Trust Statement: Fan Flag Competition

The Walsall Supporters’ Trust was originally asked by Walsall FC to deliver a new fan flag for Bescot – something visible, positive, and supporter-led. We are therefore very disappointed to announce that the club has since withdrawn its invitation and informed the Trust that it will now take responsibility for organising the competition itself.

From the beginning, our approach was clear, practical, and genuine. As a voluntary organisation with no regular income streams other than a modest annual membership fee, and no financial support from the club, we agreed in good faith to take on this project. To make it viable, we committed to funding the flag ourselves.

Rather than setting up a complex crowdfunding campaign — which would have required creating and monitoring a new platform, managing one-off payments, dealing with platform fees, and ensuring full transparency over how every pound was used — we chose the simplest and most transparent route for a small team of volunteers: asking supporters to join the Trust for £5 a season.

This served two important purposes:

✔️ Funding – With no resources offered by the club, membership fees were treated as donations to cover the production cost of the flag. Fans were never obliged to remain members beyond this season, but using our existing membership system provided a straightforward and accountable way to collect contributions.

✔️ Fairness – Restricting the vote to members ensured the process could not be hijacked by rival fans or “bad actors.” With voting links shared publicly online, and with recent examples of football supporters misusing social media to spam rival clubs, we felt it was essential to protect the integrity of the competition.

From our side, this was never primarily about exclusion of genuine Walsall fans or a membership push. We of course welcome more members; however our approach was always about ensuring the project remained viable, fair, and genuinely reflective of Saddlers supporters, while recognising the realities of running a volunteer-led Trust with no outside funding.

In the same spirit we want to assure anyone who signed up to the Trust on the proviso of donating to cover the cost of flag production, we will refund you that fee. Simply email us and we will process a refund.

We coordinated this competition in good faith, and we would remind all involved that being fan-led also means being volunteer-led, which comes with certain restrictions.

Significant time and effort has therefore gone into organising a project that we now won’t be able to deliver. However, we will continue to work on projects that strengthen the voice of Saddlers fans and continue to help build a stronger community around the club and the town more broadly.

We thank everyone who submitted designs and supported this initiative.

Walsall Football Supporters’ Trust