Year End Message from the President
Hello LFC Toronto Family,
I hope this message finds you and your families well!
I am going to really echo the sentiments of my last years Year End message, as it’s taken me some time to reflect on the first half season progress, not to mention where we stand from an LFC TO perspective.
Soo.. the 2022/2023 season, its been a super strange one eh? Its 18 games played and we are in EIGHT position. You don’t even know, how hard that is to write.
This year we have had the Queen’s passing, the world cup, many things which has disrupted our year as a whole, not to mention the countless injuries and club departures.
At this point last season, we were talking about the quadruple, and now.. we hope.. But isn't this the LFC way, well that is Footie I suppose, but regardless of the ups and downs, we love this club. Lets hope second half can give us some joy and happiness!
We can go on and on about our current state, no mids, injuries, poor performances, FSG in, FSG OUT (Peter, Fares), but I digress, now let’s move on to LFC TO.
Our first half LFC TO progress has not happened as well as we wished it to be. Not talking about team progress, but some folks had promised us a few things, which would have enriched the member experience and they were a bit late to say the least.
But with that said, as Liverpool fans do, we march on. The second half of the year and onto next season, will be literally a 180 from the first half. Boy of boy, do we have some things planned for you.. I will get into that later.
In the first half, with the Queen and the World Cup life happenings, we were able to organize a rewind event, a wine tasting, charity food drive and a great Crimbo. We also sent many first time LFC fans to Anfield to fulfill their dreams. In the end, with life and what we all had to deal with, not soo bad first half really.
On to our food drive. Wow, such a selfless and amazing community we have. All walks of life, coming together to support the needy in our surrounding area. At both of our locations The Slye Fox (https://www.slyefox.com/) in Burlington and the E&C downtown Toronto, our amazing membership, brought in hundreds of pounds of non-perishable goods, which the firehall’s in each city distributed to the folks in need.
As human beings, well, we can always do more, but your good will and support, helped many less fortunate families and we can all be sincerely proud of that. So Kudos to you all!
The rewind was great, we know the score, but its all about hanging out, spending time and getting to know your fellow LFC Family members. It’s all about our community and member experience. We will literally do anything our LFC TO community wants to do.. well almost 😉.
Wine tasting, the owner of Claymore winery in the land down under is a huge Liverpool fan. The reps came to E&C and we had a tasting of the Claymore You’ll Never Walk Alone Grenache Shiraz Mataro vintage. What a great member experience this was and its not a bad tasting wine either. There are only soo many left in the LCBO as it’s in the vintage section, but one you should try if you get a moment (https://www.lcbo.com/en/claymore-you-ll-never-walk-alone-grenache-shiraz-mataro-2013-409086). Nevertheless, a lot of fun was had by all on that mid-week match day!
The Crimbo, every year its gets better and better. Is it me or has the band of troubadours grown? It was originally Dan and the Bennyman, but now we have the special vocal ensemble of Aizazoo (LFC TO Brand Ambassador) and Mo (Ahmed, let me sing every brit pop song I know) included in the mix. I think this is the making of something really big, our very own band of Jamie Webster's, the North edition.. We need the community to come up with the band name, please send us names lol.
With the vibrant sounds and hundreds of sausage rolls, we also had loads of gifts and prizes for all, a signed Xabi Alonso kit, Stevie G puzzles, LFC TO bags, tumblers etc. (Side note, we explored a Jamie Webster member concert, but we thought the 20k for a pre-taped show was not worth it, at this moment at least).
But for me at the Crimbo, our community just continues to grow by leaps and bounds with lots of new and old faces alike. You have Alain, Katherine and Benny from the previous exec enjoying a pint or two,or three or four, but who is counting, mixing it up with the cross fit master Ovi B and lovely Stephanie, the enigmatic George G, with our larger than life personality Daniel Calina, Dom G, Wayne, Kartik, the Scouse Foodie Salil, newbies such as Salman Mitha, Liam Jones, Jessie, Aloysius, Colm, D Wells, Ray, Mr. and Mrs. D Richards and the list goes on. Of course our common ground is our love of LFC, but seeing these friendships carry on far past the pitch is just absolutely incredible to say the least. Thank you for your continued support as we grow, grow and grow this event.
Now… The second half of the year.. Well we have about 20 matches to play.. We also did get Cody.. not enough.. but another for the future for sure. But let’s all collectively pray to the footie gods in the hope, we can do something with this season. While we are supporting our team, we have a couple of things in store for the membership over the next few months.
We have organized The Anfield Wrap better known as TAW, coming to Toronto on March 22nd at Loose Moose – downstairs in the Antler Bar. Gibbo, Neil and Craig will be kicking of their North American Tour and the first stop is Toronto. We actually had this organized a couple of years ago, but the pandemic hit and that was that. Our members will have first access for tickets this week, before the link goes viral shortly thereafter and all hell breaks loose. It will be a great event, with stories about LFC life, we can only dream about! LFC premium members will get early entrance to this event!!
Ticket Link
https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-anfield-wrap-live-in-toronto/radio/2495171
In April, with the help of Carlsberg, we will be having a LFC Legend come to Toronto for pretty much a week (April 25-29). He will come to E&C to watch a couple of LFC matches with us, amongst other things planned. So keep an eye out for our newsletter and social media for the latest and greatest details on these and other events being organized. (https://lfctoronto.com/events/)
From a SWAG perspective, We worked a hella hard to get the signed Xabi Alonso and Harvey Elliot kits for the community, but we have much, much more coming in the next 12 months.. items that will be cherished by any and all LFC Fans.. I will not say more.. but you will be impressed.
As you know for myself, the exec and the volunteers, this is almost a full time “Hobby”/Job! We put in countless hours to try and organize the best LFC Toronto member experience, SWAG, Banners, 7:30am Bagels and Coffee etc. I wanted to sincerely thank our volunteers and extended team, Munish, Erika, Arben, Fatos, Roham, Daniel C, Mike as well as our amazing exec, Dan, Reagan, Aizaz, Yvi and Sam. I am truly blessed to be working with these professionals, without their hard work and dedication, none of this would happen. I would also like to thank some of our corporate partners and sponsors, a big thank you to Pig Out BBQ, Elephant & Castle, The Slye Fox, Premium Soccer in Montreal, Anfield Shop in the US, O’SESAME and Carlsberg for the generosity, corporate support and donations throughout the year.
You can see, we have done some incredible things this year, but are always looking for additional support and assistance. Please do take a look at the link and apply to our volunteer roles to be part of our amazing community - https://lfctoronto.com/volunteer/. We can use all the help we can get, as we continue to grow our amazing community!
Regardless of the outcome, win hopefully, but ties and with any luck no losses, if so, do so gracefully, But 2023 looks to be a fantastic LFC TO year for us all!
Please continue to give us feedback, (When I talk about feedback, this is not Greg asking to change the channel or turn up the volume, but real tangible items) which helps us guide the LFC Toronto Ship in the right direction and look forward to your continued support as we continue to work towards, being the best Official Supporters Club in the World!
On behalf of the LFC Toronto Exec and Volunteers, wishing you all the best for the new year!
Up The REDS!
YNWA
Jake Lota
OLSC Toronto President
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