Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust chair, Ian Bennett, discussing today's march with The Star.
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00:00Ian, stay behind us, the protest march is just on the way. How's the day gone so far?
00:06I think we've been alright. It's been quite a peaceful march. We're a little bit disappointed with numbers in town, but that's alright.
00:13We didn't expect a march, but obviously he's picking up and in the park, we've got a fair backing.
00:18I want people to be respectful, but protesting, you know, everybody, I think, all Wednesdayites want a march, don't they?
00:28Bottom line is, how do we do that? Keep pressure up from legitimate needs such as EFL, FSA.
00:36We keep pressuring, we keep the fans on side and try and get them united or unified.
00:42I'm sorry, I shouldn't use that word, united.
00:44Time to get them unified and this sort of thing brings a pleasure to me.
00:49It's fantastic that everybody can come together and do that, yeah.
00:52Tell us a little bit about the survey you did. It returned some big numbers in terms of the feeling on the sport.
00:56Right, so I think the final numbers came in around 5,000 already people and in a week or so, you know, week, 10 days, that's fantastic.
01:0495% said they wanted it to sell, which is unbelievable. You know, it's a fantastic number.
01:10I think the same around just over 90% wanted us to protest. I don't think Trust performed to be a protest group.
01:17I think we've sort of been forced into that and it's difficult.
01:24As far as I just want to touch on the EP because there's been some real bad stuff said and all sorts.
01:30But at the meeting, all the EP were really together.
01:33We really gave him an hard time with some good questions and everybody did ask him hard questions.
01:38The minutes came out and we've sort of come out by mistake and I can apologise for that.
01:45It was a slip up that we came out and said look, we voted against it, against them being published.
01:52But I just want to apologise if it's caused anybody inconvenience because it weren't meant to be that.
01:58But we were getting pressure from our members to say, why have you let the minutes come out if they're not a true and accurate account?
02:05That's all I'd like to say on it, yeah.
02:07I think it's worth sort of offering a bit of clarity on your position because your statement file out this morning, certain things taken from that.
02:14Right, so last night because of what happened, I felt I had to offer my resignation to the Trust Board.
02:20I thought it would put me in an impossible position because I was sat between the EP and the Trust.
02:26Obviously the statement came out from the Trust. I didn't know it had gone out when I got the phone call at night of actually having a meal with my family.
02:35So I decided that I'd offer my resignation to the Trust Board and the Trust Board rejected it.
02:42Some of the language when I offered my resignation weren't repeatable, but basically they wanted me to stay on.
02:52So I'm just a Wednesday night off a rough councillor statement, trying to do my best for everybody and all supporters.
02:58And lastly, on the mood of today, this is one of the most supportive march that we've seen from what I've seen previously.
03:05What does that say about the mood of the time base? And when you're speaking to people, what messages are you getting?
03:10Well, I would say at least, at least 95%, as the poll says, want him out of the club.
03:17How we go about that, everybody differs, but I think the difference this time is everybody does want him gone.
03:23In the past, there's been a split in the fan base. I think how we do that again is down.
03:28I think now we've got such phase, we've got a protest. And I think that's the only way that the fans can show the, shall we say, disdain that we've got for him, to be honest.
03:40On the plus side, I think the guy at first put a lot of money to the club, and a lot of people like that, but it's gone wrong.
03:49And the way he speaks and treats people at the minute, especially the fans, is not right. It's just not right.
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