A new Supporters Board has been launched by Liverpool FC to give fans "meaningful representation" on strategic issues at main board and executive levels.
The development, which comes after "extensive consultation" with representatives from Spirit of Shankly in recent months, was confirmed nearly 99% voting in favour of the new engagement model by members of SoS, the club’s recognised Supporters Trust.
The Supporters Trust will be responsible for running the board which will hold regular meetings with the club and the chair will be invited to attend LFC’s main board meetings "when fan-facing strategic matters arise".
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The make-up of the Supporters Board will consist of 10 Spirit of Shankly committee members, plus six other representatives drawn from other fan organisations, including Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association, Kop Outs, Spion Kop 1906, Official Liverpool Supporters Clubs, Liverpool Women’s Supporters Committee, and faith and ethnic groups.
The chair and vice-chair will be elected from the members of the board by its members.
The existing fan forums structure will remain in place but will be reshaped into three main working groups to cover ticketing, matchday experience, and equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I).
Billy Hogan, chief executive of Liverpool FC, said: "The idea for the Supporters Board came from an understanding and recognition that there was a lack of engagement with supporters on some important fan-facing issues and that was something we wanted to address.
"We had the ability to engage directly with a number of our different supporter groups, and we started with our official Supporters Trust, Spirit of Shankly.
"There has been a tremendous amount of engagement with our fans and supporters across the last several years, particularly the work that went into Kiev and Madrid, a lot of engagement around the Club World Cup, and issues such as equality, diversity and inclusion, ticketing issues and our sanctions process.
"There is a lot of engagement, but it was clear that we needed to address our levels of dialogue and put a process in place that was more formal.
"This has been a healthy process with a lot of engagement, and ultimately we’re really proud of where we’ve ended up.
"We think the Supporters Board concept is a really good one and it allows us to engage in a really meaningful way. I do just want to say a huge thank you to all the different groups that we’ve engaged with to get to this point."
