MyFootballClub

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MyFootballClub

Own the club, pick the team.
URL www.myfootballclub.co.uk
Type of site Industrial and Provident Society and Internet forum
Registration Yes
Available language(s) English
Owner MyFootballClub Society, Ltd.
Created by Will Brooks
Launched 26th April 2007
Current status Active

MyFootballClub is a venture that aims to first register and then recruit as paid members at least 50,000 football enthusiasts from across the world to purchase an English association football club. The club will be bought with funds gathered from paid-up members of MyFootballClub, who are organized into an Industrial and Provident Society. Once a club is purchased, paid members of MyFootballClub will be able to control the club through a democratic voting process, both on and off the field, including team selection and player transfers.[1]

On 13 November 2007, MyFootballClub announced that it had reached an agreement in principle, pending a due diligence investigation and members vote, to purchase Ebbsfleet United F.C. of the Blue Square Premier, formerly known as the Conference National.[2] MyFootballClub will be the first online community to fully run a professional sports club in history once its purchase of a club is finalised.[3]

On 16 January 2008, MyFootballClub publicly announced the terms of its proposed purchase of Ebbsfleet United and put the terms of the sale to a vote of its members.[4] MyFC members had seven days to register their opinion on the club's £635,000 takeover. For the sale to be finalised, 50% of the votes cast had to be in favour, there was no quorum required[4]

At the close of voting on 23 January, 95.89% of MyFC members had agreed to the purchase of a 75% share in Ebbsfleet United, thereby authorising MyFC's purchase of Ebbsfleet United.[5]

Contents

[edit] Background

The venture is engineered by former football journalist Will Brooks.[6] Brooks initially estimated MyFC's purchase fund at £1,375,000 if 50,000 people were to sign up as members. All members have an equal share in the club purchased by MyFC and they will collectively manage that club, by making many of the decisions usually made by the manager and others, through a voting system on the MyFootballClub website.[1] The watershed figure of 50,000 registrations expressing interest in participation was passed on 31 July 2007, with a total of 53,051 registrations completed at that time.[7] At that point, MyFC began collecting payments from those who had registered as well as any new people who signed up subsequently, opening what MyFootballClub described as "phase 2".[1] Paid-up members would participate in a non-binding vote on takeover preference, with Leeds United initially leading the member voting, followed by Cambridge United and Nottingham Forest.[1]

Brooks had said that the club purchased would likely be playing in Football League Two or the Conference National,[6] and MyFootballClub's managers had opened talks with a number of clubs from those leagues.[8] Negotiations between MyFC and various football clubs remained secret during this period due to the confidential nature of the purchase discussions and because of the number of different clubs involved.[9] EA Sports, the sports simulation video games division of Electronic Arts, has agreed a deal with MyFootballClub which "will be supporting us with a significant investment" to boost the group's football club purchasing fund.[10]

On 6 August 2007 it was revealed that four clubs had approached MyFootballClub about the possibility of a sale.[10] Shortly thereafter, The Independent reported that MyFootballClub had raised approximately £500,000 in the first 20 days it had been collecting funds from members to purchase a football club.[11] On 3 September 2007 it was reported that Halifax Town had approached MyFootballClub in an attempt to save the football club from a winding-up order over unpaid taxes.[12] In May 2008, it became public that the other two clubs besides Ebbsfleet United that MyFC had come closest to purchasing were League 2's Mansfield Town F.C. and Leigh R.M.I. F.C. of the Conference North.[13]

[edit] Ebbsfleet United

On 13 November 2007, MyFootballClub announced that it had agreed in principle to purchase Conference National club Ebbsfleet United F.C., which had been known as Gravesend and Northfleet F.C. until early in 2007. Ebbsfleet United was chosen out of the nine football clubs that approached MyFC about a possible purchase.[14] A process of due diligence was entered into, with "lawyers and the accountants...looking through the books and the accounts to make sure there are no skeletons in the cupboards". On 16 January 2008, MyFootballClub announced the terms of its purchase of Ebbsfleet United and gave its members one week to vote on the sale.[15]; 18,112 members voted on the takeover, with 95.89% (17,368 members) in favour.[5]

Current Ebbsfleet United manager Liam Daish voiced his support for the deal soon after it was publicly announced.[16] Speaking on the official Ebbsfleet United website, Daish said:

"Everyone has worked wonders to get this club into the top half of the Conference. We all agree the club needs something extra to take it to the next step. As a football fan, I think the MyFootballClub idea is fantastic. And as the coach, I look forward to the challenge of working with thousands of members to produce a winning team. Alan Kimble and myself are 100% committed to making this work." [17]

Opinions on the proposed deal were mixed, as Daish's view was echoed by some football fans, but others, including some people currently involved with the sport, were less sanguine about MyFootballClub's involvement with Ebbsfleet United.[18] Even some football insiders were positive about MyFC's proposed purchase of Ebbsfleet, however, including a representative of Brentford F.C., who told CNN that the deal was " a very positive move for football because the club is owned by people who have real passion for it."[14]

Following the approval of the purchase of Ebbsfleet United by the members of MyFC in January 2008, the leadership of MyFootballClub stated that its members would be able to make decisions affecting the club in future, including picking the starting lineup for matches, but a later members' vote resulted in a decision to leave selection issues to head coach Liam Daish..[5] Ebbsfleet United's first trip to Wembley Stadium, and victory in the 2008 FA Trophy added to the publicity for the project,[19] but questions about an internet society owning a football club remained.[20]

[edit] Membership and Worldwide reach

MyFootballClub members come from over 70 countries. One of the regions in which MyFootballClub was most popular was Scandinavia, and by the end of October 2007, MyFC had 380 paying members from Norway, 280 from Sweden, 97 from Finland, and 88 from Denmark.[21] By January 2008, over 1,500 Americans had become paid members of MyFootballClub.[3]

Additionally, non-English members of MyFC have begun to attend matches of Ebbsfleet United. As one example, at the 5 January 2008 Ebbsfleet home match against Weymouth at Stonebridge Road, MyFC members that hailed from Berlin, Copenhagen, and Florida were in attendance.[22]

Media outlets from all over the world have also shown a continuing interest in the project, including news organizations from Australia,[23][24] Germany,[25] India,[26] Italy,[27] Sweden,[21] and the United States.[28]

By 14 May 2008, paid up membership in MyFC reached 30,000

[edit] Similar projects

Projects that are similar to MyFootballClub exist in both England and in at least eight other countries.[3] The ownership of the semi-professional English football club Biggleswade United F.C. inaugurated myBUFC in September 2007, which aims to put the management of that club in the hands of paid-up members, both on and off the field, in a way similar to MyFootballClub.[29] The People's Club was launched in October 2007 and is a similar scheme looking to allow fans to acquire and run a lower-level English football club.[30]

Projects outside the UK include:

  • Brazil: MTDF, or "Meu Time de Futebol," was launched in January 2008 with the aim of acquiring a club in the second tier of Brazilian football by the end of 2008.[31]
  • Italy: Squadramia, which was started in January 2008, is an online community that seeks 20,000 members to buy an Italian football club.[32]
  • Denmark: Mitsuperligahold, which was launched in August 2007 with the aim of acquiring a club in the second tier of professional Danish football, the First Division.[33]
  • France: Web F.C. allows its members, called "entraînautes," to vote on strategic and tactical decisions relating to a lower-level French club in the Ligue de Basse-Normandie through a website. Unlike MyFootballClub's members, members of Web F.C. do not have to pay a fee to participate in the decision-making, but the more they participate, the more value his or her vote is accorded.[34]
  • Israel: Web2Sport currently operates Hapoel Kiryay Shalom, a Tel Aviv club that plays in Liga Gimel, the sixth tier of Israeli football. Web2Sport allows voting on numerous club functions, including the composition of the club's starting lineup.[35]
  • Russia: MyFootballClub.ru has a proposed start date of 2007-12-10, but is not affiliated with MyFC.[36]
  • Spain: miclubdefutbol.com proposes to raise funds and buy a Spanish lower league club,[37] as does Mi Equipo Favorito, which was launched in January 2008 with the aim of acquiring a club in a Spanish league.[38]
  • United States: MySoccerClubUSA will allow fans who pay a fee to join a website which will start a club from scratch to play in either the United Soccer Leagues (USL) or the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL).[39] Another Web site, SaveTheVictory.org, is attempting to raise enough money to purchase the now-defunct San Francisco-based USL club, California Victory. [40]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d MyFootballClub Homepage. MyFootballClub.co.uk (2007-08-01). Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
  2. ^ Perry, Alex and Sinnott, John (2007-11-13). Website agrees Ebbsfleet takeover. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
  3. ^ a b c Colchester, Max (2008-01-02). One Team Gets 26,000 Owners -- All With a Vote on Who Plays. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
  4. ^ a b Fans website to vote on takeover. BBC Sport (2008-01-16). Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
  5. ^ a b c Fans website approve Fleet deal. BBC Sport (2008-01-23). Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  6. ^ a b Sinnott, John (2007-06-01). Fans given club takeover chance. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  7. ^ Richmond, Shane (2007-07-31). Want to buy a football club?. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
  8. ^ Wilson, Hugh (2007-07-23). The football club with 50,000 managers. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
  9. ^ Green, Paul (2007-12-18). Fleet board explain takeover to fans. The News Shopper. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  10. ^ a b From the newsdesk. MyFootballClub (2007-08-06). Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  11. ^ Rajan, Amol (2007-08-20). MyFootballClub.com close to buying first team. The Independent. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
  12. ^ Perry, Alex (2007-09-03). Fans' website could save Halifax. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
  13. ^ de Castella, Tom (2008-05-07). Ebbsfleet United: A team of my own. The Telegraph Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  14. ^ a b Schwartz, Brie (2007-11-14). Web browsers purchase English team. CNN. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
  15. ^ Green, Paul (2008-01-16). Fleet takeover set for approval. The News Shopper. Retrieved on 2008-01-16.
  16. ^ Woloszyn, Paul (2007-11-16). Fans have their say. uefa.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
  17. ^ Ebbsfleet United Football Club Official Website (2007-11-13). Reaction to the MyFootballClub deal. Ebbsfleet United F.C.. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
  18. ^ Nakrani, Sachin (2007-11-14). Website deal brings X Factor to non-league club. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
  19. ^ Nakrani, Sachin (2008-05-08). Ebbsfleet hail progress from online phenomenon to Wembley finalists. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
  20. ^ Hart, Simon (2008-05-10). Web fans log on to Ebbsfleet FA Trophy glory. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  21. ^ a b Kederstedt, Daniel (2007-10-31). Köp din egen fotbollsklubb (Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
  22. ^ American, German, Danish . . . meet Fleet's new fans. Gravesend Reporter (2008-01-09). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
  23. ^ Chadwick, Phill (2007-08-07). Psst ... wanna buy a Football Club?. SportsAustralia. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
  24. ^ O'Regan, Mick (2008-05-16). The Sports Factor. Radio National. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  25. ^ Klappenbach, Mathias (2007-09-16). Die Weisheit der Vielen: 50 000 Fans wollen in England einen Klub kaufen – und gemeinsam managen (The wisdom of the many: 50,000 fans in England want to buy a club) (German). Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
  26. ^ Internet collective buys controlling interest in English soccer team. MSN India (2007-11-14). Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
  27. ^ Castelli, Luca (2008-01-07). Ebbsfleet United, la squadra dai 26000 proprietari online (Italian). La Stampa. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
  28. ^ Kaufman, King (2007-11-14). Web site buys English soccer team, fans to manage by vote. Salon. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
  29. ^ Jeffery, Roger (2007-11-14). The crowd seems game. durham21. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
  30. ^ The People's Club. Retrieved on 2007-12-10.
  31. ^ MTDF (Portuguese). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
  32. ^ Squadramia (Italian). Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
  33. ^ Mitsuperligahold (Danish). Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
  34. ^ Web F.C. (French). Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  35. ^ Lewis, Ori (2007-10-23). Israeli soccer club puts online fans in charge. Reuters. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  36. ^ MyFootballClub.ru (Russian). Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
  37. ^ miclubdefutbol.com (Spanish). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
  38. ^ Miequipofavorito.com (Spanish). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
  39. ^ MySoccerClubUSA. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
  40. ^ SaveTheVictory. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.