Saints have today announced what they are calling their "Sustainable Strategy" a commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for the club, the fans and the community that surrounds it. Find out just what it means here.

Southampton Football Club seems to have turned full circle in the last 7 years since then CEO/Chairman, but not owner Nicola Cortese was wrested from power at St Mary's.

Back then most fans saw only the veneer, on the pitch under Mauricio Pochettino everything appeared fine, but off it was a club in chaos, with little income generated from sponsorship, marketing and advertising etc, it was a club being run on sand with senior executives coming and going in quick succession being unable to work in a totalitarian atmosphere and most of the staff scared to walk down the corridors of St Mary's in case they bumped into Cortese who had become more Roman Emperor than Chief Executive.

Even Katharina Liebherr hadn't a clue what was really going on in the club she now owned, she had two choices, the first was to walk away and let the club go into decline or do something about the situation, luckily for us she chose to do the latter, of course Markus Liebherr is seen as the man who saved the club back in 1979, but make no mistake Katharina Liebherr saved it a second time by deciding to complete the work her Father had started.

Since then the club has been more stable and has achieved relative success in the Premier League, seeing Cup Finals, semi finals and a couple of Europa League campaigns.

For some that has not been enough, but when you consider that we are now the 8th longest serving club in the Premier League in terms of consecutive years in the division amazing since this is only our 9th season back, it shows how far we have come.

Since 2014 the club has been restructured behind the scenes and then restructured again after the arrival of Gao as majority shareholder and de facto owner, the worsening trade relations between China and the Western World has meant that he has been unable to get money out of China and achieve some of the plans that he had for the club when he arrived, but if Gao left tomorrow, he should be thanked for keeping some stability in the club, perhaps he did not turn out to be the owner many fans hoped for, but so far he has done us no wrong.

Southampton Football Club are now a multi million pound company, when you reach that level it is not easy to keep everyone happy and there have been casualties along the way as the Leadership Gau put in place with Martin Semmens running the club have not been faultless, at times they have struggled to grasp what a football club is and means to the fans and they have made mistakes, but I have to say that in over 30 years of dealing with the club since The Ugly Inside "gave the fans a voice" as our slogan said back in 1988, the current executives may not be perfect, but they are trying and they do appreciate that it is the supporters that keep a club alive and without them it is nothing.

Will they get it right ? I don't know, but they do at least listen and learn some of the time and I don't think I have ever been able to say that about those who have wielded power at Saints in the past 30 years or so.

They therefore have moved forward from the days of Cortese where we had no real income aside from the Premier League prize money and TV money, to a club that is building foundations.

Today they have launched a strategy called The Halo Effect, here are the key points from it tell us what you think in the comments section below, because believe me, the club are watching and listening.

Here is the club's official press release below.

Southampton Football Club today launches its sustainability strategy, The Halo Effect, a commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for our club, our fans and our community.

The Halo Effect has a dual meaning, inspired by our crest and the club's heritage, whilst also signalling the combined positive impact we hope our numerous initiatives will have on our people and community.

WE RUN A GOOD BUSINESS

We always play the right way, on and off the pitch, treating everyone the way we would wish to be treated ourselves.

We are committed to running a club that prioritises safety, ethics, equality, and diversity. We believe in good governance so that we comply with the regulations that apply to us.

Sustainability isn’t just about the environment, it’s about our people and partners too. That’s why we’ve put in place initiatives like The Positive Impact Pledge, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs to fulfil their potential with a tax-free grant of £20,000.

To find out more about how we’re working to create a club that helps our employees and partners achieve more, read on.

WE PROTECT OUR PLANET

Now more than ever, our future depends on the sustainable work we do today.
That’s why we’ve been working to reduce our impact on the planet through programmes like The Home Grown Initiative that will see trees planted in our community and protected around the world. Our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Click through to find out more about all of the positive changes we’re making to become more environmentally sustainable.

WE ARE A GOOD CITIZEN

Working alongside Saints Foundation, we aim to be recognised as a key partner in fuelling the sustained success and health of the city and its residents.

This commitment to making a positive impact in people’s lives has already been in action since the launch of the award-winning outreach and engagement initiative, Saints As One, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020.

Find out more about the positive impact the club making in the local community

WE GIVE OUR FANS A VOICE

Our fans are at the heart of everything we do and we’re working hard to achieve positive fan sentiment from over 80% of our supporter base.

As well as giving our supporters an opportunity to speak directly to key figures within the club through our long-running Saints Voice panel meetings and Fan Forums, we’re also launching the Saints Supporter Charter to ensure that our fans come first in everything we do.

This is the official Press Release, although the images used are from the Ugly Inside's own stock, if you want to find out more visit the Club's Official website and go to the page explaining it in more detail using the link below

https://www.southamptonfc.com/sustainability

Photo: Action Images

HythePeer added 09:45 - Jan 25 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Saintsforeverj added 09:57 - Jan 25 Very impressed with Semmens and obviously Ralph. I do feel more "listened to" as a loyal fan by the leadership and would encourage this. Semmens speak honestly and in a more open tone, which fans appreciate. I have come round to the idea of achieving success "The Southampton Way". 72 million on Pepe or 50 million on Werner? No need. We can find top players like Diallo, Armstrong, Adams for much less. With that in mind, the recruitment is suddenly looking brilliant under this regime. I also strongly agree with bringing through young players from the academy and we have the right manager in place to do this successfully. Ultimately, most fans just want to see a team competing on the pitch. Nobody expects us to win the league, but let's give it a really good go, and as always at Southampton, we want to see players giving their all and trying to achieve success for their club and fans. Things are certainly looking positive for the immediate future.

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felly1 added 11:37 - Jan 25 A successful period in terms of results and recruitment under Cortese but a horrible little man by all accounts of the people who worked at the SMS. If he would stayed we would have crashed in the end
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SanMarco added 12:46 - Jan 25 You can tell we have been doing better lately because this is the dark lord's first mention for a while, I think. I actually think he did a good job for us for a while and left at the right time. All the Jacobite style 'king in waiting over the water' stuff did get a bit tiresome over the years but I for one am now nearly ready to say 'who?' when his name comes up! The stats on what is happening to global ecosystems are truly frightening. All clubs - and all businesses, governments and citizens need to take it very seriously. Important as the anti-racism stuff is we do need a planet to be anti-racist on, and a planet to beat Arsenal twice in four days on too for that matter...

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