Rangers FC

Supporters Charter

Mon, Mar 1, 2010

RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB SUPPORTERS CHARTER

Rangers Football Club:
- Consults supporters through regular ongoing communication and quarterly meetings with the Rangers Supporters Assembly, as well as customer focus groups and questionnaires. The President of the Assembly also takes part in the Club's board meetings on a quarterly basis.
- Publicises its position on major policy issues in a clear format in Club publications, on the website and via other available mediums.
- Regularly communicates changes in policy and business practices via the most effective forms of communication, both internal and external. For example, in Rangers Monthly, matchday announcements, Jumbotron advertising, telephone messaging and the Club's email newsletter.
- Continues to develop additional ways to consult key stakeholders including shareholders, sponsors, local authorities and other interested parties.
- Gives the earliest possible notice of any changes to its ticketing policy and the reasons for those changes.
- Has appointed a dedicated Supporters Liaison Manager Jim Hannah who communicates with supporters on a day to day basis. He can be contacted by email at jhannah@rangers.co.uk or by phone on 0141 580 8500.
- The Club undertakes to keep supporters informed of fixture changes by the most costs effective means, e.g. a fixture list at start of the season and ongoing updates via Rangers media, emails to registered fans, emails to supporters' club contacts and matchday advertising.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Rangers Football Club:
- Seeks to achieve the highest level of service to all its supporters.
- Treats all customers in a professional and courteous manner.
- Responds promptly to any contact from a customer via telephone, letter, email or fax.
- Will endeavour to answer 80% of calls within 30 seconds.
- Aims to resolve issues as and when they are brought to our attention and as such encourages supporters to contact the Customer Services team in the first instance with any queries they may have on 0871 702 1972^. If a query has not been resolved to the supporter's satisfaction, we invite supporters to document their thoughts in either email or letter form and address to the Customer Service Supervisor. The Customer Services Supervisor will endeavour to provide a comprehensive response within 10 working days.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Rangers Football Club strives to provide the widest range of quality products and services to its customers:

Catering
- The Club subcontracts its catering service for both the fast food outlets and hospitality areas. The outsourcing within hospitality has seen the introduction of some highly successful and innovative products and facilities which have helped Rangers to remain at the forefront of the football hospitality industry. Rangers Football Club operates tight controls via the implementation of service level agreements and close monitoring of pricing and product policies.
- The Club offers a wide range of hospitality products to meet both individual and corporate budgets providing the highest level of quality and service throughout.

Merchandising
- Our appointed licensee JJB Sports carries details of the next intended change of kit, including the date of change, in JJB stores in advance of each kit launch.
- Our appointed licensee JJB Sports carries out its obligations under the SPL rulebook to prevent price fixing in relation to the sale of replica strips.
- Our appointed licensee JJB Sports offers refunds on merchandise purchased at official JJB Sports stores, and via JJB Sports mail order and e-commerce operations, in accordance with its legal obligations.
- Our appointed licensee JJB Sports will not knowingly buy goods from any supplier or manufacturer who does not comply fully with the labour, safety and other relevant laws of the countries of manufacture with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, overtime, sick pay and holiday entitlement. Our appointed licensee JJB Sports opposes the exploitation of child labour. No orders will be placed from suppliers employing child labour under the age allowed in the country concerned. Legitimate apprenticeships or educational work are acceptable as long as there is no risk to the health or safety of the children concerned. Suppliers must not use forced labour and must practice universal respect for human rights and freedom for all, without discrimination because of race, sex, language, and religion.

Rangers Loyalty and Membership
- The Rangers world-wide alliance supporters' network provides two-way communication and affiliation with the Club to fans world-wide. It comprises four alliances - UK, NARSA, ORSA and the Middle East.
- Rangers Junior Gers club provides fans under the age of 16 with an affiliation with the Club and associated benefits package.
- The Rangers Travel Club allows fairer allocation of European away tickets and improved levels of security to make traveling to and from European games safer and more enjoyable.

RANGERS ACCESSIBILITY
Rangers Football Club is committed to providing wide access to Rangers matches by offering:
- A broad range of season ticket and individual match ticket prices.
- Reduced season ticket prices for juvenile and concession supporters.
- Over 60% reduction on season ticket prices for supporters under 16 years of age before 1^st August each year.
- 30% reduction on season ticket prices for supporters who are over 16 years of age but under 18 and supporters who are over 65 years old before 1 August each year (in the Govan Stand).
- 10% reduction on restricted view season tickets and £5 discount on individual match ticket prices (excluding Celtic games).
- 10% reduction to supporters clubs purchasing season tickets in a designated area.
- A Direct Debit facility, which gives supporters the opportunity to spread the payment of their season ticket in four monthly installments.
- A continuous credit card facility which allows season ticket holders to apply for non season ticket home games in advance, bringing with it additional benefits:
- Guaranteed discount on non season ticket home games
- Priority on Cup semi finals and finals
- No charge when paying by credit card
- Season ticket holders and supporters clubs an allocation of tickets for away SPL matches. All away tickets are balloted between season ticket holders, supporters clubs and hospitality clients / sponsors. The home club determines the cost of these tickets.
- No incremental increase in ticket prices for adult supporters from visiting clubs on comparable seats/ticket prices paid by our own supporters.
- A refund in the event that a match is postponed or abandoned, should the holder not wish to attend the rearranged fixture (tickets will be valid for the rearranged date). A refund will only be paid if the Club receives a refund application within 14 days of the announcement of the rearranged match. If the match is postponed or abandoned after half time no refund will be given.
- Individual match tickets through a wide range of sales channels including the Rangers Ticket Centre, the Ticket Hotline, www.rangers.co.uk and supporters club registration.
- Tickets to visiting clubs according to the rules and ground regulations of football's governing bodies.
- An area of the stadium dedicated to disabled/visually impaired supporters and their carers. The Ticket Centre can be contacted for details of our disabled facilities.
- A dedicated family section allocated exclusively to family groups with a 20% discount on season ticket prices.

RANGERS IN THE COMMUNITY
Rangers Community Programme encompassing Football in the Community, The Rangers Charity Foundation, Follow With Pride and Rangers Education has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate and has had a huge impact in Scotland and beyond.

The programme has attracted a number of top awards for corporate social responsibility including a National Business Award for Scotland and a UK Charity Award, as well as more recently winning a prestigious Community Mark and 'Big Tick'.

Football in the Community -Making a Difference
Ground-breaking Community Football initiatives designed to tackle a wide range of social issues have been applauded by participants, fans, politicians and issues such as health improvement, employability, crime and education are high on the agenda as the Club recognises its responsibility to positively influence the community.

Attendance figures by the end of season 2008/09 broke through the one million barrier, with 275,000 young people and adults taking part each year and over 6,500 every week.

The Football in the Community Programme employs a dedicated team of 12 full-time staff and 70 part-time coaches and their hard work and dedication was acknowledged by the award of the prestigious 'Community Mark' in July 2008, reflecting excellence and innovation across the range of football programmes.

Rangers Soccer Schools
The Rangers Soccer Schools brand continues to grow at an unprecedented rate with an impact which is unsurpassed in Scotland. Rangers Soccer Schools football centres and roadshows continue to develop and spot talented players throughout the UK. In the last three years Rangers Soccer Schools have produced 47 players for the Rangers Youth Development programme, many of whom have made progress through our pathway from the advanced football centres to the elite football centres and finally to the Youth Academy at Murray Park. Most recently, nine young players have progressed from the Elite Centre to the Under 10s age group at the Youth Academy.

The reputation of Rangers Soccer Schools overseas continues to grow and this year our coaches worked with 1000 players overseas in Canada, America, Australia and for the first time Azerbaijan and the Caribbean.

Due to the success of the overseas camps, clubs, teams and individuals are now travelling to Scotland to train and play the Rangers way. This year, the Rangers Homecoming Youth Tournament and Rangers Residential Camps hosted nearly 300 players from countries including North America, Singapore, Australia, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Northern Ireland.

Girls' Football
The Club launched a Rangers ladies' team in July 2008, the latest addition to our growing Girls' and Women's football programme. The team is based alongside the first team squad and the Youth Teams at Murray Park and in season 2009/10 will compete in the Scottish Women's Premier League.

The team has been formed following a close partnership with Paisley City Ladies, which was involved in Rangers Club Development Programme last season and follows the launch of the Under 17s girls' team during season 2007/08.

The Ladies team gained promotion from the First Division to the Scottish Women's Premier League, retaining a 100% League record, with 18 wins from 18 games played. In addition they reached the Final of the Scottish Cup, which was a fantastic achievement in their inaugural year.

Rangers Study Support Centre - Ready2Learn
Rangers Study Support Centre was the first facility of its kind in Scotland and is operated as a partnership between Glasgow City Council Education Services and Rangers Football Club.

Initially launched in the Govan Stand at Ibrox Stadium in November 2001 by then Education Minister Jack McConnell, a brand new £250,000 facility was re-opened in December 2006 in the Broomloan Stand by Mr McConnell in his role as First Minister.

The high-tech multi-media centre is equipped with the latest computers and modern teaching aids, as well as a reading zone, computer games zone and celebrity interview area.

Staffed by qualified teachers, the Centre has developed a curriculum designed to enhance and complement the work of the school whilst also presenting students with new and exciting ways of learning. Debating sessions, interviews with players and tutorials in football business and marketing encourage students to think for themselves and enjoy an exciting, pro-active learning experience outside the usual classroom environment.

In addition to its educational focus, the Centre also runs a series of dance classes to promote health and fitness and offers workshops to tackle issues such as social equality, fair play and sectarianism.

Over 3,000 pupils benefit from The Rangers Study Centre every week, with staff seeking to improve health, literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, as well as improving children's self confidence. The Study Support Centre also provides weekly anti-sectarian workshops and delivers a number of anti-racism workshops throughout the year.

The Study Centre programmes have proved inspirational to thousands of children, with their success becoming a model for similar initiatives around the country.

Indeed, in June 2008, the Centre was recognised with a 'Big Tick' at the Scottish Business in the Community Awards - the most rigorous awards recognising responsible business practice in the UK today. Winners have to demonstrate a strategic and long-term approach to creating partnerships which have a measurable and enduring impact.

Follow With Pride
Rangers fans have so much to be proud of, our rich history is one of Europe's leading sporting institutions, the standards the Club has set from its very beginning and the passionate commitment of our supporters. Pride is what being a Rangers fan is all about.

Rangers is a friendly club open to all and we want everyone to feel welcome when they come to Ibrox Stadium. We also like to be welcomed as true football supporters when we travel away from home.

That's why the Club and supporters joined together to launch Follow With Pride in 2007, a campaign which promotes sporting behaviour at matches and in the community.

Follow With Pride succeeded the successful Pride Over Prejudice campaign which had been running for the previous five years and was developed to help eradicate inappropriate behaviour.

Follow With Pride builds on the success of the Pride Over Prejudice initiative and highlights everything that is positive about Rangers - our great supporters, tremendous work in the community and the standards we set across the Club.

We are all part of the Rangers family and every one of us has a role to play. It is important all fans believe they are ambassadors for the Club and help protect and enhance Rangers reputation.

With this in mind supporters are asked to:
-Sing the songs which celebrate the Club, its honours and achievements both past and present
-Wear recognised Rangers strips and traditional team colours
-Display legitimate flags and banners
-Avoid gestures and salutes that could be taken as offensive

Regulations introduced by the SFA and SPL for all domestic matches mean that 'unacceptable conduct' by supporters will lead to clubs being penalised.

If you hear of someone behaving in an inappropriate manner, putting the Club at risk, report them anonymously or otherwise.

Supporters can write in confidence to Follow With Pride, Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, G51 2XD or telephone the incident hotline on 0871 702 1972^.

Fans who do behave in an inappropriate manner, bringing the Club into disrepute, will face limited or lifetime bans, loss of season ticket or arrest by the Police. Bans will apply to supporters clubs as well as individuals.

^Calls cost 10ppm from a BT landline, mobile and other providers' charges may vary.