Club Statement: Volunteer Roles

We wish to provide an update and inform all supporters following a review of volunteering practices within the club this week.

Firstly, and understandably, the club has received a lot of feedback from supporters about the role of one of our volunteers John Raftery on Wednesday.

We have been in regular contact with John since Wednesday, both offering apologies for the upset caused and working on the solution to move forward. A conversation was had between a member of the board and CEO Neil Sears regarding John’s role. This led to confusion, miscommunication and caused unnecessary stress on a volunteer. We greatly regret this action.

In line with current structure at the club, Football Chair Marcel De Matas has taken responsibility in trying to bring about a resolution to this unfortunate situation.

We can confirm that John Raftery is welcome to continue in his current role as a volunteer, both during the week at Gigg Lane and on our hospitality reception on matchdays. John will come back to us on this, once he has had chance to consider the offer.

What happened on Wednesday was a mistake, and a function of poor communication and decision making within the club. It was the result of too much pressure, too little time and not enough clarity on who should be deciding what. We will do more to ensure this does not happen again.

Secondly, as part of this work and where some of the confusion on this issue has stemmed from, we are in the process of reviewing all of our volunteer roles.

Our primary concern is always safety and security in the stadium. There are occasions where we have staff and volunteers going beyond what we expect of them, and this enthusiasm can sometimes cause problems.

We are trying to find a balance, but on occasions we need to reduce the responsibilities people take on for the good of the club or those individuals. This will sometimes cause frustration but it is always done with the right intent.

We do not want, for example, volunteers engaging with people who have become aggressive or threatening. We would prefer them not to do this online but have no control over social media. We certainly do not want people to do this in person. We want to provide more clarity on what is expected and will work on this over the forthcoming weeks.

Equally, we have had incidents where staff have been threatened or abused by supporters. Supporters will always have opinions and criticism is part of any job in football. There is a line that should not be crossed however, and we will continue to take action where that happens.

We welcome supporters working with the club to achieve an environment which helps it prosper and thank all for their patience whilst we have dealt with any club matters both privately, and as promptly as possible.

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