What is the Everton fans 27 Campaign about?

While Everton’s search for a new manager continues, there is a real worry amongst the Evertonians that the owner, Farhad Moshiri, and the main board employees consisting of Bill Kenwright, Denise Barrett-Baxendale and recent recruit Graeme Sharp will not be up to the task as recent manager failures have proved.

Even a few weeks before Everton fans had already planned to show there displeasure at Moshiri and the board with the creation of the 27 Campaign.

The mis-management of Everton Football Club from behind the scenes has been the subject of this constructive fans campaign which was started just before the game at Brentford earlier this season at the end of November. A banner was seen in the away end at that match and again at the Merseyside Derby a few days later at Goodison Park highlighting the lack of a trophy for 27 years, the last being the FA Cup win in 1995, and asking the Everton hierarchy to follow the ‘Nil Satis Nisi Optimum’ latin motto of the club more closely.

This campaign gathered momentum and at the Arsenal home game at the start of December a walkout of fans was organised in the 27th minute to highlight the campaign. While most fans did stay in there seats, a number did head for the concourse and it achieved quite extensive media coverage.

Since then while many outside of the core Everton fanbase may well believe this has disappeared, the campaign has actually been collaborating with many fan groups and has come together to launch under the @27yearscampaign Twitter handle as you can see below:

In this article we will go through each aim of the 27 Campaign which asks Farhad Moshiri to work more closely with it’s shareholders, fans and partners.

It is not asking for Moshiri to leave his post as we understand the financial input he has had since coming into the club in 2015 and is a crucial time for the club with the move to the new stadium on Bramley Moore Dock imminent.

What are the aims of the Everton fans 27 Campaign?

27 Campaign: What is it?

The campaign highlights the lack of any forward progress under Farhad Moshiri in his near 6 years as part of the board and then as majority shareholder, while also remembering it is 27 years since Everton’s last major trophy which was the FA Cup in 1995.

Under his stewardship Everton have had 5 different managers over these 6 years, which is soon to be six after the sacking of Rafa Benitez, a failed Director of Football, not managing the near £685 million spent in this time in a competent fashion.

The aim of the campaign is not to drive Moshiri out of the club as it recognises his investment, while also overseeing a vital next stage of the club’s development in the move to a new stadium on Bramley Moore Dock.

The fans behind the campaign wish Moshiri to re-visit his values and have a working ethos that follows the club latin motto on the shirts of ‘Nil Satis Nisi Optimum’, which means ‘nothing but the best is good enough’.

It does ask if other current board members are viable to continue in their positions as some, like Bill Kenwright, have been involved for many of these 27 years now. The campaign would like to know what current board members job roles consist of and who analyses that these roles are carried out to benefit the clubs needs?

Fans aim to be fluid and modern about how the campaign goes forward as seen at the Arsenal game at Goodison Park in early December. Actions by the campaign will vary and will combine with other fan group protests if required, while asking relevant questions to Moshiri and the board.

The 3 main aims asking for Moshiri to change the way he runs Everton

27 Campaign: How we want the club to change

There are three simple words that the 27 Campaign brings to the attention of Farhad Moshiri as the key to changing the management of Everton from the top: Engage; Listen; Act.

Engage:

Moshiri must engage with the fans and shareholders better. Official club communications have got worse since this regime took over. This has been highlighted publicly with Moshiri’s continued public statements coming out via Jim White and his TalkSport show.

Recently this was the case the morning after the Merseyside Derby defeat in early December. Fans are getting very agitated with this as it seems journalists like White are more important than the fanbase. The campaign also asks Moshiri to meet and discuss club issues with fans or via official club channels.

Listen:

The upcoming Everton yearly AGM is coming up shortly, but already Moshiri and the board have strongly hinted this will be via video link only.

This would severely restrict the ability of minority shareholders to get a view across as the agenda could well be manipulated to suit the board.

These AGM’s are at present pretty much the only voice fans have to get there views across to the people in charge.

Also there needs to be a clear communication bridge between the club, the fans and the national media, rumours are that David Prentice, the Liverpool Echo’s former chief football correspondent and good friend of Bill Kenwright, will take on a major communications role at the club shortly.

Act:

To achieve any success it is clear that Moshiri has to change and get the board to change too. The 27 campaign has asked Moshiri several questions, seen below, to action and review to start the process to make Everton a force in the Premier League:

As we are seeing in the current manager search following Rafa Benitez’s sacking, there seems to be no succession plan in place. In any business you should never assume someone won’t leave, like Carlo Ancelotti in the summer, or not deliver what you have asked, like Benitez, and should have a tentative plan at least if this happens.

Potential new manager names to take over have been thrown around and you don’t even know if Moshiri or Kenwright are actually making the decisions.

An example of this is they wanted Roberto Martinez back, which would cause uproar amongst the fans, but didn’t even check if the Belgian FA would give permission first.

The 27 Campaign wants a clearer direction and process going forward from those in charge as clearly how they have worked and made decisions in the past few years has not worked at all.

How the 27 Campaign can take action to highlight it’s aims

27 Campaign: Actions we can take

Previous action has been seen already with the 27 Campaign in the walk out of a minority of fans against Arsenal at Goodison Park in early December, plus the banners seen in the two previous games at Brentford and at home to Liverpool.

Now the 27 campaign aims to action first of all via re-asserting the message and gaining more trust from sceptical Evertonians. First was to pool all the opinions and different supporter groups into one, which has been achieved with the @27yearscampaign Twitter account.

The key point the campaign wants to make to fellow Everton fans is they fully expect a lot of fans to be against the campaign and any action. It’s not forcing anyone to do anything and fully respects other fans views. It also does not want to lose Moshiri’s ownership at this time, the campaign would rather work with Moshiri and develop a better relationship.

The 27 campaign would more support a change in board members and bringing in more football business minded people rather than ex-Everton connected people where the heart rules the head.

A strategic review of the club has been asked for by Moshiri himself, however when people like Graeme Sharp are brought in as a non-executive you have to question how independent and useful the review will be?

This Thursday sees the 27 Campaign have their first open communication in the way of a Twitter Space at 8pm. All Evertonians have been asked to join to listen and find out more about the campaign.

There have also been confirmed rumours from one supporter group, The Originals 1878, of a sit in protest after the Aston Villa game this Saturday, which the 27 Campaign have backed as the views of both are very similar:

Going forward the campaign wants to be fluid and have many different types of action to ensure the message gets across from all angles to Moshiri and the Everton board.

The 27 Campaign will hope it doesn’t have to change to the 28 Campaign and that will only be the case if the FA Cup is won at Wembley in May. Without a Manager, a Director of Football, a Head of Medicine and a head of Scouting currently this change would seem inevitable at the moment.