The end for the Bolton Wanderers Supporters Association

The BWSA was the clubs formal supporters body and had been so for about 30 years now.

It's basic role was to arrange travel to away matches for fans and had official links with the club to this end (and had an additional perk to print the seasons fixtures which believe it or not was illegal for anybody else to do so without paying a fee!).

The club always recognised the BWSA to be its official fan club, always sent players and club officials to its meetings and kept the wanna be ST, wisely, at more than arms length until now.

Unfortunately it looks as those who ran the BWSA (many of whom were elderly) have had to pack it in since Covid struck - certainly both their Twitter and Facebook accounts have not been active since March of last year.

I see today that the ST have signed them up to be one of a number of random affiliates, they are blowing their trumpet about which includes a group of four or five youths in Argentina and a pub in Bennidorm - would you believe!

I do hope all those of the BWSA are all safe and well sheltered from Covid and I'd like to thank them for all they've done for the club and its fans over the years.

Everytime I hear the words 'Werther's Original' or 'Doom Bar' I will think fondly of them!

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— BW Supporters' Trust ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I was a member of BWSA for some years. They were a great bunch of people. A shame to see it all come to an end.
No way I would join the supporters trust.

BWFCST – BWSA & Lancaster Whites Affiliation Agreement
 
We are pleased to announce that Bolton Wanderers Supporters Association (BWSA) and Lancaster Whites have both agreed to become BWFCST Affiliates, joining BWFC Latam, BWSC Norway, BWDSA and The Embankment in coming together in support of our newly promoted Whites.
 
The following is a joint statement from the BWSA and the BWFCST:
 
“At a critical time in the rebuilding of Bolton Wanderers and also at an equally crucial time in football's future development, the Bolton Wanderers Supporters Association are fully supportive of the BWFCST in their Affiliation initiative to bring all the disparate BWFC supporters’ groups together to create a mutually beneficial, structured communication channel to represent the views and opinions of all Bolton Wanderers supporters.

The BWSA have now signed a Collaboration Agreement with the BWFCST to become Affiliate Members and are now looking forward to working with the BWFCST and all the other Affiliated groups to promote the name of Bolton Wanderers FC and to represent the interests of all BWFC supporters in any relationship with the club, whilst retaining independence in structure and governance.”


 
BWFCST & BWSA    

This could be viewed as the end of the BWSA but equally could be viewed as the beginning of a new partnership bringing together disparate groups with a common interest - who are perhaps stronger together.

wanderlust wrote:This could be viewed as the end of the BWSA but equally could be viewed as the beginning of a new partnership bringing together disparate groups with a common interest - who are perhaps stronger together.

Could be.

That's certainly how the ST is selling it.

Let's have a look at some of these 'affiliates' though shall we?

1 - The Embankment 'group'

The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] are pleased to welcome The Embankment as a new affiliate member.

The Embankment are the only bar in Benidorm that is solely about the Wanderers!

Read more about them here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— BW Supporters' Trust ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

(Fwiw the pub manager is apparently a SPURS fan!)

2 - Latam group

Our Members from differents countries in LatínAmerica. We are together. We are Bolton. Come on you whites! [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Bolton Latinoamerica (@BWFC_Latam) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

About twenty young lads from random South American country's.

Fair play to them, I'm not knocking them but hardly a big cog in the machinery are they really?

3 - BWSA group

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— The BWSA (@MyBWSA) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The last 'tweet' from the group from well over a year ago!

The group is sadly not active anymore.

4 - Bolton Wanderers Disabled Supporters Association group.

Again fair play to them but I can't even seem to find anything about them - google shows this -

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Anybody truly think these groups are any more than a rag tag bunch of random people just being cobbled together and made to sound a great deal more than what they really are?

Does a pub in Spain, a bunch of Argentinian millennials, a now defuct Supporters Association and a disability group that Google can't seem to find are really representative and the true voice of BWFC fans???

I don't.

'Anybody truly think these groups are any more than a rag tag bunch of random people just being cobbled together and made to sound a great deal more than what they really are?'

You've just described Nuts and WW.

They may not be A listers, but they support the club. Having served overseas for years at a time, I know how good it feels to be part of a group of like-minded people. Good for them I reckon, (even though I am still too suspicious of the ST to join them).

boltonbonce wrote:'Anybody truly think these groups are any more than a rag tag bunch of random people just being cobbled together and made to sound a great deal more than what they really are?'

You've just described Nuts and WW.

Maybe so but we aren't here to be so conceited enough to claim to be the voice of ALL BWFC fans!

Christ we can agree amongst ourselves most of the time and anyone who the ruling clique on WW don't like they ban!

As far as I'm aware the biggest two active groups of Bolton supporters are WW and the Facebook group Bolton and Proud.

Wouldn't you think if the ST was serious about their intent (rather than keeping control of everything for themselves) that they'd get those two groups - and the likes of us, The Wanderer and others, onboard rather than a pub in Benidorm, a group of Argentinan university type students, a closed down group and another group that doesn't even have a web address???