The Family Excellence scheme that the EFL has continuously run since 2007 had its roots in some earlier research: a qualitative examination of the family experience through the eyes of a new family that took place a year earlier. This ensured the design of the scheme that followed was driven by the genuine ‘new fan’ perspective.

Beginning in the 2006/7 season, clubs would receive two visits a a season (currently, one undertaken by a Fan Experience Company experienced assessor and the follow up recorded by a genuine new family). The process was designed to help clubs to pinpoint improvement opportunities and to reward them for acting on them.

13 seasons later, with more than 1800 assessments in the bank, the scheme has evolved to include benchmarking, mid-season summaries and an end of season event that informs and recognises achievement. The EFL estimates that, in the first ten seasons of the scheme, junior attendance at their games (tiers 2, 3 and 4 of English football) rose 37% – some 6 million extra youngsters watching the beautiful game.  It was agreed that the League’s achievement of its highest overall seasonal attendance since 1959 – the Golden Years of Football – had much to do with the clubs’ determination to use the learning provided to grow through diversification.

The scheme has won two ‘best practice’ awards (2013) & (2018)