When the term fan ownership is mentioned in football circles it is easy to immediately think of the glitzy, glamorous and successful regimes that exist at both Real Madrid and Barcelona. However, turning attention a little bit closer to home and one can find inspiring examples of fan owned league clubs on our own shores with Brentford, Exeter and conference side Wimbledon all prime examples.
Like the continental preference for the director of football role, the notion of fan ownership has struggled to get off the ground in England, nevertheless, with the finances of the beautiful game increasingly scrutinised such an idea appears to be growing in popularity. Indeed it does not appear overly bold to suggest that the first fan-owned Premier League side could well come into being in the near future.
Change a MUST
At the time of writing the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) boasts a membership of nearly 140,000. MUST’s members have been boosted massively by the high profile media campaign instigated by the Red Knights, in which a group of wealthy fans are attempting to accumulate the funds, public backing and necessary power to prise Manchester United from the grasp of the unpopular Glazer family.
The Glazer’s notorious legacy at the club will be their reckless ownership, loading the club full of debt with little regard for United’s historical role in the local community, its traditions and perhaps most importantly its fans.
Supporter trusts are slowly beginning to hold more sway across the country as uncertainties over the policies of misguided and aggressive owners are highlighted repeatedly and publicly. Trust members are swelling all the time as fans, who for generations have stood on the terraces and directed their hard-earned cash towards the clubs they love, grow increasingly fed up with the wanton disregard of the billionaire owners and the increasing lack of communication.
Appetite for destruction
The increasing popularity of MUST and the Red Knights is a damning indictment of the current Old Trafford regime and clearly demonstrates the appetite for change at the self-styled Theatre of Dreams. Saddling the Premier League’s most successful side with unparalleled levels of debt and passing on the burden to life-long fans by rapidly increasing ticket prices has obviously proved unpopular and perhaps represents the key reason as to the popularity to oust the Glazers.
Taking advantage of the underlying anger towards the Americans, the arrival of the Red Knights looks somewhat opportunistic. What makes them stand out amidst other potential interested parties has been their tremendous marketing campaign and the subsequent wave of public support. The return of green and gold scarves at the Stretford End, the choreographed chants, the planned protests; all have helped the Red Knights portray themselves as the good guys without the group outlining in detail what they would they do should their attempts to buy-out the Glazers prove successful.
To date the Red Knights marketing team and spin men should be exceptionally happy with the predominantly positive media attention, but they will ultimately be remembered for their actions and not their promises.
The hordes of fans happy to parade the green and gold of the ancestral colours of Newton Heath will eventually require something more substantial than what they have received thus far.
Caution is being quite rightly taken on the parts of David Gill, Manchester United’s chief executive and manager Sir Alex Ferguson, with neither willing to back the Red Knights takeover publicly. Despite the desperation for reclaiming some control of the club it is important not to be swept away by a tide of euphoria without full and proper consideration of the implications of any new takeover.
Alternative solutions
Looking to the future it appears unlikely that the complicated three tier structures currently in place at Barcelona and Real Madrid will be replicated in England. After all with decades of football history tied up in idiosyncratic off-field politics and matters of regional culture it would appear the Spanish model has grown organically rather than by design.
The format so effectively enforced in Germany’s Bundesliga is similarly unlikely in England but there are transferable factors that would benefit the development of clubs as sustainable businesses as opposed to their present incarnations.
The central theme that club members should own 51% of the club as a precaution against mismanagement has obvious advantages, allowing for sizeable investment from wealthy benefactors while maintaining control and overall direction in the hands of the fans.
Considering recent examples the current structures, guidelines and legislation for ownership are widely acknowledged as untenable and in need of alteration. Rather than swing too far in the opposite direction and place complete power in the hands of fans a compromise would benefit the needs of clubs going forward, with transparency of shareholders essential, and a full revamping of the fit and proper persons test.
The likelihood of this happening is minimal, with these ideas more idealistic than realistic, although there is little doubt of the growing importance of fan ownership after the financial frivolity football clubs enjoyed for so long catches up with them. With various incarnations of fan ownership becoming prevalent in the lower leagues it is only a matter of time before this translates to the top level.