Fan club register
Maintain an opt-in register of exile clubs, their broad location, preferred contact route, and nominated liaison.
Preston North End supporters, wherever we live
PNE Exiles
A first draft proposal for bringing Preston North End exile fans and fan clubs closer together. The aim is to help existing groups flourish, give non-local supporters a stronger sense of belonging, and create a clearer route for shared ideas to reach the club.
- Relationship
- Supporter-led, constructive with the club, and open for comment.
- Model
- Opt-in support to help existing exile fan clubs grow.
- Governance
- FSA-informed standards, elected leadership, and open member votes.
Purpose
A shared table for supporters outside Preston.
This work started with supporters involved in the Fan Advisory Network exploring how Preston North End could better connect with exile fans and fan groups. The first job is to write down a clear proposal, invite comments, and test whether the idea would genuinely help.
Preston North End has supporters who organise around cities, regions, countries, travel groups, family networks, and long-standing friendships. PNE Exiles should help those clubs flourish, expand their membership, and give individual exiled fans a stronger sense of belonging.
The group is not designed to replace any existing exile fan club. It should help create events, programmes, and shared conversations that make supporters feel closer to each other and to the club.
Hub-and-spoke model
Built with fan clubs, not over them.
Each exile fan club remains its own spoke: its own identity, organisers, meet-ups, travel plans, social channels, and local priorities. PNE Exiles acts as the hub only where coordination helps.
A club can affiliate, nominate a liaison, ask for recognition support, share ideas for future events or programmes, and opt into a club website presence. A club can also step back from any shared item without losing its own standing.
The proposed operating standards are informed by the Football Supporters' Association model: independent, democratic, transparent, inclusive, and accountable. That gives the hub a practical benchmark without claiming FSA approval unless members later choose to seek it.
The hub does
- Keep an opt-in directory of exile fan clubs.
- Coordinate shared asks to Preston North End.
- Help new and existing clubs understand recognition routes.
- Develop events and programmes that help exile supporters feel connected.
- Protect minority views when there is no single exile consensus.
The hub does not
- Rebrand, absorb, or control existing fan clubs.
- Speak for a club on a local issue without its mandate.
- Run another club's travel, socials, membership, or funds.
- Use FAN access as a personal platform for committee members.
- Make affiliation a condition of being respected as PNE supporters.
Recognition
Clearer routes for exile clubs to be recognised by PNE.
One of the first jobs for PNE Exiles should be a practical recognition framework: a simple, transparent way for exile fan clubs to identify themselves to the club and, if they want it, have a visible presence on the club website.
The purpose is practical: make clubs easier for existing supporters to join, easier for new exiles to discover, and easier for the club to understand when it wants to work with organised supporter groups.
That framework should use FSA-style principles as the baseline: clear criteria, democratic accountability, equal treatment for different groups, and no unnecessary bureaucracy for volunteers.
Website presence
Ask the club for a supporter-facing website area where any recognised exile fan club can be listed if it chooses.
Recognition criteria
Work with the club on light-touch criteria that confirms legitimacy without making volunteer groups jump through needless bureaucracy.
Starter support
Help emerging exile groups with basic guidance on contacts, conduct, accessibility, and democratic organisation.
Fan Advisory Network
A channel for collective exile views.
PNE Exiles should act as a channelling point for issues that affect supporters who follow North End from outside the local area. That includes ticketing, fixture timing, travel, access, communications, away-day experience, digital inclusion, and the visibility of fan clubs.
There is no automatic FAN seat for this group. Where a PNE Exiles-backed candidate is elected, the hub should help them gather topics from affiliated clubs and individual members, then report back on what was raised, what the club said, and what remains unresolved.
That approach follows the same FSA-informed standard: representatives should know their mandate, avoid private platforms, and report back plainly to the supporters they represent.
Consult before speaking
Record the mandate
Report back clearly
Shared projects
Ideas that make the exile network visible.
A unified exile group should do more than maintain a register or collect views. It should create projects that make distant support tangible, give members something to build together, and show the club how far North End reaches.
These are starting points for discussion, not a closed programme. Each would need agreement with the club, clear funding, and member approval before becoming a formal PNE Exiles project.
Player pathway
Fan Scholars
Members could fund, or part-fund, support for one Academy player each season, then follow that player's progress through updates, interviews, and match data agreed with the club.
The value is emotional as much as financial: exile supporters would have a visible stake in a young player's journey without claiming control over football decisions.
Matchday presence
Virtual Town End
Remote supporters could check in on match days through a digital Deepdale or global map, showing where North End fans are following from even when they cannot be in the ground.
Done well, it creates a visual proof of reach for the club, sponsors, and supporters: if you cannot be there, your presence still counts.
Global relay
The Travelling Flag
A GPS-tracked PNE Exiles flag could move between fan clubs and individual members, gathering signatures and photographs from cities, landmarks, and match gatherings around the world.
It would return to Deepdale for the final home game as a simple, visual record of the club's non-local support.
Governance
Why a constitution matters.
If PNE Exiles is going to act as the hub for exile fan clubs, it has to be open about where its authority comes from. A constitution is the guardrail that stops the hub becoming a private platform, a closed committee, or a voice that drifts away from the people it claims to represent.
The point is not bureaucracy for its own sake. The point is to make sure affiliated fan clubs, the spokes in the model, can see how decisions are made, challenge them, steer priorities, and change direction in the future. The hub should be useful only for as long as the spokes believe it is working in their interests.
The draft constitution therefore borrows from FSA-style supporter association standards: democratic elections, transparent records, member control, equality, independence, and clear routes for challenge.
Open by default
Members and affiliated clubs should be able to see decisions, mandates, reports, and finances.
Steered by the spokes
Fan clubs should be able to set priorities, raise motions, and shape the hub's future direction.
Accountable representation
FAN input should be consulted on, recorded, and reported back rather than carried privately.
FSA-informed standards
The benchmark is democratic, inclusive, independent supporter organisation, not private control.
Working draft constitution based on the supplied FSA-style template
Constitution of PNE Exiles
Independent Supporters' Association for Preston North End exile supporters and fan clubs.
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1. Name
The name of the organisation is PNE Exiles, hereafter referred to as the Association.
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2. Purpose
The Association aims to:
- Represent Preston North End exile supporters and affiliated exile fan clubs on issues decided by members through structured dialogue with Preston North End Football Club, hereafter referred to as the Club.
- Establish and maintain constructive channels of communication with the owners, executives, management, supporter liaison staff, and Fan Advisory Network representatives of the Club.
- Help exile fan clubs gain recognition from the Club and, where they want it, a presence on the Club website.
- Help existing exile fan clubs flourish, expand their membership, and remain visible to supporters who may want to join them.
- Give exiled supporters a stronger sense of belonging and help develop events, programmes, and shared activity that bring non-local supporters closer to each other and to the Club.
- Act as a channelling point for fan club perspectives and opinions so they can be considered in FAN discussions and wider structured dialogue.
- Operate openly and transparently so affiliated exile fan clubs can scrutinise decisions, steer priorities, and shape the Association's future direction.
- Use Football Supporters' Association-style principles to define appropriate standards for independence, democracy, accountability, equality, and transparency.
- Work for and alongside existing exile fan clubs, without replacing their identity, leadership, activities, or direct relationships with supporters.
- Promote, maintain, and value the history and identity of Preston North End and its supporters.
- Encourage the Club to appreciate, welcome, and value the support and participation of all fans, with equal opportunities promoted for all supporters.
- Consider affiliation to appropriate national and international football supporters' organisations, including the Football Supporters' Association, where members approve it, while making clear that FSA-informed standards do not by themselves mean FSA approval.
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3. Membership
- Individual membership is open to Preston North End supporters who support the aims of the Association, with a particular focus on supporters who live outside the Preston area.
- Exile fan clubs may affiliate on an opt-in basis and may nominate a liaison to contribute club views, raise priorities, and take part in fan-club consultation.
- Membership is free unless a fee is proposed by the Committee and approved by members at an AGM or EGM.
- Personal details are kept confidential in line with UK GDPR and data protection law unless disclosure is legally required.
- All adult members in good standing can vote and participate in general meetings.
- Members are expected to follow the Association's code of conduct and support its purpose.
- A member ceases to be a member if they resign in writing, fail to pay an approved membership fee when requested, die, or cease to exist in the case of a corporate or club entity.
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4. The Committee
- The Association shall have a Committee of not fewer than four and not more than ten members, elected by members at the AGM in accordance with an election policy.
- Committee terms are one year. Committee members may stand for re-election.
- The Committee may co-opt members as necessary, provided co-opted members are always in the minority.
- Committee members must declare conflicts of interest before relevant discussion and abstain from related votes.
- The Committee should seek a spread of exile fan club, independent supporter, geography, and equality perspectives.
- The Committee must keep a transparent record of significant decisions, mandates, and actions, and make that record available to members and affiliated fan club liaisons.
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5. Officers
The Committee will select from its number a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and FAN Liaison.
- Chair and Vice-Chair: lead meetings and ensure fair discussion.
- Secretary: manages agendas, minutes, membership records, and communications.
- Treasurer: manages finances and reports to the AGM.
- FAN Liaison: coordinates member and fan club input for FAN matters and reports back to members after FAN-related dialogue.
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6. Annual General Meeting
- The AGM will be held annually at a time and place determined by the Committee, including online or hybrid meeting spaces where appropriate.
- At least 14 clear days' notice must be given to all members.
- AGM business should include officer reports, financial statements, election of the Committee, constitutional amendments where proposed, fan club priorities, and member motions.
- Decisions at general meetings shall be made by straightforward majority vote unless this constitution states otherwise.
- The quorum for an AGM is 25 percent of voting members or ten voting members, whichever is lower.
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7. Committee Meetings
- Committee members are bound to act in accordance with the Committee conduct policy.
- The Committee should hold at least four meetings per year.
- The Committee has the power to set policies and procedures consistent with this constitution.
- Decisions at Committee meetings shall be made by majority vote, with the Chair having a casting vote if there is a tie.
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8. Extraordinary General Meetings
- An EGM may be called if the Committee votes for it.
- An EGM must be called if at least 25 percent of voting members request it in writing.
- The notice period for an EGM is 14 clear days.
- The quorum for an EGM is 25 percent of voting members or ten voting members, whichever is lower.
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9. Relationship with Affiliated Fan Clubs
- Affiliated fan clubs retain their own names, identities, organisers, finances, events, communications, and direct relationships.
- The Association may only present a fan club's position as that club's position where the club has provided a mandate through its liaison or agreed process.
- The Association may present a collective exile position where a fair consultation process has been followed and any material dissent has been recorded.
- Affiliated fan clubs may propose priorities, submit motions, request reports, and propose constitutional changes through their nominated liaison or agreed club process.
- Affiliation is voluntary. A fan club may withdraw affiliation by notifying the Secretary in writing.
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10. Transparency, Mandate and Direction
- The Association must publish or circulate plain-language summaries of Committee decisions, consultation outcomes, FAN-related mandates, and AGM or EGM decisions.
- The Committee must consult affiliated fan clubs before adopting major priorities that affect the hub-and-spoke model, recognition framework, or FAN representation.
- If affiliated fan clubs disagree on a major issue, the Association must record the range of views rather than presenting a false consensus.
- At each AGM, members and affiliated fan clubs must be able to review whether the Association is still operating in the way the spokes want it to operate.
- The Committee must keep the Association's rules and policies aligned with the FSA-informed standards adopted by members unless members vote to change that approach.
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11. FAN Representation and Consultation
- The Association has no automatic right to, or guaranteed seat on, the Fan Advisory Network. FAN participation depends on the Club's election process and the successful election of an eligible candidate.
- The Association should normally identify, support, and, where members approve it, put forward one or more eligible candidates for yearly FAN elections.
- The Association will gather topics from members and affiliated fan clubs before FAN-related discussions wherever practical.
- The FAN Liaison or nominated representative must report back to members on issues raised, responses received, and next steps.
- Representatives must not use FAN access to advance private views as Association policy without a member or Committee mandate.
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12. Amendments
Any changes to this constitution require a two-thirds majority at an AGM or EGM.
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13. Dissolution
Dissolution requires a three-quarters majority at an AGM or EGM. Any remaining funds shall go to a similar not-for-profit organisation whose rules contain a similar dissolution clause.
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14. Code of Conduct
All members must support the Association's mission, reject violence, abuse, and discrimination, and respect democratic decisions.
Members must not:
- Speak on behalf of the Association without approval.
- Harass, alarm, distress, abuse, or discriminate against fellow members or supporters.
- Profit from Association activities without permission.
- Undermine the Association's mission.
- Bring the Association into disrepute.
Next steps
Test the idea, then build the wider group.
Who's involved?
The first names behind the draft.
This is the starting group for the proposal. More supporters and fan club voices will be added as the group is tested, challenged, and shaped into something useful.
Ian
I've supported the Whites from Harrogate, London and Sri Lanka as an exile after attending my first game at Deepdale in 1981. My favourite PNE moment was the Wembley win, and Graham Alexander is my favourite all-time player.
Matt
As Preston North End's Supporter Services Lead and a lifelong PNE fan, I've really enjoyed working with two members of our Fan Advisory Network, who are both exile supporters, to help set up a dedicated space for fans who follow PNE from further afield. We want exile supporters to feel connected, involved and part of the PNE family, wherever they are based. The new PNE Exiles website is a great starting point for supporters to connect with each other, share ideas and help us look at ways the club can support them and strengthen their connection with Preston North End.
Neil
I'm a PNE fan, exile and Fan Advisory Network member helping shape the first version of PNE Exiles, with a focus on making the hub useful to existing exile fan clubs and individual supporters outside Preston. My background is in technology, and I'm hoping to use that to add some interesting aspects to the exile fan experience. I'll pick Youl Mawène as my favourite player!
Contact
Tell us how you want to be involved.
Leave your details and a short note. Tell us whether you would like to help actively, be kept notified as the idea develops, connect an existing fan club, or raise something else.