Blackpool Supporters' Trust column: Season of progress on and off pitch

So despite the disappointing result against Derby County the season has already been a success.

A quick mention also to the great atmosphere created by Blackpool and Derby supporters on the day. It was also good to see fans of both clubs vocally in unison on matters of football governance.

In a week when Fulham and Bournemouth have both been promoted, funded largely by premiership parachute payments, Derby are a great example of the difficulty of trying to compete without taking significant risks.

On that very subject we recently learned of the long-awaited response to the Fan Led Review led by Tracey Crouch. The Government has accepted all of Tracey’s main recommendations ; an independent regulator ; a far greater role for fans in key strategic questions affecting their clubs and more stringent tests to make sure owners have the integrity fans rightly expect.

There are however some remaining areas of significant concern over the timing of legislation and the lack of progress between the EPL and EFL in agreeing a new distribution of TV revenues.

On all these matters we are also seeing a pleasing level of engagement from our local MPs. Representatives from BST met with Paul Maynard MP along with representatives from the EFL.

Tracey Crouch was scheduled to be there but a COVID outbreak in her family kept her away.

Scott Benton MP is also taking a close interest in the Government’s response to this issue and is closer than most to Ministerial thinking.

Cat Smith MP mentioned Blackpool Supporters Trust when she spoke in the parliamentary debate on 25th April, calling for a change to the financial system.

The only local MP’s we haven’t yet had a response from are Mark Menzies and Ben Wallace.

On matters closer to Bloomfield Road the club’s Structured Dialogue meeting takes place next week. BST will be represented along with other supporters groups and we will seek answers to all of the questions that have been submitted, including those which are not addressed at the meeting itself.

Last weekend saw the final foodbank collection and it was the best so far this season so a big thank you to all those who kindly donated and to The Community Trust, Blackpool FC, The Armfield Club and Blackpool Foodbanks for making it happen.

We are hoping to ramp this up next season and increase the number of collection points so if there are volunteers who would like to martial the collection bins for 45 minutes prior to kick off please contact [email protected].

We do still have things to look forward to in May including the Class of 92 Dinner on the 20th of May to commemorate the 30th anniversary of our first play-off final win at Wembley and hopefully the commencement of the much anticipated Jimmy Armfield Mural.

For those Seasiders travelling to Peterborough, we hope you have a great day out. Remember if Blackpool secure a win and results go our way we could finish as high as 11th which by any reckoning would be a great end to a really encouraging season.

BLACKPOOL SUPPORTERS’ TRUST