SD Europe Podcast SD Europe

For this episode, SD Europe's Luke Cox speaks to the newly elected fan representative on the board of Brøndby IF, Claus Bjørn Billehøj!

Claus offers an insight into being a fan representative on the board of Brøndby IF, his experience so far and what he aims to achieve fresh after being elected in April 2022. Claus also offers some words of encouragement and advice for other football clubs considering implementing a fan-elected director.

For those new to the concept of fan representatives on football club boards, it is an effective method to ensure supporters and football clubs can work closely together with trust. They are commonly elected by supporters to represent their views in a football club’s decision making process, giving them influence in how the football club is run.

Read the summarised article on SD Europe's website here.

SD Europe speaks to Leonardo Aleoitti, Club Manager of non-professional Milan side Brera FC, about the Fenix Trophy.

The Fenix Trophy is a European tournament of non-professional football clubs across Europe who all share community-centric values. Brera FC is the organising club behind the competition.

With Leonardo we discuss the trophy's values, the clubs taking part - including three from SD Europe's network; AKS Zly, FC United of Manchester and HFC Falke - and a fundraiser to support the competition.

For this episode SD Europe's Luke Cox speaks To Andrew Jenkin, Head of Club Development Scotland at SD Scotland, and David Nicol, a former board supporter director of St. Mirren FC.

During the episode, David offers an insight into his experience of being a supporter director on a football club board and Andrew discusses his the research paper he recently contributed to on supporter directors. Additionally, the recent completion of St. Mirren's move to fan-ownership is discussed!

For this latest episode, we speak to Alan Russell, the CEO of SD Scotland, about 'structured transitions'. Structured transitions are where a football club owners and supporters work together to move a football club into fan-ownership at the right time, ensuring it continues to run sustainably for the future whilst cementing in the owner's legacy. A number of clubs in Scotland are already going through this process including Hearts, St. Mirren and Motherwell. 

You can also view this interview on the SD Europe website here.

For this episode, SD Europe's Luke Cox spoke with Niall Couper, Director of Fair Game UK. Niall is also a board member of the Dons Trust, who owns AFC Wimbledon. 

Fair Game UK is a collective of like minded football clubs in the English football league system who have banded together to change the game from within. In their own words "Football is in crisis in the UK. Covid has devastated the finances of so many lower league clubs, and left dozens on the brink of survival. Yet, the game remains the richest sport in the UK. It is time to reboot the game and Fair Game is bringing together ‘like-minded’ clubs to call for change.

Find out more about SD Europe here.

For this episode of SD Europe's podcast, we speak to the President of FC St. Pauli, Oke Goettlich.

FC St. Pauli is famed for its distinct fan culture and social justice-charged activism, but it's also one of Germany few trully 100% member-run clubs.

In this episode, we discuss how in November 2020, St. Pauli announced it would begin making its own sustainable football kit range, named DIIY, as no existing manufacturer could meet all the criteria it had set. The decision was made following a vote of the club's members who wanted to continue striving towards environmental sustainability. Also discussed, is the 50+1 rule and its future in German football.