If you attended our 2-0 victory at home to Brentford on January 17, there is every chance you noticed the protest that took place outside the Britannia Gate before the game, organised by the fan group we represent, called NotAProjectCFC.
There is also the possibility this protest movement came to your attention even if you did not attend the match, with the likes of BBC Sport, The Athletic, beIN Sports and Talksport all covering it. The demonstration was also mentioned by Jonathan Pearce in his commentary for Match of the Day on BBC.
An unintended perception
Before we go any further, we want to state we recognise what many of you may be thinking already: “Oh no, it’s those attention-seeking content-creating wallies who are about to preach at me about the merits of a futile protest movement that will never be able to truly unite the fanbase.”
To be clear, we at NotAProjectCFC completely understand why there is a perception about the types of fans who are protesting. While we were pleased with the volume of media coverage the protest generated, and we know for a fact the club hierarchy are concerned about our actions, we would be lying if we said we were not a little disappointed with how the protest came across.
What happened
To take things back a moment, NotAProjectCFC was set up after our 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth on December 30, two days before Enzo Maresca left the club. While the protest was not in defence of Maresca, as we believe the underlying issues at our club stretch far beyond any manager, we felt it was an opportune moment to attempt to unite the fanbase, following another downturn in form and another managerial exit as a result of a lack of alignment with the club.
We wanted to take lessons from the previous protest that was held before our 4-0 win at home to Southampton in February last year; a protest which we did not organise. We took heed of a frankly cringeworthy and embarrassing clip that emerged on social media prior to that protest, with one of the protestors getting into a financial debate with a former Premier League club owner in Simon Jordan on Talksport.
We published a manifesto when announcing the protest, with our six predominant demands being:
· Clear Accountability – Football decisions must have clear ownership and consequences for poor outcomes
· End Micromanagement Culture – Foster a culture of trust and autonomy, not micromanagement that undermines the team
· Flexibility Over Volume – Reduce youth-heavy recruitment. Add proven experience to rebalance the squad and raise standards among the younger players
· Proper Manager Support – Qualified managers who are backed and not scapegoated
· Championship Ambition – A Chelsea that competes seriously in the Premier League and UEFA Champions League
. Board Stability – Consistent leadership at board level with football expertise prioritised
One thing you may notice from the manifesto’s key points is that we did not mention a request for BlueCo to sell the club. To be clear, should a situation ever arise where a bidder comes to the table and offers the right amount of money for Clearlake Capital in particular to sell their stake in the club, then this is more than likely something we would welcome (providing that prospective owner has the right intentions of course).
A choice of two options
However, we do not see calling for BlueCo Out as a realistic aim at this stage. We feel some important self-reflection and a tweak to the model that is in place would be more beneficial. Put simply, in Option A, you would be calling for the immensely complex sale of an asset (for want of a better word) that is worth billions of pounds.
In Option B, you’re asking for some of the vast amounts of money being generated from player sales (close to £300m in the summer 2025 transfer window for example) to go towards bringing in the kind of proven experience that can push this young team towards major honours. That is not withstanding the other points in our manifesto, but investment in experience is something we feel would go a long way to addressing many of the concerns supporters have.
We appreciate that some of those who attended the protest did not share our view and did push the BlueCo Out demands, which is perhaps what led to a distortion of messaging. The situation is akin to the one showed in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, with the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea both sharing a dislike for the Romans, but being torn on how to express their opposition.
We accept a majority of the match-going fanbase have so far not seen joining a protest as a justifiable use of their time. It is worthwhile for us to take on board that some people may not want to stand on a street holding banners and chanting for an hour, especially when those chants descend into meaningless noise about Tottenham Hotspur and former players (this was never our intention). We also recognise many of our match-going fans may not have a presence on social media, where much of our promotion for the protest took place.
Unity is key
I could sit here and write about all the club’s football issues leading to the protest, but the chances are, given you are a reader of a fanzine such as this you probably know all of those.
Now we don’t know about you, but after almost four seasons of this, we’re at the point of feeling desperate to witness a team that we can view with our own eyes and truly say “that’s Chelsea.” The longer the current model is in place, the more deflating the situation becomes, and the harder it is to remain emotionally invested in matches.
But we as a fanbase do not have to accept defeat. We saw with the Super League protest in 2021 that with a unified approach, clubs can recognise the importance of bringing fans on board. Yes, the club may currently be taking an attitude of “we’re right and the rest of the world is wrong”, but it doesn’t have to always be that way.
We firmly believe the right amount of public pressure can create some kind of meaningful change. Whether that’s the other investors in Clearlake recognising the unrest and applying greater scrutiny to Behdad Eghbali, or Eghbali and the sporting directors self-reflecting on where they are going wrong, or changes in the football operation, we can’t say for certain. But do you honestly want to look back on this era in years to come and say you did nothing?
We absolutely support the team
We also recognise an alternate view, put forward previously by the Fan Advisory Board, that fan efforts should be focused on supporting the team, rather than protesting. We do support the team through thick and thin (that’s partially why we did not focus on protesting during a match). But we also feel it would be foolish to be nothing but compliant, without questioning the direction the club is being taken in; this is not, in our view, what constitutes a ‘proper fan.’
Importance of supporter groups
What we are calling for now is a concerted effort among the fanbase to look into ways we can get the message across that the way BlueCo is running the club is not acceptable. The key question is: How do we do that?
We are very aware that when it comes to official supporter groups, they are in a difficult position. We certainly wouldn’t expect a community such as the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) to effectively become the face of a protest movement, particularly as the group is focused on ensuring proper standards for all the off-pitch issues such as ticketing, away match travel etc.
Fortunately, we can approach this from a different vantage point. There is no benefit to us in holding a relationship with the club, and even as individual fans we have no interest in creating content for commercially-driven social media ventures, as let’s be honest, some of our fans do.
The recent CST fan survey showed 82% of members are either somewhat unconfident or very unconfident Chelsea FC is currently being run in a way that will deliver sustained on-pitch success over the next 3–5 years. The survey also found 90% of members have not very much confidence or no confidence at all in the ownership group’s football-related decision-making.
The CST has previously provided public scrutiny of the club’s on-pitch operations, and the fan survey was very telling. While we would never expect this to be associated with any specific protest action, it was certainly something we saw as very welcome and needed.
What next?
With that in mind, we want to focus on ways we can come together as a fanbase and discuss the types of actions a majority of fans could get behind. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with a fan group and use the platform the likes of the CST can provide to get our points across and really ascertain what we can do better.
It is important for the club to know that we will continue to seek out every opportunity possible to unify the fanbase in an attempt to create more and more public pressure. This will not cease until we see clear evidence the club is serious about competing at the elite level, and that they are willing to show a form of compromise. This is a club hierarchy that appears to be very concerned about the way it is portrayed in the media, and media coverage is a tool that we can use in equal measure.
Together, we can do what it takes to get our club back as we know it.
Up the Chels!
This article originally appeared in the March 2026 edition of the CFCUK fanzine
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