How will the club engage with supporters, and what has it committed to in its Fan Engagement Plan?
Every EFL club has to publish a Fan Engagement Plan each season and submit it to the League under EFL Regulation 128, which sets minimum standards for how clubs consult their supporters. Barnsley's current plan is the Barnsley FC Fan Engagement Plan 2025/26 (PDF, 11 pages), published on the Fans section of the club website. What follows is a summary of what the club has told the EFL in it.
The commitment
The club agrees to comply in full with Regulation 128. In the Chief Executive's foreword it sets out a vision of an inclusive, interactive fan experience built on integrity, passion and respect, and commits to "engaging, listening to your feedback and ultimately acting on it". It pledges regular communication through FAB meetings, working group sessions, social media, newsletters and fan forums, and to restart the Fan Engagement Group meetings previously held between the club and supporter groups.
It specifically commits to consult supporters on heritage items: anything linked to the club's name, badge and other areas of its history. That commitment now also has legal force under the Independent Football Regulator's licensing conditions (see the entry on the Regulator).
How engagement is structured
- The Fan Advisory Board meets senior club staff regularly through the season, with an agenda compiled from the club, FAB members and the wider fan base; supporters can feed items in for discussion. The club commits to publishing the minutes and outputs of every FAB meeting so all supporters can see what was discussed.
- Fan forums: evening events with senior club staff, open to all supporters, with a capacity of 200. The plan schedules two a season.
- Fan Engagement Group meetings between the club and supporter groups, scheduled twice a season.
- Senior staff attendance: every meeting is attended by at least one member of senior staff, drawn from the Chief Executive, Finance Director, Club Secretary, Head of Ticketing and Head of Catering, with others as needed. The plan is delivered by the Chief Executive and the Head of Ticketing and Fan Engagement.
- Supporter Liaison Officers are a further point of contact and meet the Head of Ticketing and Fan Engagement regularly; anything urgent is passed to the club straight away.
The plan lists the topics the club intends to cover with the FAB: the club's vision and aspirations; its supporter engagement work; equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility; the home and away matchday experience; ticket policies and procedures; the club's work in the community; stadium facilities; how the club communicates with supporters; and the club's traditions and heritage.
What it says changed because of supporters
The plan reviews the 2024/25 season and credits supporter feedback for: making the accessible toilets stoma-friendly after meeting a supporter and Colostomy UK; introducing the flexi ticket membership in response to requests for a Saturday-only season ticket; publishing more information about away fixtures before each game; switching accessible commentary to the local hospital radio for a better and more detailed feed; introducing accessibility passports so stewards can make reasonable adjustments; and reviewing the results of an independent supporter survey run at the end of the season.
The club's promise to keep you informed
The club commits to regular updates on its fan engagement activity, to explaining clearly and promptly any changes to the plan and the reasons for them, and to welcoming feedback on the plan itself. Feedback can be sent to the Supporter Liaison Officers at slo@barnsleyfc.co.uk, to the box office at boxoffice@barnsleyfc.co.uk, to reception@barnsleyfc.co.uk, through the contact form on the club website, or to the FAB at FAB@barnsleyfc.co.uk. The plan also carries a statement of support from the Supporters' Trust.
Things to bear in mind
The plan was written for 2025/26, so some details have moved on: the FAB membership it lists has changed (see About Us for the current board), and FAB meetings moved from monthly to every six weeks in September 2026 (minutes of 8 September 2026). The club has told the FAB it expects to submit a fan engagement plan to the Independent Football Regulator once the Regulator issues a template, and the FAB has suggested the next plan could draw on the stronger plans other EFL clubs have shared through the EFL-wide fan advisory group (minutes of 4 August 2026). The FAB will link the new plan here when it is published.