The club announced today a partnership to drive global fan experience. The details can all be found on the club website, where it is excited by this new scheme. ‘We are committed to finding new and innovative ways for all our supporters – whether local or international – to get closer to the club,’ they write, and we can only assume it is chiefly directed at non-match-going fans.

While accepting that the club needs to find innovative ways to make money from commercial deals, AISA cannot share its enthusiasm.

West Ham set up a similar scheme, but under pressure from fans, withdrew. They discovered that polls on Socios led to changes to

o   Goal celebration music (Juventus)

o   Which player takes over the clubs Instagram account for the day (Atletico Madrid)

o   The renaming of a training ground pitch (Roma)

o   What message features on the captain’s armband (PSG)

These polls were considered “binding” and the club is “duty-bound” by its contract with Socios.com to implement the voted for change.

Read in full the West Ham experience and see why we are sceptical that this is a positive step – and not one we will want to get behind.

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