Shrewsbury Town's new kit: We did listen to the fans, says club
Shrewsbury Town insist fans' views were taken fully into account when choosing the club's new kit – but admitted the issue could have been handled better.
A Town fans' group raised questions about the selection of the club's new blue and amber shirt for the 2017/18 season after an online.
A breakdown of the voting was not published.
Shrews chief executive Brian Caldwell admitted the wording of the announcement was clumsy but the rightful winner was chosen. He told the club's Youtube channel: "Some seem to have misconstrued the wording of the statement but Kit C was the one that won the vote, albeit marginally.
"What we were trying to say was A and C were the ones far ahead of the other three but people seem to have misconstrued that we have made a decision. I know it was the way it was worded, which on reflection was poor and I think we have got to hold our hands up and say that was not the right terminology to use.
"We had quite a lot of strange votes – a lot of people didn't have supporter numbers – so once we went through all the spoilt votes as there were quite a number of them with fake email addresses, we had to come to a final decision."
In a statement published on the Bring Back The Loggerheads Facebook page, the group said the press release announcing the winner "created doubt among some fans as to the real outcome of the vote".
The statement claimed: "A retrospective online poll on the STFC Facebook group, which is used by a large swathe of Town fans and is normally an accurate barometer of supporter feeling, saw Kit A (blue and amber stripes) receive three times as many votes as Kit C (winning design).
"It seems inconceivable to many that a quintessentially Salopian shirt design such as Kit A would, in the end, lose out to a pin-striped alternative as per Kit C. It has since come to our attention that the club has declined to release the Survey Monkey account log-in details which would have enabled a small number of supporters to inspect and verify the results.
"This was a surprise, especially as previous supporter votes have functioned under the proviso that the Supporters' Parliament has joint access to the data throughout in order to ensure integrity and transparency of the process."
