8th November 2022

To All 588 Members :

Over the course of last season and this current season we have seen a step increase in new Members joining the Club . We have also seen an increase in the demand for match tickets against a gradual reduction of tickets which are made available to our Club.

The result being that many games have had to have a ballot for tickets. It has also been noted that long standing Club Members, some as long as 18 seasons are competing for tickets in balloted games with new Members. Nothing wrong with that when there are enough tickets however as a Club we have a duty to consider those Members who supported Arsenal through the hard times.

We have noted also that many new Members seem to join for a couple of seasons, attend a couple of games and then fail to renew.

For this reason after many weeks of discussion the Club are introducing a Tiered Membership.

It has also been noted that many Members place requests for multiple games, balloted or not. And when accepted these same Members often withdraw their requests leaving the Ticket Team with last minute work to redistribute the tickets. It also serves to put off Members who do really want to go to the games but decide not to place a request.

For this reason the Club are introducing substantial deposits for ticket requests for all games.

We have also agreed to close the Membership such that new applications for Membership will only take place over June and July each Summer.

With the World Cup break almost upon us the Executive and the Management Committee of Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club have taken this opportunity over the past few weeks to discuss, propose and agree in the majority the following changes to the Club.

ITEM 1  – Introduction of Membership Tiers 

From today. 8th November 2022, Arsenal Scotland will adopt a new 3 tier membership system:

Tier 1: Members having a continuous 24+ months as a Member of the supporters club, are able to request tickets to ALL games subject to availability.

Tier 2: Members having a continuous 12-24 months membership of the supporters club, are able to request tickets to Cat B and Cat C games subject to availability, as well as being considered for Cat A games should there be more of a supply than demand for tickets.

Tier 3: Members with less than 12 months membership in the supporters club, are able to request tickets to Cat C games subject to availability, as well as being considered for Cat A and Cat B games should there be more of a supply than demand for tickets.

Please Note

Any Member who breaks their continuous membership, or misses any deadlines for renewals will then have to re-apply as a new Member and start again from Tier 3.

This means that renewals MUST be paid on time before 31st July each Summer.

As we are looking to implement this in the middle of the season, we do appreciate that this decision will not be accepted by some new Members and as such, we will offer any new Member who has joined for the 2022/23 season a full refund on their membership if they are not happy with this new system and who wish to resign their membership.

Match Categories

Cat A Games are defined as follows:

• All Premier League Home games
• All Premier League Away games
• All League Cup ties   – Excluding Finals*
• All FA Cup ties  – Excluding Finals*
• All European fixtures  – Excluding Finals*

Cat B Games are defined as follows:

• Cat B Premier League Home games (using Arsenal’s classification on their website)
• Premier League Away games – Excluding certain games (This season for example –  Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea)
• League Cup ties  versus Cat B opposition –  Excluding Finals
• FA Cup ties versus Cat B opposition – Excluding Finals
• European fixtures etc versus Cat B opposition – Excluding Finals

Cat C Games are defined as follows:

• Cat C Premier League Home games (using Arsenal’s classification on their website)
• Premier League Away games – Excluding certain games (This season for example – Newcastle, Leeds, Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea)
• League Cup ties  versus Cat C level opposition – Excluding semi finals and Finals
• FA Cup ties versus Cat C level opposition  – Excluding semi finals and Finals
• European fixtures etc versus Cat C level opposition –  – Excluding semi finals and Finals

* Finals – we would most likely only get a tiny amount of tickets so the Management Committee would need to look at this item separately from the Membership levels.

ITEM 2  –  Deposit payments required on all ticket requests

From today 8th November 2022 Arsenal Scotland will ask that All Members pay a substantial deposit on all ticket requests for every ticket request for every game:

[Note: the next 2 week window for ticket requests is for West Ham starting from 14th November 2022]

All Members requests for tickets will be met with requests for deposits as below and payment must be made within 3 days by screenshot confirmation. If not, the request is turned down.

As is normal there are no guarantees as to how many tickets are available.

If the tickets are subject to ballots then of course those members unsuccessful through ballots would get a full 100% refund of their deposit.

When ticket requests are successful the balance of payment must be made within 3 days by screenshot confirmation.

Cat A HOME games – £50

Cat B HOME games – £40
Cat C HOME games – £30

All Away Premier league games – £30 (in effect the 100% deposit)

FA Cup, League Cup, Euro games  – subject to confirmation at the time but in principle at least £15 – £30.

ITEM 3 – Closing the Membership during the season  

We have also agreed thereafter to close the Membership to new applicants each calendar year from 31st July to 1st June.  In effect having a two month window in June and July for new applications to be approved and new Members added to the membership.

And there is more………………

In addition to the above changes Arsenal Scotland have updated and amended the Club Constitution and the Club Rules.

These are to be found here

Proposed Club Constitution 2022

The Club Constitution has been updated as attached and it will be published on the Arsenal Scotland Website and placed for formal approval by the membership at next year’s AGM.

Proposed Club Rules 2022

The Club Rules have been updated as attached and will shortly be published on the website.

Final Note

I know this is a lot to take in. Do believe me that a lot of hard work has gone into these decisions. We aim to offer fair membership to all Members in a professional manner and with full transparency.

Please direct all and any queries on the above to me.

COYG!

Victory Through Harmony.

Martin O’Donnell

Club Secretary

Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club

Important Advice for Members

For some months now we have been experiencing an increasing demand for tickets and a reducing source of tickets, both of course influenced by the results on the pitch. That is predictable and perfectly reasonable.

But we are also receiving a number of speculative requests for tickets and that is causing a lot of unnecessary work and in some cases unecessary ballot draws. Its also resulting in some unhappy members.

We want genuine ticket requests from members fully committed to want to go to see The Arsenal.

So with the World Cup break coming along the Ticket Team and the wider Management Committee will be using the break to take stock and review the procedure for members ticket requests.

We will share the outcome as a news blog on our website.

The aim is to implement changes in time for the West Ham ticket request period which will open from 14th November.

The Chelsea Away and Wolves Away Ballots

Both Ballots were both carried out via Zoom on 17th October, in advance of knowledge of how many tickets we can secure for our members. 

Ballot Outcomes

Chelsea V Arsenal 

Wolverhampton Wanderers V Arsenal 

Ballot Conduct

Chelsea V Arsenal 

26 club members requested match tickets.

Their names were arranged into 12 groups: 10 groups of 2 and 2 groups of 3. 

The numbers 1 to 12 were drawn out at random by Nathan Moloney in Dumfriesshire. The order of the draw was recorded as those numbers were matched with the numbers which had previously been assigned haphazardly to each group by Peter Burnhill in Edinburgh.

The draw was witnessed by Angie Kidd in Midlothian; the Zoom was hosted and recorded by Martin O’Donnell in the Borders.

We are hoping for around 14 tickets and expect to hear from Arsenal by around 27th October. Tickets are NOT guaranteed.

Wolverhampton Wanderers V Arsenal 

32 club members requested match tickets.

Their names were arranged into 14 groups: 10 groups of 2 and 4 groups of 3. 

The numbers 1 to 14 were drawn out at random by Nathan Moloney in Dumfriesshire. The order of the draw was recorded as those numbers were matched with the numbers which had previously been assigned haphazardly to each group by Peter Burnhill in Edinburgh.

The draw was witnessed by Angie Kidd in Midlothian; the Zoom was hosted and recorded by Martin O’Donnell in the Borders.

We are hoping for around 19 tickets and expect to hear from Arsenal by around 31st October. Tickets are NOT guaranteed.

Away vs Leeds, 16th October

Tickets Available

We have secured 27 tickets as was expected.

Due to postal strikes ALL tickets are to be handed out in person at Leeds.

This means that not all 94 members requesting tickets have been successful in the Ballot.

The first 27 members in the Ballot are being given first refusal. If anyone drops out then Chris will move down the drawn order.

The Ballot was of 9 groups of 3 (27).

We do not expect any more tickets. We will not be contacting everyone who was drawn after group 9.

Ballot Outcome

Conduct of Ballot

The Ballot was carried out via Zoom on 26th September, with all 94 request names in the hat. The numbers 1 to 94 were drawn out at random by Dave Harrold in Edinburgh, those being matched and recorded with the numbers previously assigned randomly to names by Caz Moir in Aberdeenshire. The draw was witnessed by Angie Kidd in Midlothian; the Zoom was hosted and recorded by Martin O’Donnell in the Borders.

Club Annual General Meeting

The minutes for the AGM are can be found under the ‘About’ section of the menu.

There has been a recent surge in applications to join Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club. Pleased though we are to welcome those who follow The Arsenal, the Club Management has had to respond with two actions: 

1. As from 3pm on Sunday 7th August, the issue of new Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club membership will be closed until further notice.Any new membership requests received after that time shall be placed on a waiting list. Those already made, or by that deadline, will be processed in due course.
   [No money should be sent with membership requests; that happens only after new members are accepted and confirmed.

This is to safeguard the limited availability of match tickets for current paid up members to that date

Note This restriction does not apply to applications to become Social Members, as these may not request match tickets through the Club.

Note  Existing Members have until Midnight Sunday 14th August to pay their fees.

2. Ballots will become necessary for tickets for some matches – although probably not all. The Ticket Team now have six other Committee Members to assist with an independent ballot, conducted by Zoom for others to observe. The first ballot will be for the Man United v Arsenal Away match.

Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club convened its Annual General Meeting on June 12th.

One important item on the agenda was the formal adoption of Chris Alexander as our next Club Chair.

Many members of Arsenal Scotland will already know much about Chris for his long-time work as the Ticket Officer for Arsenal’s Away matches. Some might even recall his playing days

Chris was the outright choice in the online Ballot of the membership which was closed on June 4th. Of the four candidates standing in an election, he received 54% of the vote on the first round. This was twice as many votes as the next candidate, providing Chris with a strong vote of confidence from the membership.

More details from the Club AGM will follow later.

The full report of the election is with members of the Management Committee. Contact your Regional Rep if you wish to know more. A total of 115 valid votes were cast in the online Ballot on behalf of the membership between 23rd May and Saturday 4th June 2022. This participation by the membership is a much greater than the number ever attending an AGM at which voting has generally taken place.

It was further agreed by the Management Committee that there was a need for a Vice Chair. Linda Collie, having polled second place in the election, was invited to this non- executive post. Happily Linda has agreed to be Arsenal Scotland’s Vice Chair.

Martin O’Donnell

Club Secretary, Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club

Bob Wilson and David Seaman

Arsenal Scotland’s Hon. President takes a starring role in David Seaman’s Podcast

Bob and David tell the story of the role played by Bob when David Seaman at QPR and then recruited by Arsenal.

Both are undoubted Arsenal Legends.

Bob Wilson was the first Arsenal goalkeeper to win The Double

 David ‘Safe Hands’ Seaman was the first Arsenal goalkeeper to win The Double twice!