Premier League Fan Survey results show overwhelming support for Everton’s COVID-19 support
Everton Football Club’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been widely commended by supporters in the latest Premier League Fan Survey, released as the Club marks a year since the launch of its acclaimed outreach and engagement campaign, Blue Family.
Now in its 25th year, the independent survey is commissioned by the Premier League and analyses the views of fans from all top-flight clubs to assess and benchmark off-field performance.
Evertonians gave the Club unprecedented backing in all five areas evaluated by the national survey – sentiment, custodianship, communication, community and COVID-19 response – with Everton achieving the Club’s best ever results in the 25 years of the survey and performing between 11 and 19 percentage points above the Premier League average across the categories.
Questions focused on Everton’s COVID-19 response received incredibly high scores from supporters, with 91 of every 100 fans surveyed hailing the Club’s actions – 19 percentage points above the league standard. In addition to supporting nearly 30,000 people as part of the Blue Family outreach campaign, the Club also pledged to pay all 2019/20 matchday and non-matchday casual workers impacted by the outbreak while players, the manager, coaching staff and senior executives accepted a wage deferral.
The results of the survey showed 94 per cent of fans were impressed by the Club’s conduct in response to the outbreak (21 points above average), 92 per cent were impressed by the conduct of the players (13 points above average), 90 per cent of respondents said the Club had “supported its fans” throughout the pandemic (26 points above average) and 92 per cent (24 points above average) saying the Club had “supported its local community” during the same period.
The leadership and custodianship of the Club continues to be strongly backed by supporters. Everton’s rating of 84 per cent compared favourably against the Premier League average of 71 per cent, with 95 per cent of fans feeling the Club’s leadership “maintains the ethos and traditions” of the football club, while 93 per cent felt positively about Everton’s fan engagement.
Other highlights within an overwhelmingly positive set of results for Everton included 92 per cent of fans having a “positive attitude” towards the Club, 91 per cent of respondents believing the Club has “a long-term vision”, 99 per cent stating the Club makes a “significant contribution to the local community” and 84 per cent – a massive 30 points more than the league average – declaring Everton is a club that listens to its supporters.
Chief Executive Officer, Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale, said: “We are immensely proud of the results of the Premier League Fan Survey. From the Owner and the Board to the Executive Team and right the way through the Club, everybody is very much aware of our roles as custodians of Everton. It is the fans that are the lifeblood of the Club. It is the fans that make ours such a special club. And so, to have received such incredible backing for the work we are doing on their behalf is very humbling.”
BID ON MATCH WORN SHIRTS
EFDN has developed a professional fundraiser in partnership with MatchWornShirt including a free club-dedicated auction page, item collection, payment handling, promotional material and advertising on social media. In these distant times, fans can support their club, league or FA (foundation) by bidding on match worn shirts and additional exclusive items. The first auction is already online: Bid on Everton FC shirts from the FA Cup match Everton FC – Manchester City (0:2). All proceeds go to Everton in the Community.
