Hull City Supporters Trust

The minutes of the latest Board Meeting and the Extraordinary Board Meeting to approve the Annual Report and Accounts are now available on the website.

HCST Meeting Minutes (hullcitysupporterstrust.com)

Voting for the HCST AGM & Board Elections closed on 4th June, 2022.

The votes have been counted and the results can now be announced.

1. The Accounts are available for review by everyone Do you agree to waive the requirement for an audit?
   • Accepted with a 96.6% “YES” vote
2. Do you agree to the appointment of Anthony Northgraves, and the re-election of Russell Anson and Pete Fleming to the Trust Board?
   • Anthony Northgraves – elected with a 98.34% “YES” vote
   • Russell Anson – re-elected with a 95.0% “YES” vote
   • Pete Fleming – re-elected with a 100% “YES” vote.

The Board would like to congratulate all candidates and welcomes Ant to his new role on the Board. Roles and Responsibilities of the Directors will be decided by the Board at the next Meeting which is due to be held on Monday 13th June, 2022.

Our thanks to all members who participated in the election

Within our first meeting with Acun, Tan and Jim we were asked how can the Club get people back to the stadium and watching City. With this in mind, we created a survey and launched it to the Hull City fanbase, not just our members. The survey was amplified over social media by the Club, members and local radio.

Positively, almost a thousand fans responded. Besides collating fan demographic data we were interested in the fans view of the following:

Attendance of matches
Moving away fans / City fans behind both goals
Safe standing
Current membership scheme
What would stop fans attending
Supporter committee meetings

We have presented the findings to the club, who were very appreciative of the information and have promised to study it further.

The full survey document can be downloaded here.

Hull City Supporters Trust have supported Hull City Ladies for five years as player sponsors currently the longest serving player sponsor for the Club.

The Ladies are not affiliated to Hull City AFC and therefore have to survive on local organisations and businesses generosity.

This season has been a tough one for The Ladies with a very young squad –playing in a tough league, often against opposition who do enjoy being owned by or closely affiliated too their local mens clubs.

On Sunday 10^th April Hull City Supporters Trust will be Hull City Ladies match sponsor for the ladies match against Huddesfield. Match sponsorship being  something that has been carried over from last seasons Covid interruption when the Ladies League ended abruptly.

It will be great to see Trust Members supporting the girls at Hall Road Rangers on Sunday, members will have a 20% discount on tickets, just use the Code “ OneCarolThomas”.

Why do we mention Carol Thomas? Well Carol is finally receiving the respect and recognition she deserves as the first Woman to win 50 England Caps and she’s still a stalwart for the Ladies Game locally, as Hull City Ladies Club Ambassador, as well at further afield.

Hull City Supporters Trust will be recognising Carols achievements on Sunday but those details will follow very soon!

We can confirm that our  Annual General Meeting will take place on Tuesday 10th May 2022 via Zoom.

We can also confirm that 5 Board positions will be available for election or re-election at the AGM. 

Any fully paid up member aged 16 or over can be considered for nomination but will need to be nominated by 2 other fully paid up members. It is recommended that any members potentially interested fully read and understand the Trust Election Policy, (available here ), and pay particular attention to points 13-22 of that Policy.

As you will be aware, 2021 proved to be a very busy and influential year for the Trust Board, which at times led to feedback generally positive, (and occasionally negative) and the change of ownership at the start of 2022 bodes well for the future, so if you feel you have the desire and capabilities to enhance the Board and drive HCST to greater heights, then get involved.

We welcome applications from all Members fulfilling the criteria above and taking an active role in one of the many sub-groups we have in place working on our key areas of focus and development.

The Election Nomination form can be accessed via the link here for Word and here for PDF and needs to be received by our Secretary by Tuesday 12th April 2022 (So you have plenty of time to consider applying).

Should any Member wish to receive further details of the role and activities as a Trust Director, then please drop an e-mail to secretary@hullcityst.com or come and find us prior to any Hull City home game in the William Gemmell Social Club on Anlaby Road

In an early positive sign of changing times, Trust Chairman Graham Cannon and Vice Chairman Russell Anson were very happy to meet with new Club Chairman Acun Ilicali, Tan Kesler & Jim Rodwell, along with representatives of the Official Supporters Club and Senior Tigers, before the Preston game on Saturday.

Acun talked about his background and re-itereated how he wanted fans to be integral to the club moving forward. He thanked the people of Hull for the warmth of his welcome.

Acun was very keen for our ideas to help get fans back into the stadium.

It is hoped to have another meeting in 3/4 weeks when more specific details can be discussed.
In advance of this meeting we plan to ask members/fans for their views in how to improve the match-day experience to get fans back via a survey. More details to follow.

Hull City’s season so far can certainly be described as a ‘rollercoaster’. After a very poor start we had an excellent November when we won 4 out of 5 games. December started with two draws and then an unfortunate defeat to Nottingham Forest (after a very unique interpretation of what constitutes a ‘foul’) Covid cancelled the rest of the December programme and the team still didn’t look fully match fit against Blackpool, going down to a 1-0 defeat. January opened with a FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Everton, live on the BBC and our potential new owner Acun Ilicali in the ground. The lads put on an admirable performance, scoring within the first minute, but eventually loosing out to an Andros Townsend goal in Extra time. Everyone had a bad day at the office against Stoke, the highlight of the game was the performance of D’Margio Wright-Phillips on his league debut. (You know that you are getting old when you realise that Ian Wright is his grandfather..) What can we say about the Blackburn game last Wednesday? The match had almost got lost in the media frenzy surrounding another event that day (more of that later) Blackburn came into the game lying 3rd in the league and on the back of a10 unbeaten run, but apart for a 10-15 spell of concerted pressure after half-time, a neutral would not know that there are 16 league positions between the teams and on another day we could have run out 4-0 winners. So on to league-leaders Bournemouth on Saturday and with the current spirit in the dressing room we wouldn’t be surprised to get at least a point. Club Takeover Completed On Wednesday 19th it was announced that the long-running takeover of Hull City had been completed. The club have been acquired by Turkish media company Acun Medya Group and its enigmatic owner Acun Ilicali. Acun was introduced to the fans at the MKM Stadium before the start of the Blackburn game and was given a rapturous welcome by the fans, many waving Turkish flags. The Trust welcomes Acun and his team to Hull and look forward to working with them in the future.  HCST Board Meeting. The Trust Board held a Board Meeting on Tuesday 10th January via Zoom.  The minutes of this (and previous) meetings can be read here. Partnership with Hull City Ladies renewed The Trust are proud to announce that we will be working with Hull City ladies for the fifth consecutive season. This season the Trust will be sponsoring  Faith Martin and will be a match day sponsor at one of the Tigresses FA Women’s National League games. Further information on the planned events can be found here on the Hull City ladies website. Amber Ribbon Campaign. The Trust are planning to relaunch the Amber Ribbon Campaign. The campaign was originally planned in August 2020 to help bring together the very divided fanbase following the relegation to League One and issues with the then custodians of the club. The new owners have talked a lot about how fans should be at the heart of the club and we believe that the Amber Ribbon Campaign fits in with and will help these aims. More details will be released shortly.

Hull City Ladies
The Tigresses are finding life tough in The FA WNL Northern Premier Division, currently lying in bottom position.

On Sunday (23rd) they are away to Brighouse Town Ladies, before returning to face Middlesborough Ladies  at Haworth Park on Sunday 30th january – kick off 2 p.m.

More details on fixtures and other activities can be found on their website here.

Asset of Community Value
The Trust can confirm that the registration of the MKM Stadium as an Asset of Community value has been renewed by Hull City Council.

An Asset of Community Value (ACV) is land or property of importance to a local community which is subject to additional protection from development under the Localism Act 2011. Voluntary and community organisations can nominate an asset to be included on their local authority’s register of asset of community value.

In essence it means that if there are any plans to sell the stadium , then the Trust must be informed.

More details of ACV’s in Hull can be found here on the HCC website.

“The likes of Hull City” blog.
More wise words from the excellent (Sir) Charlie Palmer.

You can read his musings here.

Follow the blog on twitter here.

Tigers Down Under

The latest podcast from our antipodean friends. Available on YouTube .

Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

To Hull and Back 
A podcast discussing all things City related hosted by Ant, Will & Joel.

The podcasts are available here on Spotify.

Follow them here on Twitter.

Wise Men Say
An up and coming podcast from City fans Alex and Jon.

Podcast links available here. Please follow them on Twitter.

Tigers Tigers Blah Blah Blah
The latest Podcast from Luke & Richard.

Podcast links available here. Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

HCST’s Partners.
In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at two HCST Community Partners –  Hull and East Yorkshire Mind  & Dementia Friendly East Riding.

Our first partner of the week is Hull and East Yorkshire Mind .

Hull and East Yorkshire Mind is a local mental health charity, working so that everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.

The impact of mental illness can be devastating. Not only for those directly affected but also their families, friends, colleagues and loved ones.

Hull and East Yorkshire Mind helps people improve their mental health. They work with individuals to support them in a way that works for them- building confidence and social networks, helping people establish a safe place to live and call home, helping people to find hope and to recover.

They also work to prevent mental ill health through education and prevention work, and campaign to challenge the stigma and discrimination that sometimes occurs with mental health problems.

Mind have linked with the English Football League to promote awareness about mental health, and HCST have partnered with the Hull and East Yorkshire branch to tie in with that.

More information about Hull and East Yorkshire Mind can be found on their website They are also active on Facebook & Twitter.

Our second partner of the week is Dementia Friendly East Riding.

Would you like to know more about Dementia?

There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to soar to 2 million by 2051.

One person will develop dementia every three minutes.

It effects so many more people though; in particular the loved ones of those diagnosed. If you are not affected by it now, chances are you will soon know  someone who is.

Dementia Friendly East Riding (DFER) is a charitable organisation which aims to raise awareness and understanding of dementia, and provide activities to support people living with dementia.

DFER is pleased to work in partnership with HCST, and is happy to assist any HCST members and organisations with training and advice on how we can all become dementia friendly.

Hold the front page!
HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.

These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So, if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby, please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested, please email us here.

The Trust would like to extend a warm welcome to our new owner Acun Ilıcalı and his team and look forward to working with them in the future for the benefit of our members and the wider Hull City fanbase.

A meeting was held between the Club and the Trust, together with a representative of the OSC regarding issues in the East Stand.

The reasons for the increased security presence is a safety issue. Fans were seen to be migrating from other areas of the stand into E2 and E3 and therefore exceeding the capacity of those areas. There had also been issues, in these areas with fans reporting to the Club that they and their children were increasingly feeling intimidated. They had also received a number of complaints of injuries being sustained in these areas due to the overcrowding.

A visit by the Sports Ground Safety Authority had also noted these problems. Ultimately if these issues were not dealt with they have the authority to restrict ground capacity, or, in extreme circumstances,  close the ground.

The Club therefore has introduced checks to prevent the migration of fans and, after concerns were raised, acknowledged that stewarding has not always been up to the standards they would wish for. It has therefore introduced further steward training, with the aim to increase awareness of the skills required at a football stadium, as opposed to other venues.

We were assured these measures are under constant review and will be scaled back when deemed safe to do so. This has already been demonstrated by memberships and match by match tickets being back on sale in these areas.

The Trust fully support the club in matters of fan safety, and will continue to pass on fans concerns to the club.

In view of the ongoing issues in the East Stand, the club have invited us to a meeting on Tuesday with themselves and the SMC to explain the rationale behind their decisions. We will report back after this meeting and ask for members feedback.

Lets be generous & just say that City have had a less than stellar start to the season.. The feelgood factor after the opening day victory at Preston was soon dashed by a combination of defensive naivety and the inability to put the ball in the net at the other end. Granted the first few games have been against teams who you would expect to be challenging for promotion or thereabouts, so hopefully we can pick up a few more victories in the coming weeks. The victory against Middlesborough (with an altered formation) will hopefully have steadied the ship, and the return of Honeyman & Huddlestone should help. On to Huddersfield and with a following of over 2,000 fans City will be hoping to send them home happy with 3 points. Supporters Committee The Trust are pleased to announce that we will be attending future Supporters Committe meetings. Chairman Graham Cannon and Secretary Jean Cannon recently met with Ehab Allam at the MKM Stadium when the matter was discussed. Details of these meetings will be announced by the club in the near future. HCST Board Meeting. The Trust Board held a Board Meeting on Monday 20th September at the William Gemmell and via Zoom.  The minutes of this (and previous) meetings can be read here. Pledgeball Huddersfield Town Supporters Association have designated their game with us as a ‘Pledgeball’ fixture.Pledgeball is  an organisation that encourages football fans “to make small, easy changes to their lifestyle to collectively have a big impact on the planet.” Further information on the planned events can be found here on the HTSA website.More details on Pledgeball can be found here. FSA Network Elections. Trust Board member Geoff Bielby is standing for election to the Championship Network of the FSA National Council.Details of the Nomination & Election process can be found here on the FSA website. Hull City Ladies The Tigresses are finding life tough in The FA WNL Northern Premier Division, currently lying in 11th position.On Sunday (17th) they face WBA Ladies at Haworth Park – kick off 2 p.m.More details on fixtures and other activities can be found on their website here. *** Stop Press *** We will be shortly be sharing some news about a project which we are working on with Hull City Ladies – watch this space.. Tigers Trust Congratulations to the Tigers Trust on their recent ‘A Question of Sport’ event! The evening was most enjoyable, with many who attended hoping that it will become an annual event – over £3,000 was raised on the evening to allow them to help support even more local people. Details of the great work which they do can be found on the Tigers Trust website here.  “The likes of Hull City” blog. Introducing a new blog on all matters related to Hull City – written by the excellent (Sir) Charlie Palmer. You can read his musings here.Follow the blog on twitter here. Tigers Down Under The latest podcast from our antipodean friends. Available on YouTube . Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter. To Hull and Back  A podcast discussing all things City related hosted by Ant, Will & Joel. The podcasts are available here on Spotify.Follow them here on Twitter. Wise Men Say An up and coming podcast from City fans Alex and Jon. Podcast links available here. Please follow them on Twitter. Tigers Tigers Blah Blah Blah The latest Podcast from Luke & Richard. Podcast links available here.  Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter. HCST’s Partners. In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at two HCST Community Partners –  Hull and East Yorkshire Mind  & Dementia Friendly East Riding. Our first partner of the week is Hull and East Yorkshire Mind . Hull and East Yorkshire Mind is a local mental health charity, working so that everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect. The impact of mental illness can be devastating. Not only for those directly affected but also their families, friends, colleagues and loved ones.Hull and East Yorkshire Mind helps people improve their mental health. They work with individuals to support them in a way that works for them- building confidence and social networks, helping people establish a safe place to live and call home, helping people to find hope and to recover.They also work to prevent mental ill health through education and prevention work, and campaign to challenge the stigma and discrimination that sometimes occurs with mental health problems. Mind have linked with the English Football League to promote awareness about mental health, and HCST have partnered with the Hull and East Yorkshire branch to tie in with that. More information about Hull and East Yorkshire Mind can be found on their website They are also active on  Facebook & Twitter. Our second partner of the week is Dementia Friendly East Riding. Would you like to know more about Dementia?There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to soar to 2 million by 2051.One person will develop dementia every three minutes.It effects so many more people though; in particular the loved ones of those diagnosed. If you are not affected by it now, chances are you will soon know  someone who is. Dementia Friendly East Riding (DFER) is a charitable organisation which aims to raise awareness and understanding of dementia, and provide activities to support people living with dementia. DFER is pleased to work in partnership with HCST, and is happy to assist any HCST members and organisations with training and advice on how we can all become dementia friendly. Hold the front page! HCST are looking for new contributors to our website. These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So, if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby, please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested, please email us here.

So, five games into the new Championship season, and as usual with city it’s been ‘interesting’ do far… The win away at Preston was a great boost – especially to have crowds back in the stadium, but three defeats in a row was a reality check.Losing to QPR (against whom on another day we could have gained a point ) & Fulham is not surprising – we are not really in competition with these teams this season & the fact that they are 3rd & 1st in the league is no surprise. The defeat against a ‘weakened’ Derby is harder to accept – these are the teams we need to be beating, but this game showed the benefit of having an experienced back line.  The point against Bournemouth was much better – a brighter performance all round, Tyler Smith looking good on his debut & special mention has to be made of Di’Shon Bernard – he’s going to be a name to remember. On to Swansea on Saturday, hopefully the break will have benefitted the  players after an intense start to the season & hopefully some of our injured will be able to return… #HerGameToo The Trust fully support the aims of the #HerGameToo campaign to fight sexism in football. We are currently in discussions with #HerGameToo about the best way forward in promoting their aims.More details to follow… HCST Fans Survey The Trust are currently conducting a survey of Hull City fans to measure how we are doing in representing fans, and what we could be doing better. Details are available here on our website.Alternatively you can go directly to the survey here – It will only take about 5 minutes of your time.Please fill it in so we can better know how to serve you. HCST Board Meeting. The Trust Board held a Board Meeting on Monday 23rd August at the William Gemmell and via Zoom.  The minutes of this (and previous) meetings can be read here. Safe Standing Pilots Expanded The government have announced that more grounds will be added to the Safe Standing Pilot programme Ministers will instruct the regulator, the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA), to choose early adopters for trials of standing areas in the Premier League and Championship as soon as possible.More details are available from the FSA website here.

Hull City Ladies
The Tigresses are back in action!

They are currently in 11th position in The FA WNL Northern Premier Division, after a difficult start to the season.

More details on fixtures and other activities can be found on their website here.

Tigers Trust
Congratulations to the Tigers Trust on celebrating 30 years in the Community!

Details of the great work which they do can be found on the Tigers Trust website here. 

“The likes of Hull City” blog.
Introducing a new blog on all matters related to Hull City – written by the excellent (Sir) Charlie Palmer.

You can read his musings here.

Follow the blog on twitter here.

Tigers Down Under

The latest podcast from our antipodean friends. Available on YouTube .

Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

To Hull and Back 
A podcast discussing all things City related hosted by Ant, Will & Joel.

The podcasts are available here on Spotify.

Follow them here on Twitter.

Wise Men Say
An up and coming podcast from City fans Alex and Jon.

Podcast links available here. Please follow them on Twitter.

Tigers Tigers Blah Blah Blah
The latest Podcast from Luke & Richard.

Podcast links available here. Please follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

HCST’s Partners.
In this week’s Partner of the Week section, we have an in-focus look at two HCST Community Partners –  Hull and East Yorkshire Mind  & Dementia Friendly East Riding.

Our first partner of the week is Hull and East Yorkshire Mind .

Hull and East Yorkshire Mind is a local mental health charity, working so that everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.

The impact of mental illness can be devastating. Not only for those directly affected but also their families, friends, colleagues and loved ones.

Hull and East Yorkshire Mind helps people improve their mental health. They work with individuals to support them in a way that works for them- building confidence and social networks, helping people establish a safe place to live and call home, helping people to find hope and to recover.

They also work to prevent mental ill health through education and prevention work, and campaign to challenge the stigma and discrimination that sometimes occurs with mental health problems.

Mind have linked with the English Football League to promote awareness about mental health, and HCST have partnered with the Hull and East Yorkshire branch to tie in with that.

More information about Hull and East Yorkshire Mind can be found on their website They are also active on Facebook & Twitter.

Our second partner of the week is Dementia Friendly East Riding.

Would you like to know more about Dementia?

There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, with numbers set to soar to 2 million by 2051.

One person will develop dementia every three minutes.

It effects so many more people though; in particular the loved ones of those diagnosed. If you are not affected by it now, chances are you will soon know  someone who is.

Dementia Friendly East Riding (DFER) is a charitable organisation which aims to raise awareness and understanding of dementia, and provide activities to support people living with dementia.

DFER is pleased to work in partnership with HCST, and is happy to assist any HCST members and organisations with training and advice on how we can all become dementia friendly.

Hold the front page!
HCST are looking for new contributors to our website.

These can be articles about football in general, all things Hull City or match reports. So, if you’re a sports journalist in the making or just fancy giving it a go as a hobby, please let us know – you don’t need to be a professional – all articles will be welcome. There’s no requirement to produce words every week or month, just as and when you are able to. If you are interested, please email us here.

We are using the international break as an opportunity to survey our Members ( & non-Members) on how we are doing in various areas and where we need to improve.

Please spare the time (approx. 5 minutes) to fill in the survey so that we can use the information to allow us to better serve you moving forward.

The survey can be completed here:

A big thank you to all of our members who recently participated in our on-line AGM.

Hopefully next year we can be back to the William Gemmel to meet in person, but we will look at some form of ‘hybrid’ AGM to allow members from a distance to participate.

We asked  for your feedback by voting on 3 points:

1. The Accounts are available for review by everyone Do you agree to waive the requirement for an audit?

This was passed with 50 votes for, 0 votes against

2. Do you approve the change to Rule 65 as specified in the Agenda?

This was passed with 50 votes for, 0 votes against

3. Do you agree to the appointment of Peter Thornes and Chris Stern (presently Co-Opted Board members), and the re-election of Geoff Bielby to the Trust Board?

The voting was as follows:

Chris Stern had been elected with 50 votes for, 0 votes against

Peter Thornes had been elected with 49 votes for, 0 votes against  and one abstention.

Geoff Bielby had been re-elected with 48 votes for, 1 votes against  and one abstention.

 No questions were raised.

Members feedback is extremely important and we would ask that you contact us at any time should you have any queries.