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Is football heading back to the fans?


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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23669759

 

A third of owners surveyed at Championship and League One clubs are considering selling in the next 12 to 18 months despite new Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, according to new research.

"Buyers are increasingly likely to be supporters, who recognise the important role that clubs play in their local communities and seem to be willing to go back to basics, with overly ambitious promises of silverware traded for closer ties and greater financial stability - a backlash, perhaps, against the profligacy of previous regimes"

 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23669759

 

A third of owners surveyed at Championship and League One clubs are considering selling in the next 12 to 18 months despite new Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, according to new research.

"Buyers are increasingly likely to be supporters, who recognise the important role that clubs play in their local communities and seem to be willing to go back to basics, with overly ambitious promises of silverware traded for closer ties and greater financial stability - a backlash, perhaps, against the profligacy of previous regimes"

 

Considering selling and actually doing it are very different. SC has been trying to sell for years.

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While teams like Manchester United exist football will never fall into the fans hands.

I was watching a program on TV last night about being German. The guy presenting was living as an average German in Nuremburg. He went to watch Bayern Munich, and got good seats all for the price of 15 euros, and I think that includes public transport to the ground. Fans own the clubs over their, and it's nigh on impossible for a Russian or American billionaire to buy a club.

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I was watching a program on TV last night about being German. The guy presenting was living as an average German in Nuremburg. He went to watch Bayern Munich, and got good seats all for the price of 15 euros, and I think that includes public transport to the ground. Fans own the clubs over their, and it's nigh on impossible for a Russian or American billionaire to buy a club.

 

I think every club over there has at least a 51% stake by the fans

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I was watching a program on TV last night about being German. The guy presenting was living as an average German in Nuremburg. He went to watch Bayern Munich, and got good seats all for the price of 15 euros, and I think that includes public transport to the ground. Fans own the clubs over their, and it's nigh on impossible for a Russian or American billionaire to buy a club.

 

The system could work.

 

However, my teams like Man United comment was not meant as a slight - they have built themselves into a global industry. Far too much profit available for someone with good business sense to make. These people would always hold more sway than the average fan.

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Not while the likes of Hull, Blackpool, Burnley etc can get into the top flight and Wolves, Sheff Utd & Leeds can end up down here.

 

Once that stops the game will die.

 

 

3 clubs have a realistic chance of winning the premier league, and there is zero chance of any team winning promotion from the Championship and challenging up at the top end within a few years. The money has already made it pretty uncompetitive.

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3 clubs have a realistic chance of winning the premier league, and there is zero chance of any team winning promotion from the Championship and challenging up at the top end within a few years. The money has already made it pretty uncompetitive.

That's been the case to an extent for 35 years though.

 

Only Forest and, possibly, Leeds won the League beating money with good management.

 

I doubt we'll see that again though unless the game really does implode at some point.

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3 clubs have a realistic chance of winning the premier league, and there is zero chance of any team winning promotion from the Championship and challenging up at the top end within a few years. The money has already made it pretty uncompetitive.

Just how it was in the mid 80's... Liverpool, Arsenal and ManUre!

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Just how it was in the mid 80's... Liverpool, Arsenal and ManUre!

Everton and Villa won titles in the 1980s, alongside Arsenal.

 

Liverpool won six out of ten that decade.

 

Man Utd only managed to finish in the top three on three occasions, never winning a title.

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I think in the lower portion of the league pyramid, community or supporter owned clubs will be more prevalent in the coming years. The Premiership and the scramble for it, will go on almost as an alternate footballing reality.

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Just how it was in the mid 80's... Liverpool, Arsenal and ManUre!

In the 1980s 11 different clubs finished in the top 3, including clubs like Ipswich, Watford, Southampton and West Ham.

 

In the last 10 seasons, only 5 different clubs have had top 3 finishes. And the most recent of the clubs to break into the top 3 needed the biggest investment in English football history to break into it.

 

So in the 80s it was possible for an unfashionable club to have a good season and compete at the right end of the table. Whereas now, there's no chance of that happening at all.

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There is no simple answer the the question.

 

You could say yes: Look at Bolton listening to the fans and reneging on a sponsorship deal because a large number of their fans saw the company as unethical. Or take Everton promising to take another look at the redesign of their badge after it got a poor reception.

 

Then on the other hand you could say no: The guys running Coventry aren't looking out for or listening to the fans, Assem Allam has renamed Hull City the Hull City Tigers despite significant opposition and Vincent Tan changed Cardiff City's - The Bluebirds - home colours from blue and white to red and black, ignoring supporters' objections.

 

I think that whilst yes, some good owners are giving the fans more of a say - or at least keeping them more involved - there are just as many running the club without any concern for the fans.

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Call me a cynic but I think we're more likely to see clubs fail and go bust than fan ownership become a lot more common.

 

People don't have the money to pump into their clubs to keep them afloat at their current levels. How many fans would be willing to pay regularly to sustain our outgoings? And how many would give up when they realised success wasn't guaranteed and relying on the funds from fan ownership might mean relegation or more lower-mid-table mediocrity? (Look at Ebbsfleet for a vaguely related example.)

 

In a better world lots of fan-owned clubs happening simultaneously might reduce the expectation of fans and thereby the dependence on sugar daddies and the influence of money. (If everyone accepted we have to collectively cut our cloth.) But I just can't see how we'd get there. There'll always be vanity owners and TV money and gimmicks (like my second club, Farnborough, and their ludicrous deal with Paddy Power announced this week where a six-figure sum has bought stadium renaming and even deed poll renaming of the playing squad).

 

It's depressing all round.

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