Matt-MCFC

Oh 100% agree, and I'm not here to defend the club for their slow actions. I'm trying to break down some of that "secrecy" and this week will be raising it again.

As far as I'm aware every membership type is represented from Active to City class. Each person interacts with fans from there section of the fan base. For me I talk to the people who sit around me and friends. Others do the same, the FRG is actually a really good mix of people and perspectives. As such it includes people with young children and females who based on the comments on social media do feel intimidated. But they are as much of a fan of the club as you and I as such deserve to be represented. I have seen threats on City pages directed at the FRG, why would anyone wear a sign saying come abuse me at games? Would you? I would say that is was around 80% who didn't feel comfortable being easily identifiable at games. Both myself and Kathleen understood that by being chairs we would need to be visible. Thats why I came here to post and is why I have been actively pushing the club to move faster in publishing the FRG better.

The first meeting for the FRG for the season is this week and once the webpage has been set up minutes will be in there. But once they are collated I can post them here. I do want to say that the attitude of the replies to my post is why the FRG members from multiple clubs dont want to be visible at game days. At other clubs people have been threatened so unless you think volunteers putting up with that behaviour is ok i doubt you will ever see us idetifed at games.

Hi everyone, long post, but a bit to cover! I'm Matt Mann (who is mentioned above). I am the co-chair of the Melbourne City FRG. I only saw this thread yesterday when another FRG member sent me the link. So, I thought I would post and clear a few things up. So firstly, who am I? I'm in my early 40s and a Melbourne Heart foundation member. I grew up in the UK moving to Australia in the early 2000s. Football has been central to my life from my first game at 3 months old, and was a season ticket holder at Sheffield Wednesday. Moving to aus as the NSL died, I watched some A-league but lacked the attachment I had for Wednesday. Melbourne Heart formed and they signed Sibon, whose name I had on one of my Wednesday shirt I was all in and bought a membership. Over the next few years I moved into the active area. The change to City gave me mixed feelings, but I kept my membership and continued to attend right up until the Gallop boycott. Seeing the game I love treated so poorly burned and I felt I needed to do something, so I voted with my feet. Time passed, and my daughter started to be interested in the game so I attended a few games. Then bought a membership again, now I sit on the wing. This time when the league did its best to alienate fans (The grand final debacle) I decided to try and do something to help, this is why I applied for the FRG. So that's me. Now, the FRG. So as some here have said, an email asking for applications was sent from the club. I formally applied writing why I wanted to be involved (was limited to like 100 words). A few weeks later, I was called by the club and "interviewed" later being told I had been one of the 12 offered a place on FRG at the end of the application process. Your FRG and it is every fans is made up of a group who went through the same process. From 10,000ish members a few hundred replied (I will ask the club for the exact number), of those 12 were picked. The group by design is diverse I think every type of membership is covered and many demographics in terms of age, gender etc. At the first meeting, we voted for a chair and it was a tie between Kathleen and myself. We could ever vote again or be Co-Chair we and I'm so glad we decided to do this. So, how does the FRG work? We meet either online, at AAMI Park, or at City Football Academy. The club uses us a a sounding board and is very open and very honest with us (more than I ever expected). The group is all volunteers and doesn't get paid. We are not club employees. We don't do it for perks, etc. What I have seen is a group of people who want to improve the game and the club. Has the first year of the FRG been perfect? In short, no, the club has been slow to create an easy way for the fans to contact the FRG and promote it. Have other clubs done a better job? Yes, but web pages and better links are coming. At first and understandably somewhere unsure about being identified as FRG members in case they were targeted by unhappy fans. Perth, for example, have their FRG in shirts so you can spot them at games. I, for one, wouldn't do that, I'm at the game to watch the game and spend time with my daughter. But we, as i said, we are pushing the club to open up better ways to communicate. So that's the Melbourne City FRG. When the email address and link are live, I will post them here, but if you have a question, ask away! Now for the National FRG or APL FRG. That now has a page (including a pic of me). https://aleagues.com.au/more/a-leagues-fan-representative-group-details/ Each club FRG sends the Chair to this group as a result of us having Co-Chairs we have 2 members (told you it was a good thing). This group meets less frequently and is honestly finding its feet. I have been very vocal (hence why I'm in lots of the minutes) on taking the APL task on the state of the game. Recently, we have been seeing a shift in the way the APL engages with the group. They are starting to use us as a sounding board before going public with things, our feedback has had direct impacts on recent APL decisions and I genuinely have hope that the new leadership is learning. But they are still hampered by the previous leaderships misteps. Now to clear up a couple of direct comments from the thread. Matt Mann Vs Matt May, it's Matt Mann this is a typo that I correct a few times but never got changed. Kathleen has never represented Victory. I Think this is from when she has spoken about watching a game at the home of the matildas?