We were and are proud supporters of FC United.” Grass grows from the roots and so should football. The club secured £175,000 in loans from Big Issue Invest – The Big Issue’s social investment arm – in February 2019 to help pay off outstanding loans relating to community loan stock held by individuals that funded the stadium.ĭanyal Sattar, Big Issue Invest chief executive, said: “This is what the future of football should look like. The Big Issue played a small role in helping the club. FC United’s Broadhurst Park in Moston is not only home to the club’s football sides, it’s the base for community efforts to tackle hunger, obesity and poverty. The club also has the mission of improving welfare and wellbeing and education and employability in the area. When the club’s ground, Broadhurst Park, opened in Moston, Manchester, in 2015, it wasn’t just for matches. Now in the Northern Premier League, the club made it as high as the National League North – two promotions away from the EFL – in 2015 before slipping down a division in 2019.įC United is also a not-for-profit organisation. The club’s constitution does not allow a shirt sponsor and does not allow an individual or company to ever buy the club so “no fat-cats can get their hands on our club’s money”, as FC United puts it. The club has 1,120 owners with each paying at least £15 to have one vote on major decisions made democratically by the club.
FC United of Manchesterįamously conceived in a Manchester curry house, FC United of Manchester was set up as a two-fingered salute to the excess and greed behind the Glazer family’s 2005 takeover of Manchester United.įans were fed up with paying sky-high ticket prices to service debts leveraged on the club by new American owners happy to take a healthy dividend.Įnter FC United. Here are 11 football clubs that do things differently. There will always be different ownership models, but our endgame is to make sure that the community asset that is the football club is sustainable and there for future generations.” To my mind that would be an absolute utopia and what I would like to see happen, but the reality is very different. “We don’t necessarily think that every football club will be community owned in the future. We believe that it can work in our club.’ We believe it can work at all clubs,” the FSA’s Irving adds. “We are beginning to get a lot more calls from people saying: ‘We’re not in any form of crisis but we think this is the model for us. While community ownership didn’t factor heavily in the review, there has been a movement towards more fan takeovers, even before clubs reach crisis point. The report recommends new tests for owners and directors as well as the creation of an independent regulator. The government announced a fan-led review of football governance, led by MP Tracey Crouch, back in April 2021. “We want clubs to be funded by the community, supported by their community and have the heart of the community,” he says. He tells The Big Issue community and sustainability are at the heart of the model.
Richard Irving is the Football Supporters’ Association’s network manager for community-owned clubs.
Manictime in 1986 hit professional#
It’s also a way to return clubs to their original purpose of serving their community and making sustainability as much of a goal as silverware.Īround 40 clubs in the football pyramid are owned by fans, including three professional clubs in the EFL: League One’s Exeter City as well as AFC Wimbledon and Newport County in League Two.
It’s a chance to start a new club moulded in a new image – an understandable reaction to the financial meltdowns that have sent old clubs to the wall. Fan ownership of clubs offers a defiant alternative to moneybags owners and overpriced season tickets. But for some clubs, football really is nothing without the fans.
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