Charlton fans, Millie Edmundson and Sam Herbert have been appointed as the joint chairs of the club’s new Youth Advisory Group.
Young fans have the opportunity to apply to become a member of the groups, which will be made up of four individuals aged between 12 and 16 years old, and four individuals aged 17 to 20.
The group will be focused on coming up with ideas and initiatives to help the club reach a younger audience.
The appointments follow the news that lifelong Addick Lucy Bishop became the club’s Fan Adviser earlier this month.
Millie, 17, has been coming to Charlton games with her family for as long as she can remember and now runs the popular CAFCMedia page on Instagram. She said: “We all go home and away. When I started my Instagram page the fanbase was very split, because of our ownership, I just decided to create a fan page to try and bring the fans together. We’re now definitely in a better position than we were before.
"The fans play a massive part in this football club, without the fans we wouldn’t be anything. Now Thomas Sandgaard has come in, it is a great journey to be on and I really hope we can get somewhere special.”
20-year-old Sam also comes from a Charlton family and was one of the final candidates for the Fan Adviser position. He said: “The aim of this role is to increase fan engagement in young supporters and really try to build a connection with them. Then hopefully in the future we’ll look to expand the fanbase further and really get a youthful support down at The Valley. This club is only going one way and that is up.”
Charlton owner Thomas Sandgaard said: “I am very pleased we are able to work with Millie and Sam. Millie has done excellent work over the last few years helping bring a positivity back to the Charlton fanbase with her social media and vlogging. Her positivity and enthusiasm for the club is incredible and infectious. I spoke with Sam around the Fan Adviser role and it was clear he has a lot of good ideas.
“The two of them working together will provide and excellent foundation for the Youth Advisory Group and I’m looking forward to working with them as we build the club.”
The group will host meetings over the course of the season to discuss and feedback on matters including match day experiences, fan engagement and social media content. The two age categories will meet separately, in-person at The Valley where possible, but over Zoom when required based on government regulations.
In order to apply, young fans will need to fill in the application form here ahead of the deadline on May 3rd. Shortlisted candidates will then be contacted via email and invited to send in a short video answering a few questions. From here, the final candidates will be invited to join a Zoom call to discuss the voluntary role in more detail.