Web Site Gives World's Fans Purchase Power
A British journalist is soliciting fans online who want to buy a soccer team.
June 28, 2007— -- The most buzzed about takeover bid in English soccer this summer comes from deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- he wants to spend $160.2 million on Premier League slackers Manchester City.
But Shinawatra, who was removed from office by a military junta last year, is only the second least likely character in the 2007 ownership market.
Will Brooks, a British copywriter and former sports journalist, has a plan that makes the former Thai leader's bid look downright common. He launched a Web site -- www.MyFootballClub.co.uk -- in late April that could within weeks have enough members and money to buy a club in the middle tier of English soccer.
"We want to break all the rules but in the best possible way," Brooks told ABC News from his home in London. "Everyone here loves football, but it hasn't always changed with the times."
The plan is shockingly simple: 50,000 prospective members register online and pledge $70 per person. When the registration goal is met, each hopeful will be asked to send their money via PayPal to Brooks.
Brooks, with guidance from lawyer Michael Fiddy of DLA Piper, will negotiate the purchase of an existing club. When the transaction is complete, members will be given an equal say in running the club's operations -- that means a single vote on every critical decision, from the player selection to which company makes the team uniforms. As of June 26, more than 40,000 people had signed on.
Fan ownership in European soccer is nothing new. Two of the biggest clubs in the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona, are controlled by shareholders, or "socios." But every four years, the "socios" vote on a new team president, who is given the authority to hire and fire a manager and pursue on-field talent. With the election complete, supporters are banished to the pubs and chat rooms.
For MyFootballClub, there will be constant connection between the members and the team -- one predicated on the Internet being a place where passion for sport can meet with an idealistic online bourgeois culture to form a real supporter's club.
