Darran
Roger Freestone
Yan Dhanda
The Swans Trust has previously publicly supported the players-led initiative to “take the knee” as part of their efforts to end racism and discrimination of any sort. We are happy to reiterate that support and we know that view is shared by the Club.
We condemn the actions of a very small group of people, most of whom having no links to the local area, who have sought to use our club’s media profile and good name as a vehicle for their extreme political views. We have been heartened to see that these views have been comprehensively rejected by Swans fans, both on social media and in their views expressed to us. We know that the club has been working with South Wales Police on this issue and will continue to do so.
We continue to see footballers from BAME backgrounds across the UK receive racist abuse, particularly on social media. Sadly, this has now happened to one of our own, Yan Dhanda. We have been in constant dialogue with the club on this issue, and we are glad that South Wales Police are investigating this incident, which we hope leads to a successful prosecution. We are sure that all Swans fans offer their full support to Yan at this time.
These incidents provide further evidence, if it was needed, that further education and action is required. We fully support the open letter sent by footballing authorities to social media companies, calling for much stronger action against those using these platforms to abuse other people.
With that in mind, it is very disappointing that Facebook, the owners of Instagram, have failed to treat this with the seriousness it deserved. To merely ban the user for a short period is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the individual, and a slap in the face for Yan, his family, and anyone who has suffered racist or discriminatory abuse online.
As a Trust, we are also working with the club and other groups to identify ways we can ensure that our club, and the Liberty Stadium, is seen as somewhere that everyone feels they are safe and welcome. Further details will be made available in the coming weeks.
Football Update
It’s becoming a happy habit of these monthly updates that we congratulate Steve Cooper, his management team and all the players on a superb month of performances!
The last few weeks has seen the Swans face some very tough opposition. During this period, we achieved excellent away wins at Barnsley and Rotherham, beat league leaders Norwich, and earn a draw against Brentford, despite playing most of the second half with 10 men! Unfortunately, our undefeated run came to an end at Huddersfield, however we have total faith that we can get back to winning ways at the first opportunity on Wednesday against Coventry!
All this has meant that Steve Cooper has, once again, been deservedly awarded the Manager of the Month award for January. Well done Steve! It is no surprise that Steve has been linked to other roles, including some in the Premier League, but we are sure all Swans fans will be hoping that Steve and his team remains with us for a long time. You can rest assured we have made this point to our fellow shareholders!
January has also been a busy month for the club, with the introduction of a number of new signings such as Conor Hourihane, Ben Hamer, Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, Keiron Freeman and Morgan Whittaker join the club. We’d like to welcome all to SA1, and are sure all will play a major part in our promotion challenge, but a special word for Conor, who has certainly hit the ground running in scoring in the last three league games, and Morgan, who scored an excellent game in our cup defeat to Manchester City.
It is thus with a lot of sadness that we hear that Jordan Morris has been ruled out for the season due to an ACL injury suffered at Huddersfield. We are sure the Jack Army share our sentiments that we wish Jordan all the best in his recuperation and hopefully we will get to see him back in a Swans shirt in the future.
This weekend will also see the deadline for 2021/2 season ticket renewals for those fans who were able to forego a refund for the 2020/1 season. We have received many questions from other members regarding the wider sale of season tickets, and we expect details to be published by the club in the coming days. As previously, the Trust will be putting out an FAQ which will hopefully address any questions you have.
Finally, hopefully many of you were able to attend the Club’s Virtual Fans Forum last week, which included the club’s management team along with our Supporter Director Stuart McDonald. We hope you found this a useful experience although hopefully we can hold these forums in person in the near future!
Stadium Update
Hopefully you will have seen the recent club announcements regarding the plans to move the stadium catering in-house, to improve the match day experience. We know the quality of fare available at the Liberty has been an issue for many of our members in the past.
You may also be aware of the recent food and drink surveys that have been published in recent weeks, and hopefully you have been able to participate. These surveys are the result of collaboration between the Club and the Trust, and we have both formed a working party of Club and Trust representatives to create the best matchday experience we can. Sadly, it does not look like we will get into the Liberty in the immediate future, but hopefully when we do you will see a marked improvement!
AGM
Thanks to those of you who were able to attend our recent Annual General Meeting. This was our first ever ‘virtual’ AGM, however we did feel it was important we did everything we could to meet with our members, rather than postpone until we could meet in person. We hope you found the meeting useful and we certainly enjoyed the lively Q&A session at the end of the meeting.
Our Chair’s address was sent to all members during the meeting, and all other documents have been published on the board minutes pages of our website here along with a summary of the Q&A session (note: please scroll to the foot of the page for the AGM related information).
Thank you once again for attending, and hopefully in 2022 we can meet in person!
Legal Update
As updated in our update during the AGM, we remain in discussion with a number of parties regarding the funding of the legal process. We are happy to confirm that we have already received at least one offer in that regard, however it is only appropriate that we exercise due diligence to ensure we obtain the best proposal possible. That process may take some time, both to conclude those discussions but also for the Trust Board to consider those proposals. We will seek to keep you updated every step of the way.
The Swans Trust has previously publicly supported the players-led initiative to “take the knee” as part of their efforts to end racism and discrimination of any sort. We are happy to reiterate that support and we know that view is shared by the Club.
We condemn the actions of a very small group of people, most of whom having no links to the local area, who have sought to use our club’s media profile and good name as a vehicle for their extreme political views. We have been heartened to see that these views have been comprehensively rejected by Swans fans, both on social media and in their views expressed to us. We know that the club has been working with South Wales Police on this issue and will continue to do so.
We continue to see footballers from BAME backgrounds across the UK receive racist abuse, particularly on social media. Sadly, this has now happened to one of our own, Yan Dhanda. We have been in constant dialogue with the club on this issue, and we are glad that South Wales Police are investigating this incident, which we hope leads to a successful prosecution. We are sure that all Swans fans offer their full support to Yan at this time.
These incidents provide further evidence, if it was needed, that further education and action is required. We fully support the open letter sent by footballing authorities to social media companies, calling for much stronger action against those using these platforms to abuse other people.
With that in mind, it is very disappointing that Facebook, the owners of Instagram, have failed to treat this with the seriousness it deserved. To merely ban the user for a short period is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the individual, and a slap in the face for Yan, his family, and anyone who has suffered racist or discriminatory abuse online.
As a Trust, we are also working with the club and other groups to identify ways we can ensure that our club, and the Liberty Stadium, is seen as somewhere that everyone feels they are safe and welcome. Further details will be made available in the coming weeks.
Football Update
It’s becoming a happy habit of these monthly updates that we congratulate Steve Cooper, his management team and all the players on a superb month of performances!
The last few weeks has seen the Swans face some very tough opposition. During this period, we achieved excellent away wins at Barnsley and Rotherham, beat league leaders Norwich, and earn a draw against Brentford, despite playing most of the second half with 10 men! Unfortunately, our undefeated run came to an end at Huddersfield, however we have total faith that we can get back to winning ways at the first opportunity on Wednesday against Coventry!
All this has meant that Steve Cooper has, once again, been deservedly awarded the Manager of the Month award for January. Well done Steve! It is no surprise that Steve has been linked to other roles, including some in the Premier League, but we are sure all Swans fans will be hoping that Steve and his team remains with us for a long time. You can rest assured we have made this point to our fellow shareholders!
January has also been a busy month for the club, with the introduction of a number of new signings such as Conor Hourihane, Ben Hamer, Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, Keiron Freeman and Morgan Whittaker join the club. We’d like to welcome all to SA1, and are sure all will play a major part in our promotion challenge, but a special word for Conor, who has certainly hit the ground running in scoring in the last three league games, and Morgan, who scored an excellent game in our cup defeat to Manchester City.
It is thus with a lot of sadness that we hear that Jordan Morris has been ruled out for the season due to an ACL injury suffered at Huddersfield. We are sure the Jack Army share our sentiments that we wish Jordan all the best in his recuperation and hopefully we will get to see him back in a Swans shirt in the future.
This weekend will also see the deadline for 2021/2 season ticket renewals for those fans who were able to forego a refund for the 2020/1 season. We have received many questions from other members regarding the wider sale of season tickets, and we expect details to be published by the club in the coming days. As previously, the Trust will be putting out an FAQ which will hopefully address any questions you have.
Finally, hopefully many of you were able to attend the Club’s Virtual Fans Forum last week, which included the club’s management team along with our Supporter Director Stuart McDonald. We hope you found this a useful experience although hopefully we can hold these forums in person in the near future!
Stadium Update
Hopefully you will have seen the recent club announcements regarding the plans to move the stadium catering in-house, to improve the match day experience. We know the quality of fare available at the Liberty has been an issue for many of our members in the past.
You may also be aware of the recent food and drink surveys that have been published in recent weeks, and hopefully you have been able to participate. These surveys are the result of collaboration between the Club and the Trust, and we have both formed a working party of Club and Trust representatives to create the best matchday experience we can. Sadly, it does not look like we will get into the Liberty in the immediate future, but hopefully when we do you will see a marked improvement!
AGM
Thanks to those of you who were able to attend our recent Annual General Meeting. This was our first ever ‘virtual’ AGM, however we did feel it was important we did everything we could to meet with our members, rather than postpone until we could meet in person. We hope you found the meeting useful and we certainly enjoyed the lively Q&A session at the end of the meeting.
Our Chair’s address was sent to all members during the meeting, and all other documents have been published on the board minutes pages of our website here along with a summary of the Q&A session (note: please scroll to the foot of the page for the AGM related information).
Thank you once again for attending, and hopefully in 2022 we can meet in person!
Legal Update
As updated in our update during the AGM, we remain in discussion with a number of parties regarding the funding of the legal process. We are happy to confirm that we have already received at least one offer in that regard, however it is only appropriate that we exercise due diligence to ensure we obtain the best proposal possible. That process may take some time, both to conclude those discussions but also for the Trust Board to consider those proposals. We will seek to keep you updated every step of the way.
