being paid for that role.
David also responded to criticisms of Saturday’s presentation to Chris Dunphy. The presentation took place in accordance with Chris’s wishes. It was felt that given Keith Hill’s time at the club had been synonymous with Chris’s time as Chairman that he would be the best person to make the presentation to him. The gift was a very beautiful vintage bottle of Wine that came in a presentation box, and is highly valued.
He was happy to report that the mood within the dressing rooms remained sky high despite recent results, citing the recent game at Southend as an example. Having sat close to the away dugout, it was very apparent that all those who had travelled including non playing subs were invested in the game before, during and after the game.
At the end, David reiterated his commitment to the club and his desire to improve things through his role at CEO.
As someone who lives close by and walks his dog around the ground, I pointed out that there had been improvements in the Fixture Board since our last meeting, and its little things like this that will viewed as proof of that commitment.
Can we finish by thanking the club for meeting with us? It’s clear there is a level of openness and honesty between the Club and the Trust and a firm commitment from both sides to work together for the improvement of all matters involving the supporters of Rochdale AFC.
The Trust can be contacted at any stage via email at info@daletrust.co.uk. We see communication with members and supporters as being the cornerstone to our work, so would welcome comments, questions and suggestions at all times.