Football Supporters' Federation

The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) is an organisation representing football fans in England and Wales. It campaigns across a range of issues and supports fan representation on clubs' boards, lower ticket prices, and the introduction of safe standing areas at grounds in the top two tiers of English football. The organisation is free to join and acts as a singular voice for football fans.

FSF
Full nameThe Football Supporters' Federation
Founded2002
Members500,000+
AffiliationFSE, The FA
Key peopleKevin Miles, Chief executive
Malcolm Clark, Chair
CountryEngland and Wales, United Kingdom
Websitewww.fsf.org.uk/

The FSF represents more than 500,000 members made up of individual fans and affiliated supporters' organisations from every club in the professional game and footballing pyramid.[1]

Founding

The FSF was founded in 2002 after the amalgamation of two separate bodies, the Football Supporters' Association (FSA) and the National Federation of Supporters' Clubs (NATFED). The FSF is a democratically structured organisation with a National Council made up of elected individuals, officers and divisional representatives. The FSF's current chair is Malcolm Clarke, who also sits as the supporters' representative on The Football Association (FA)'s Council.

Functions

The Federation has regular meetings with the football authorities and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, discussing a wide range of issues, many of them placed on the agenda by the FSF to take forward their policies or in response to concerns raised by supporters. The FSF also has detailed meetings on specific topics with the relevant authorities or other bodies such as the Premier League, FA, Football League, Professional Footballers' Association, Independent Football Ombudsman and the Police Match Commanders. They also meet with government and the All-party parliamentary group on football[2] of MPs when necessary.

The organisation regularly takes up specific complaints and cases which are raised with it by individual members or affiliated organisations and they encourage the participation of all supporters in this process. The FSF is free to join and holds an annual conference called Fans' Parliament where members can make their views known. At the 2010 Fans' Parliament, a national policy was adopted to oppose parts of the Football (Disorder) Act 2000 which was introduced by the Government to prevent certain football supporters from attending matches and travelling overseas, by imposing Football Banning Orders.

In the August 2010 issue No.22 of The Football Supporter - an FSF publication - the FSF Chairman explained why they took this stance whilst maintaining that the organisation is totally opposed to any form of football violence. "We have major concerns about the use of the so-called Section 14(b) provisions (also known as Football Banning Orders or FBOs) for gaining civil banning orders against football fans. These cases are heard in a civil not criminal court which means that there’s no jury, the burden of proof is lower and the police can introduce evidence of previous convictions which need not even be in a football context".

The organisation also helps promote the work of its affiliated supporters' organisations and has supported the Internet Football Association's annual tournament WorldNET since 2009 and has provided a free programme for all participants and spectators of that tournament.[3]

FSF Player of the Year Award

The Football Supporters’ Federation Player of the Year is an annual award, presented at the FSF Awards ceremony in association with William Hill, given to the player who is adjudged to have had the best year in all of the divisions of Welsh and English football. The award has been presented since 2013, when the inaugural winner was Liverpool striker Luis Suárez. The latest winner of the award is Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool in 2019. Winners are selected by public vote following a nominations process.[4]

The table indicates where the winning player also won one or more of the other major "player of the year" awards in English football, namely the Professional Footballers' Association's Players' Player of the Year award (PPY),[5][6][7] the Football Writers' Association's Footballer of the Year award (FWA),[8] the PFA Fans' Player of the Year award (FPY),[9] the Premier League Player of the Season award (PPS),[10] and the PFA Young Player of the Year award (YPY).[6][7][11]

Year PlayerClubAlso wonNotes
2013Luis SuárezLiverpoolFWA, PPYInaugural winner of the award[12][13]
2014Sergio AgüeroManchester City[14][15]
2015Alexis SánchezArsenalFPY[16][17]
2016Philippe CoutinhoLiverpool[18]
2017Harry KaneTottenham Hotspur[19]
2018Mohamed SalahLiverpoolFWA, PPY, FPY, PPS[20]
2019Virgil van DijkLiverpoolPPY, PPS[21]

See also

References
  1. "The FSF Annual Review 2015" (PDF). Football Supporters' Federation. p. 3. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  2. "All-Party Parliamentary Football Group". Houses of Parliament. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  3. "FSF Support WorldNET 09".
  4. "The FSF Awards in association with William Hill (Monday 16th Dec)". FSF.org.uk. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  5. "Only here for the peers". BBC. 20 April 2001. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  6. "Gerrard named player of the year". BBC. 23 April 2006. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  7. "Ronaldo secures PFA awards double". BBC. 22 April 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  8. "England – Players Awards". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 4 October 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
  9. "PFA's Official Fan's Player of the Year: Previous Winners". The Professional Footballers' Association. Archived from the original on 20 February 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
  10. Premier League.com https://www.premierleague.com/history/awards?se=-1&aw=20. Retrieved 9 September 2020. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. Frank Keogh (20 April 2001). "Too much too young?". BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
  12. "WINNERS: FSF Awards in association with William Hill". FSF.org.uk. 17 December 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  13. Winter, Henry (16 December 2013). "Liverpool's Luis Suarez a humble winner of FSF Player of the Year award". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  14. "Agüero scores again with FSF Player of the Year". FSF.org.uk. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  15. "Manchester City's Sergio Aguero wins Player of the Year award in Football Supporters' Federation vote". Sky Sports.
  16. "Alexis Sanchez wins FSF 2015 Player of the Year award". FSF.org.uk. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  17. "Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez wins Player of the Year award in Football Supporters' Federation vote". Sky Sports.
  18. http://www.fsf.org.uk/. "Philippe Coutinho wins FSF Player of the Year Award | Football Supporters' Federation". www.fsf.org.uk. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  19. "Harry Kane wins FSF Player of the Year". The Football Supporters Federation. 4 December 2017.
  20. "Mohamed Salah wins FSF Men's Player of the Year award". Liverpool F.C. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  21. "Virgil Van Dijk wins FSF Men's Player of the Year award". Liverpool F.C. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
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