"As relevant as a dead otter" - Carlisle United supporters' trust group CUOSC respond to criticism

CUOSC faced critical questions over how effective they are and about the standard of their communication to fans.

The trust’s club directors, Billy Atkinson and Jim Mitchell, responded by highlighting the ways they hold the club to account in the boardroom.

Blues co-owner John Nixon also came out in defence of the trust, saying Atkinson was regarded as a “pain in the backside” for the way he regularly asks the club hierarchy “uncomfortable” questions on behalf of fans.

And chief executive Nigel Clibbens said CUOSC’s involvement at board level has helped the Blues make “better decisions”.

The discussion came in the virtual fans’ forum which was hosted by the Carlisle United Supporters’ Groups on Tuesday night.

The main question on CUOSC - who have a 25.4 per cent stake in United's Holdings company and have two fans on the club's boards - was posed by Dan MacLennan of thecumbrians.net forum.

He said a number of fans regard the trust as “stale, stuck in a rut, and irrelevant to the vast majority of our fanbase”.

He added that some supporters regard CUOSC as “a bit more obsessed with other stuff, such as diversity etc, than what should be your main role, which is to provide your fanbase with a legitimate voice in the boardroom.”

He added: “You are represented, I acknowledge that, but to the average Carlisle fan in the street, you’re about as relevant as a dead otter.”

Atkinson, who represents the trust on United’s Holdings board, replied by saying: “What are we? What is it that football supporters are looking for from a trust?

Jim Mitchell, left, and Billy Atkinson, at last night's forum (image from Carlisle United's YouTube footage)

“Are they looking for us just to be people that go round trying to raise money for the club, or do they want us to be an organisation that holds the club to account, to try and make sure the club tell the supporters what’s going on around the club?

“It shouldn’t just be for us to tell supporters what’s going on – we need to make sure we get the club to do that.

“I think we’ve had difficulties on the fundraising side, although I think we did reasonably well with our fundraising over the last year.

“I think what we need to be is an organisation with our shareholding that holds the club to account, on all the things that have been talked about [at this forum]. We try to do that, constantly.”

Atkinson said it was down to other directors to say how effective CUOSC were in the boardroom.

Nixon insisted the trust, via Atkinson, got fans’ views across at the Holdings board table.

He said: “On the Holdings board, Billy challenges regularly, where other directors don’t.

“He can be referred to as a bit of a pain in the [backside] because he does push for questions, and pushes uncomfortable questions and comments forward, from a fan’s point of view.

“It’s not easy, because he’s a single voice, and is sometimes looking for support inside that board.

“I can only assure people listening that he does a job of a good director.”

Nixon added: “For many years [before CUOSC were on the Holdings board], those sorts of questions weren’t asked and life was much easier.

“Now the questions are asked, they’ve got to be answered. The reason we got through into succession plans and the reason we’ve took some difficult decisions – and I feel we may make some more – is because the likes of CUOSC will be pushing all the way through.

“This will be unpopular, but they do do a job in that boardroom. We invited them in, and they do do that job.”

Clibbens pointed out that potential reforms to the game, via a fan-led Government review, will see fan involvement in clubs as a “key element” of good governance.

“We’ve got that at this club,” the chief executive said. “We haven’t got one share, we’ve got 25.4 per cent of voting power.

“They [CUOSC] have a voice in the boardroom, and they use it.

“It is disappointing that fans think CUOSC don’t have a voice, because they do. I’ve been in meetings where they’ve been really tough meetings, and the club has been better for Billy and Jim being there and saying their piece.

“We’ve got better decisions coming out of them than we otherwise would have got. That’s good for the club. Clearly there’s an expectations gap between what some fans think what CUOSC should be doing and what it is doing.”

Dan MacLennan, invited by Clibbens to elaborate on his view, suggested CUOSC were “far too quiet” and their communication to supporters had not been good enough for a long time.

Jim Mitchell, who sits on United’s 1921 operational board, said this was partly because the club’s own communication was so good, and this was something CUOSC had always encouraged.

He said: “A lot of what fans would be interested in, we’re unable to talk about for confidentiality reasons and sensitivities that would damage the club if we told the full details of what we’re all working on.

“We are about to put together a kind of manifesto that sets out what we believe in, what our views are on the position regarding the issues facing the club.

“Another obvious issue to bring up is the club on fan engagement were [ranked] second in the whole Football League. That is due to the quality and the frequency [of the stuff] the club put out, it’s spot-on.

“We would only be repeating what the club says. We’ve been encouraging Nigel – not that he needed much encouragement – to be as transparent and honest as he could possibly be with fans about what was happening in the club.

“We do have a column in the News & Star, we do produce newsletters every week and we invite, in that newsletter, people to raise issues with us.”

Atkinson also pointed out that CUSG, in which CUOSC are involved, was another regular forum for information to be given to fans.

He said: “We can’t all just keep saying the same things all the time. I think we’re there to hold the club to account and make sure the club is transparent, that the governance is good, and hopefully push to get the outcomes on succession that we feel the fans would want.”