An article on co-operative ownership of football clubs in the League of Ireland.
Might be of interest to some in this group.
It looks at the success of co-operative ownership in Irish professional football and the threat of new investment to the model.
Can it work? Would you want to own your club?
Will big money kill off community ownership in League of Ireland? (rte.ie)
You must log in or register to comment.
Not that it’s necessarily the same, but the Green Bay Packers have managed to be the only remaining fan-owned team in the NFL (American Football) for decades now. It’s interesting to see how they do it, but I think it certainly creates an environment where the staff and team wants to succeed more.
Club has to go bust really.
That’s how I bought my share in Finn Harps when the fans took over.
Unfortunately, our identity is so ingrained with being fan owned that I really see us struggling to be competitive long term.
But we punched above our weight having been in the prem for 6 out of 9 seasons with a part time squad and a budget dwarfed by everyone else.
It was no trophy obviously but the pride in seeing the club compete with and stay up over better funded professional teams was something else.
my club, Bohemian FC is fan owned
Heart of Midlothian Football Club is fan owned, largest club in the UK to be so.
It’s possible but you will never compete with oil / war profiteer money.
i think it’s the law in germany for clubs to be supporter owned
Exeter City in League One are actual fan-owned, as are AFC Wimbledon obviously.
Newport County (League 2) currently are, but look like they might be selling a 52% share Huw Jenkins.
A number of other clubs have at some point been fan owned (Wrexham for example) and there are plenty of examples in non-league (Bury FC, FC United of Manchester, Chester FC, 1874 Northwich etc.)
Notably, most of these clubs are either protest clubs or fans buying a club following horrid mismanagement.
Apparently there are also a bunch of other clubs which are minority owned by fans but it’s hard for me to confirm this with quick searches. So might be true for Accrington Stanley, Carlisle United, Lincoln City & Grimsby Town.
Heart of Midlothian might be the biggest example of a fan owned club in the UK however over in Scotland having gained ownership 2 years ago.
Exeters City are probably the best example. Biased as it’s my local club, but they have gone from strength to strength after becoming fan owned. It can be done if it’s done right. But I’m not sure it’ll be able to happen in the premier league. Way too much money involved.
Yes, of course. It’s incredibly unlikely for an existing club unless they get close to bankruptcy, but it’s definitely possible for new clubs. Some even do pretty well with it!
So I made another post here of examples but I’m just going to make this on the pros and cons involved with fan ownership
Cons
- You will be out moneyed by richer single-owner clubs
- Prone to creating imbalance within the league as larger clubs gain larger ownership and bigger clubs have an easier time attracting new fans. A vicious cycle
- Risk of Failing to Adapt - Supporters getting locked in a cycle that stops working
Pros
- Non-Profit Football Clubs - tickets and shirts should be solid to break even, not price gouge supporters
- No Stupidly Incompetent Owners - Fans will hold the boards responsible and are less likely to destroy their financial situations
- Feeling and being a part of the club you support
- Generally more stable clubs and should typically get good attendance
German football has seen it’s 3rd (Bremen), Stuttgart (4th), HSV (5th), Schalke (7th), and Hertha (11th) most successful Bundesliga Club, all fan owned, get relegated at least once the last 5 years because of idiotic decisions made by elected boards and Presidents.
German football is still filled with horror stories, but at least fans get to vote out and then vote in new people when it gets bad and don’t have to sit by.
Clubs? Sure. Successful Premier League clubs? Not a fucking chance.
Yes but the only way it can happen is that the supporters boycott the club and essentially hold the owners to ransom. If supporters held a full boycott for a 3-4 seasons, the club would lose so much value that the owner would have to sell to a fans group. Or at least cede 50+1 like in Germany.
People just are not willing to suck it up for a few years. Or, are just so disorganized that they cannot arrange a meaningful boycott.
If you are extremely unhappy with the owners/board, such as Man Utd, Everton etc and you’re still buying season tickets then you are a part of the problem. You are sponsoring it.
If Everton for example are so unhappy with how the club is being run, boycott next season. Let the club go into crisis, let them drop down the league’s, let them go into administration, even liquidation. Start a new fan owned club and when the liquidation occurs buy the branding rights. The council wouldn’t allow the new stadium to be rezoned, it would have to go to the new Everton.
People are just not willing to suck it up for a few years though. And I’m not having this whole thing “Support the team”.
yes it is
it just won’t work in the current PL environment for every club that wants to keep being successful
Of course it can work. If you want it to remain exactly the same however, only changing the owners - that won’t happen. I’m perfectly comfortable with the Premier League no longer being the pinnacle of club football and to pursue some serious sustainability whilst hopefully devolving power to more clubs.
The PL’s voting system essentially means the wealthiest clubs (a group which keeps getting bigger) will never allow it to happen. It would have to come from national legislation.
That ship has long sailed in the case of the PL.
The amounts of money involved means that fan ownership is not viable.
Germany have had their ownership rules in place from long before the commercial explosion of national league football.
There can make it happen. Even if its a 25% amount of ownership available for supporters. Glazed doughnuts have wrecked my head for far too long it needs to happen. Accountability needs to happen.