Hamlet fans, alongside fans of Enfield, Margate and Hendon, have suffered first-hand the ineptitude of the governing bodies that are meant to look after our game this week. So, take out your anger and demand football reform from your prospective parliamentary candidates.

DHST and Dulwich fans took the streets of Westminster to demand football reform before our game against Maidstone. Little did we know that merely a week later the FA would demonstrate in no uncertain terms how out of touch they are from the people who matter the most in football – us, the fans. Our play-off game was confirmed on Monday leading the club to sell tickets and book coaches, and fans to book hotels and time off work. This did not matter one bit to the authorities who saw fit to postpone the game the very next day. We have written to the FA and Ryman League on this matter and a good summary of these events from a DHFC perspective can also be found by @rebelpaws on his blog here.

This serves as a timely reminder for all football fans to add their voices to DHST, alongside others in the Football Action Network (FAN), and demand reform to our game. In 2011 Hugh Robertson, then minister for sport, said: “If football proves unable to sort this out itself then the government may have to legislate.” Four years later, it’s quite clear that football has not sorted itself out, and there has been no legislation. Whoever is the next secretary of state for culture, media and sport must make the introduction of a Football Reform Bill a departmental priority. This should focus on club ownership and taxation, as well as governance.

We ask that you write to your Parliamentary candidates to ask them whether they will commit to this. So, please take one minute to help achieve reform by:

– Going to http://votefootball.org/

– Scroll down and click on “take part”

– Select Dulwich Hamlet (or another team if you so wish!)

– Enter your postcode and click on find candidates

– Scroll down and fill out your details and click “send letter”

This will then automatically send a letter to all the Parliamentary candidates in your constituency. The letter says:

As a Dulwich Hamlet fan and a voter in the X constituency, before I vote on May 7th I would like to know whether you will support legislation to reform football governance? We believe legislative changes are necessary as outlined here: http://www.votefootball.org/proposal . Your response to the question below may impact decisively on my voting intentions. Will you personally, and X party nationally, support new legislation as outlined in the above link?

Don’t think about, just do it now! That link again is here. Once you receive a response, then please share it here and on the relevant DHFC Urban75 forum.

Up the Hamlet!