MyFootballClub

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]

Background

The venture is being engineered by former football journalist Will Brooks.^[4] The purchase fund was estimated at £1,375,000 if 50,000 people were to sign up. All members will have an equal share in the club and will collectively manage the 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.^[5] 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 could 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,^[4] and MyFootballClub's managers have opened talks with a number of clubs from those leagues.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7] On 6 August 2007 it was revealed that four clubs had approached MyFootballClub about the possibility of a sale.^[7] 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.^[8] On 3 September 2007 it was reported that Halifax Town had approached MyFootballClub in an attempt to save the club from a winding-up order over unpaid taxes.^[9] The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported on 16 September 2007 that MyFootballClub had approximately 25,000 paid up members.^[10] As of 19 December 2007, Brooks told The Guardian that MyFC currently had more than 25,000 fully paid members, which represent 73 countries and have an average age of 27 years old.^[11]

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.^[12] MyFC members will vote on whether to complete the purchase of Ebbsfleet United after financial due diligence has been done. Current Ebbsfleet United manager Liam Daish voiced his support for the deal soon after it was publicly announced.^[13] 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." ^[14]

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.^[15] 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."^[12] MyFootballClub initially hoped that due diligence for its purchase of Ebbsfleet United would be completed before the end of 2007, but due to the complexity of the transaction and its unique nature, "lawyers and the accountants are still at the club looking through the books and the accounts to make sure there are no skeletons in the cupboards," according to Brooks. Due diligence is now scheduled to wrap up by mid-January 2008.^[11]

Worldwide reach

MyFootballClub members hail from over 70 countries around the world,^[11] and many people not usually associated with English football have signed up. Some fans from countries outside of the United Kingdom have taken the opportunity allowed by MyFC to learn more about association football. According to one American MyFC member who joined with his family, "we plan on doing our homework and boning up on the league and the players."^[16] By January 2008, over 1,500 Americans have become paid members of MyFootballClub.^[3] Media outlets from all over the world have also shown a consistent interest in MyFootballClub, including news organizations from Australia,^[17] Germany,^[10] India,^[18] and the United States.^[19]

Similar projects

Projects that are similar to MyFootballClub exist in both England and in at least five 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.^[20] 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.^[21] Projects outside the UK include:

• 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.^[22]
• 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.^[23]
• Israel: Web2Sport currently operates Hapoel Kiryat 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.^[24]
• Russia: MyFootballClub.ru has a proposed start date of 2007-12-10, but is not affiliated with MyFC.^[25]
• Spain: miclubdefutbol.com proposes to raise funds and buy a Spanish lower league club.^[26]
• 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).^[27] Another Web site, SaveTheVictory.org, is attempting to raise enough money to purchase the now-defunct San Francisco-based USL club, California Victory. ^[28]

See also

• Crowdsourcing
• Tuangou
• Wisdom of Crowds

References