A few words of encouragement to Hartlepool United fans

mdingwall

mdingwall

Administrator
I knocked up this scribble and posted it onto two of their Facebook pages - hopefully they will learn a bit from our past troubles.



A FEW WORDS WHICH MIGHT BE HELPFUL


I’m a Rangers fan. I was on the board of the Rangers Supporters Trust for a decade and have edited the Rangers fanzine and website Follow Follow for yonks.


Hartlepool is your club and you have different circumstances from what we went through but I hope a few pointers might be of help to you. We made our mistakes along the way, I hope you can learn from them.



1/ THE POUND IN THE BANK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

The nearer you get to the money the nastier people become - equity is king in football clubs and if you don’t have shares or money you’ll find yourselves sidelined from the big decisions. Start collecting cash now.


2/ DELIVER FAN UNITY

We created the Union Of Fans to bring in the supporters groups and websites who wanted to fight the Spivs we had in charge. You won’t agree on everything but move together as far as you can in the same general direction. The punters love unity - nothing is more discouraging that seeing fans fight amongst themselves.


3/ CHOOSE YOUR PARTNERS CAREFULLY

You’ll probably have to partner up with someone with a fair bit of unencumbered capital (i.e., they haven’t borrowed it from somewhere else) - if you can’t find they have much of a track record then alarm bells should go off.


4/ GET SOMETHING FOR YOUR MONEY

Be careful how you structure things - if you fundraise in a certain way you won’t be able to donate it and get shares in return. Ideally put in your cash in return for shares or the money being regarded as a loan. It’s a crisis so there is the pressure just to put money in a bucket and hand it over to the current lot and that’s understandable. But long-term it would be a mistake. Attach strings.


5/ ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE

Even when delivering bad news. We gave the Spivs a real hammering but always finished off with a bit of positivity to give people hope and activities to engage in.


6/ GIVE PEOPLE THINGS TO DO

Build up your activist core with leafleting at the ground etc. One of the things that worked well for us was making huge leaflets which people could hold up at 18 and 72 minutes (Rangers formed in 1872) - at halftime and when the team came out. Every home game is a fantastic opportunity to fundraise and get your message over.


7/ UNITY OF COMMAND

Get your message straight - get a spokesman who will be the contact point and make sure others who have been in the media in the past direct enquiries to him and don’t dilute the message.


8/ DISCIPLINE

Aggro turns off far more people than it turns on. So keep all your activities lively and fun.


9/ DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Read everything - League regulations, Articles of Association, Accounts, old court cases, etc, etc. It’s amazing what you can find. Be prepared for any eventuality and know your rights.


10/ THERE’S A WORLD OF HARTLEPOOL FANS OUT THERE

Use the internet to connect with them - accounts, lawyers, researchers - build a database of fans online. It’ll all be useful.


I know these are dark days for your right now - but they are also great days when you will see the best in your fans and if you work together you will have better future for the club.


Best of luck!
 
mdingwall said:
I knocked up this scribble and posted it onto two of their Facebook pages - hopefully they will learn a bit from our past troubles.



A FEW WORDS WHICH MIGHT BE HELPFUL


I’m a Rangers fan. I was on the board of the Rangers Supporters Trust for a decade and have edited the Rangers fanzine and website Follow Follow for yonks.


Hartlepool is your club and you have different circumstances from what we went through but I hope a few pointers might be of help to you. We made our mistakes along the way, I hope you can learn from them.



1/ THE POUND IN THE BANK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

The nearer you get to the money the nastier people become - equity is king in football clubs and if you don’t have shares or money you’ll find yourselves sidelined from the big decisions. Start collecting cash now.


2/ DELIVER FAN UNITY

We created the Union Of Fans to bring in the supporters groups and websites who wanted to fight the Spivs we had in charge. You won’t agree on everything but move together as far as you can in the same general direction. The punters love unity - nothing is more discouraging that seeing fans fight amongst themselves.


3/ CHOOSE YOUR PARTNERS CAREFULLY

You’ll probably have to partner up with someone with a fair bit of unencumbered capital (i.e., they haven’t borrowed it from somewhere else) - if you can’t find they have much of a track record then alarm bells should go off.


4/ GET SOMETHING FOR YOUR MONEY

Be careful how you structure things - if you fundraise in a certain way you won’t be able to donate it and get shares in return. Ideally put in your cash in return for shares or the money being regarded as a loan. It’s a crisis so there is the pressure just to put money in a bucket and hand it over to the current lot and that’s understandable. But long-term it would be a mistake. Attach strings.


5/ ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE

Even when delivering bad news. We gave the Spivs a real hammering but always finished off with a bit of positivity to give people hope and activities to engage in.


6/ GIVE PEOPLE THINGS TO DO

Build up your activist core with leafleting at the ground etc. One of the things that worked well for us was making huge leaflets which people could hold up at 18 and 72 minutes (Rangers formed in 1872) - at halftime and when the team came out. Every home game is a fantastic opportunity to fundraise and get your message over.


7/ UNITY OF COMMAND

Get your message straight - get a spokesman who will be the contact point and make sure others who have been in the media in the past direct enquiries to him and don’t dilute the message.


8/ DISCIPLINE

Aggro turns off far more people than it turns on. So keep all your activities lively and fun.


9/ DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Read everything - League regulations, Articles of Association, Accounts, old court cases, etc, etc. It’s amazing what you can find. Be prepared for any eventuality and know your rights.


10/ THERE’S A WORLD OF HARTLEPOOL FANS OUT THERE

Use the internet to connect with them - accounts, lawyers, researchers - build a database of fans online. It’ll all be useful.


I know these are dark days for your right now - but they are also great days when you will see the best in your fans and if you work together you will have better future for the club.


Best of luck!
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Good message.

On a sidenote, exactly how long was it before one of the unwashed jumped on to comment on it?

I would hazard a guess and say at least within the first 10 replies.
 
I hope that their fans appreciate both your experience and that you took the time and trouble to share with them.
 
Would love to see us play a friendly down there once the dust settles and they have new people at the helm. Seems the current encumbent is a large part of the problem and seeing online advice not to donate directly to the club as it would be money lost. Mon The Monkeyhangers !! You’ve got more friends out there than you know ! Hope to be back down for our annual visit in May. Great wee club and even better folk !
 
TibbsyBear said:
Good message.

On a sidenote, exactly how long was it before one of the unwashed jumped on to comment on it?

I would hazard a guess and say at least within the first 10 replies.
Click to expand...

LOL.

I hope they do. The Hartlepool fans will surely appreciate the advice being offered and if the unwashed want to show themselves up as the obsessed pigs they are, let them. It's good for others in the UK to see the type of scum we have to suffer up here.
 
Very well articulated and valuable advice. All the best to Hartlepool. They need hope that they can come out of this difficult time.
 
Lots of good advice hopefully they can run a campaign to get the right people in at the club it would indeed be good to help them out in someways ie a game against us or a show of support by attending a game have to say brings it all back those dark days when there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel but knowing your not alone and you have the backing of other supporters around the world is always something.
 
mdingwall said:
I knocked up this scribble and posted it onto two of their Facebook pages - hopefully they will learn a bit from our past troubles.



A FEW WORDS WHICH MIGHT BE HELPFUL


I’m a Rangers fan. I was on the board of the Rangers Supporters Trust for a decade and have edited the Rangers fanzine and website Follow Follow for yonks.


Hartlepool is your club and you have different circumstances from what we went through but I hope a few pointers might be of help to you. We made our mistakes along the way, I hope you can learn from them.



1/ THE POUND IN THE BANK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

The nearer you get to the money the nastier people become - equity is king in football clubs and if you don’t have shares or money you’ll find yourselves sidelined from the big decisions. Start collecting cash now.


2/ DELIVER FAN UNITY

We created the Union Of Fans to bring in the supporters groups and websites who wanted to fight the Spivs we had in charge. You won’t agree on everything but move together as far as you can in the same general direction. The punters love unity - nothing is more discouraging that seeing fans fight amongst themselves.


3/ CHOOSE YOUR PARTNERS CAREFULLY

You’ll probably have to partner up with someone with a fair bit of unencumbered capital (i.e., they haven’t borrowed it from somewhere else) - if you can’t find they have much of a track record then alarm bells should go off.


4/ GET SOMETHING FOR YOUR MONEY

Be careful how you structure things - if you fundraise in a certain way you won’t be able to donate it and get shares in return. Ideally put in your cash in return for shares or the money being regarded as a loan. It’s a crisis so there is the pressure just to put money in a bucket and hand it over to the current lot and that’s understandable. But long-term it would be a mistake. Attach strings.


5/ ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE

Even when delivering bad news. We gave the Spivs a real hammering but always finished off with a bit of positivity to give people hope and activities to engage in.


6/ GIVE PEOPLE THINGS TO DO

Build up your activist core with leafleting at the ground etc. One of the things that worked well for us was making huge leaflets which people could hold up at 18 and 72 minutes (Rangers formed in 1872) - at halftime and when the team came out. Every home game is a fantastic opportunity to fundraise and get your message over.


7/ UNITY OF COMMAND

Get your message straight - get a spokesman who will be the contact point and make sure others who have been in the media in the past direct enquiries to him and don’t dilute the message.


8/ DISCIPLINE

Aggro turns off far more people than it turns on. So keep all your activities lively and fun.


9/ DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Read everything - League regulations, Articles of Association, Accounts, old court cases, etc, etc. It’s amazing what you can find. Be prepared for any eventuality and know your rights.


10/ THERE’S A WORLD OF HARTLEPOOL FANS OUT THERE

Use the internet to connect with them - accounts, lawyers, researchers - build a database of fans online. It’ll all be useful.


I know these are dark days for your right now - but they are also great days when you will see the best in your fans and if you work together you will have better future for the club.


Best of luck!
Click to expand...

Good post, Mark.
 
Hat doffed man.

Nothing better than seeing goodwill and experience shared. It makes sense for our knowledge and fortitude being thrown in with others who face the same plight as We all did. We conquered our nightmare and they should heed this advice.
 
I like seeing that posted on their forums and Facebook pages. Best of luck to them, and hope they get through this.
 
Hopefully we can share this with their fans. Really great points here that would be good for them to see.
 
Kimarcus said:
Hopefully we can share this with their fans. Really great points here that would be good for them to see.
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Apparently at their last home game there was a noticeable contingent of Middlesrbough and Rangers fans out showing their support for the Pools.
 
You forgot to mention that know matter how hard you work and how many hours, days and weeks you sacrifice . You will have horrible people who will try and put the boot in and try to savage you.
 
Portsmouth fans turn up to help Hartlepool with fundraising.

AiiYRbk.jpg
 
mdingwall said:
I knocked up this scribble and posted it onto two of their Facebook pages - hopefully they will learn a bit from our past troubles.



A FEW WORDS WHICH MIGHT BE HELPFUL


I’m a Rangers fan. I was on the board of the Rangers Supporters Trust for a decade and have edited the Rangers fanzine and website Follow Follow for yonks.


Hartlepool is your club and you have different circumstances from what we went through but I hope a few pointers might be of help to you. We made our mistakes along the way, I hope you can learn from them.



1/ THE POUND IN THE BANK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND

The nearer you get to the money the nastier people become - equity is king in football clubs and if you don’t have shares or money you’ll find yourselves sidelined from the big decisions. Start collecting cash now.


2/ DELIVER FAN UNITY

We created the Union Of Fans to bring in the supporters groups and websites who wanted to fight the Spivs we had in charge. You won’t agree on everything but move together as far as you can in the same general direction. The punters love unity - nothing is more discouraging that seeing fans fight amongst themselves.


3/ CHOOSE YOUR PARTNERS CAREFULLY

You’ll probably have to partner up with someone with a fair bit of unencumbered capital (i.e., they haven’t borrowed it from somewhere else) - if you can’t find they have much of a track record then alarm bells should go off.


4/ GET SOMETHING FOR YOUR MONEY

Be careful how you structure things - if you fundraise in a certain way you won’t be able to donate it and get shares in return. Ideally put in your cash in return for shares or the money being regarded as a loan. It’s a crisis so there is the pressure just to put money in a bucket and hand it over to the current lot and that’s understandable. But long-term it would be a mistake. Attach strings.


5/ ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE

Even when delivering bad news. We gave the Spivs a real hammering but always finished off with a bit of positivity to give people hope and activities to engage in.


6/ GIVE PEOPLE THINGS TO DO

Build up your activist core with leafleting at the ground etc. One of the things that worked well for us was making huge leaflets which people could hold up at 18 and 72 minutes (Rangers formed in 1872) - at halftime and when the team came out. Every home game is a fantastic opportunity to fundraise and get your message over.


7/ UNITY OF COMMAND

Get your message straight - get a spokesman who will be the contact point and make sure others who have been in the media in the past direct enquiries to him and don’t dilute the message.


8/ DISCIPLINE

Aggro turns off far more people than it turns on. So keep all your activities lively and fun.


9/ DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Read everything - League regulations, Articles of Association, Accounts, old court cases, etc, etc. It’s amazing what you can find. Be prepared for any eventuality and know your rights.


10/ THERE’S A WORLD OF HARTLEPOOL FANS OUT THERE

Use the internet to connect with them - accounts, lawyers, researchers - build a database of fans online. It’ll all be useful.


I know these are dark days for your right now - but they are also great days when you will see the best in your fans and if you work together you will have better future for the club.


Best of luck!
Click to expand...
Good on you Mark,

My Army reserve unit got moved to here about 3 years ago, and I am down one a month, we have a few guys in the unit who go to most games.

I am down here working for 2 weeks and I am planning to go along to support them on Saturday at the match with them.
 
Shengus Malengus said:
Rangers and Hartlepool Utd, my two teams.

Man, I'm a fucking jinx.
Click to expand...
Sorry haven't time tonight to read the entire thread, but wouldn't it be good for the club to maybe play a game against Hartlepool?
Everyone knows Hartlepool have a very distinctive and worthy history as part of British football.
As a club who have known problems, we must never forget, and in this perhaps always be able to show empathy to fellow travellers.
 
Nice piece,well laid/thought out,i remember our situation where we felt the world was ripping our hearts out,—every “positive “helps.
 
I may have completely missed something but it doesn't sound as though the fans group got anything in return for the recent fundraising campaign to pay off the baying wolves. Leaving the spivs room to squeeze more.

The fans forum seem completely resigned to admin and liquidation as the discussion seems to be the ins and outs of a 'pheonix club'. The perilous position as the gap above the relegation zone reduces just rubs salt into the wound.

Absolutely gutted for them having lived there for 3 years and having a season ticket for a couple of years. The decline has been absolutely rapid from missing out in the final of the playoffs to go to the Championship to two disastrous relegations.
 
bluelacoste said:
Good on you Mark,

My Army reserve unit got moved to here about 3 years ago, and I am down one a month, we have a few guys in the unit who go to most games.

I am down here working for 2 weeks and I am planning to go along to support them on Saturday at the match with them.
Click to expand...
What reg are you mate? I'm a cloud puncher myself.
 
Fantastic work Mark.

From the heart of a supporter that has suffered like us all, at a time when another support need to use their heads.

This will be invaluable to them in a biblical way.
 
Another thing that you should add....

you should be mindful of your enemies. We were surrounded by them. Our Football Association tried to destroy us. A whole diaspora were mobilised against us. You won't have the same scale of foes that we have.... but they will be there. Trolls and imposters proliferate the dark web.
 
Sage advice from the OP.

Let's hope that they don't treat it with the contempt that a lot of our own fans did when folk from Sheffield United warned us.
 
Barryhopez said:
Sage advice from the OP.

Let's hope that they don't treat it with the contempt that a lot of our own fans did when folk from Sheffield United warned us.
Click to expand...

The lad who was formerly chairman of Sheffield Wednesday said to me 'Charles Green will strip your club bear' - no-one wanted to hear it though.
 
mdingwall said:
The lad who was formerly chairman of Sheffield Wednesday said to me 'Charles Green will strip your club bear' - no-one wanted to hear it though.
Click to expand...

I remember there were a few warnings from Sheffield United fans and maybe 'Arry Bassett and/or Nigel Spackman, but as you say, not many were prepared to stop the Charles Green Carousel of bullshit and listen.

Hopefully the Hartlepool fans take heed.
 
Bet the authorities will do ore to help them than happened for us. Hope they come through this stronger, it is only when something like this happens you truly appreciate what it means to be part of a club, remember the hearts home game after admin the atmosphere was amazing, knew we would survive then, never doubted it after that.

Hope it works out for them as well.
 
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