Web Site Gives World's Fans Purchase Power

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.

The first media report about MyFootballClub appeared on the BBC Sport Web page May 1, less than a week after the site launched. In it, Brooks claimed that he had "created a vehicle that will pool fans' opinions, passion and wealth and turn fantasy [soccer] into reality." These were bold words, and within 90 minutes of their appearance online, more than a thousand people visited the days-old site and registered.

By the end of the month, MyFootballClub counted 28,000 registrants from Europe, Africa, North and South America, Australia and the South Pacific -- each having pledged their hopes, dreams, and $70 to the cause.

The changes to the century-old standards of team management that Brooks proposes for MyFootballClub are staggering. Its potential for any kind of sustainable success in a sports market as wickedly unstable as British soccer -- especially in the fourth- and fifth-tier divisions -- is hardly guaranteed.

Add to that the unprecedented reliance on club members to vote on who plays each week, and in what formation they line up, and the possibilities for a meltdown are numerous, if not individually insurmountable.

Trust in the fans' better judgment, the so-called "wisdom of crowds," is at the core of the MyFootballClub ethos. Even as Brooks's plan was being rejected by venture capitalists and existing clubs, he kept up hope for the simple reason that "every friend or fan I spoke to loved it."

But where goodwill fails, especially in the case of the notoriously tenuous relationship between manager and supporter, Brooks is placing his faith in simple economics.

"The coach will have a contract with the football club," he said, "and if his employment is terminated, then compensation may become payable. Clearly, members will take this in to account in reaching a decision … This will act as a deterrent, as frequent change may make members feel that their money is being wasted."

As for Brooks, when the takeover is complete he said he will fade into the background, using a 21 percent cut from each member's annual fee to build, maintain, and staff the club Web site.

"It will be a complex site," he said, "as it will be the first used to run a team. I have made decisions thus far as we have no members -- but the moment we buy a club, I won't have anymore say."

The question of which club to purchase has also been put to prospective members. But as no one has been asked for money yet, the ongoing vote remains unofficial. Fallen giants Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, both former champions of Europe, are at the top of the list. The more likely candidates are fourth and fifth division clubs like Cambridge United and Accrington Stanley.

"It's not up to me," Brooks said of the buying process. "We will work our way down the list generated by members until the most suitable club is found … There are many criteria involved in this. We must leave it to the accountants and lawyers to find a club which will offer MyFootballClub members the best chance of success."

DLA Piper's Michael Fiddy, a partner at his firm and a former managing director of the Premiership's Fulham F.C., will do the bulk of the negotiating once the membership funds have been delivered.

Brooks met Fiddy around 2001, when Fiddy was at Fulham and Brooks worked as a sports journalist at British magazine "Match of the Day." Fiddy is not an employee of MyFootballClub, but DLA Piper is on retainer to Brooks.

"We wanted some kind of credibility," Brooks said, "and Fiddy seemed up to the ideal."

For his part, Fiddy believes that MyFootballClub, despite its dramatic plans, is rooted in sound economic planning.

"Business and sport are not wrapped in guarantees for success, but this is a great concept and subscribers should get a good experience for their relatively small commitment," Fiddy said. "I would not be associated with the project if I did not have faith in the integrity of the proposition."

The new English soccer season is set to arrive in early August. And with MyFootballClub registration now at 40,297, and growing at an estimated rate of 300-400 potential members per day, a new era for international sports could be close behind.