Website takeover of a Football Club

**MyTown** · 02/08/2007, 3:04 PM

Could this ever happen in Ireland?

Is Foot.ie the site to do it?

**osarusan** · 02/08/2007, 3:07 PM

too much infighting. It would be possible to buy, in England, a club that the vast majority of sharehelders had no beef with, and would genuinely want to see doing well. Don't think it would be possible here.

**bigmac** · 02/08/2007, 3:21 PM

Are there any Foot.ie posters signed up to it?

**jebus** · 02/08/2007, 3:23 PM

Originally Posted by bigmac

Are there any Foot.ie posters signed up to it?

I was thinking about it, but then I realised that I'm unemployed and hadn't eaten in two days

**Jofspring** · 02/08/2007, 3:29 PM

there is a rugby website doing the same thing.....they want 75,000 ppl to sign up and when they reach that they want �20 off everyone. they are also voting on what club to buy or invest in for when they reach there goal.

**bellavistaman** · 02/08/2007, 3:55 PM

Good idea to be fair

**Fingal hoop** · 02/08/2007, 3:56 PM

SRFC fans own the club

**OneRedArmy** · 02/08/2007, 3:57 PM

I'd like to use something like this to buy Shels and run it out of business.

Unfortunately someone beat me to it.

**half_full** · 02/08/2007, 4:01 PM

Originally Posted by bigmac

Are there any Foot.ie posters signed up to it?

yeah i signed up, after checking around that this was ligit. you only have to pay up if a deal is reached to buy a club

**dcfcsteve** · 02/08/2007, 4:58 PM

Originally Posted by bellavistaman

Good idea to be fair

Sh!t idea that makes a mockery of football.

The core of football is identity and community. Of all the football supporters in all the world, Irish ones know this better than most. That is why it is anathema in the game to have 'franchises'. That is why most fans in most countries pick their local team, or a side they can identify with, rather than all just run along following after the best team.

This nonesense idea of a load of random people getting together to raid ownership of a club from its existing community/supporters is the extreme of all that is wrong with the direction that parts of the football game are slowing moving in. At leats when Red Bull raped FC Salzburg, they did it for business purposes. This idea is to do an FC Salzburg - 'for fun'......

If it happened to any Irish club, we'd all be up in arms.

P.S. You're about 3 months out of date, as we've had a thread on this already...

**half_full** · 02/08/2007, 5:06 PM

TBH id hate if something like this was tried to my club or another eL club. But this is the english league, which stopped having anything to do with community about 15 years ago...

**Da Real Rover** · 02/08/2007, 5:10 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Sh!t idea that makes a mockery of football.

The core of football is identity and community. Of all the football supporters in all the world, Irish ones know this better than most. That is why it is anathema in the game to have 'franchises'. That is why most fans in most countries pick their local team, or a side they can identify with, rather than all just run along following after the best team.

This nonesense idea of a load of random people getting together to raid ownership of a club from its existing community/supporters is the extreme of all that is wrong with the direction that parts of the football game are slowing moving in. At leats when Red Bull raped FC Salzburg, they did it for business purposes. This idea is to do an FC Salzburg - 'for fun'......

If it happened to any Irish club, we'd all be up in arms.

P.S. You're about 3 months out of date, as we've had a thread on this already...

Agree 100%, its wrong.

**Steve Bruce** · 02/08/2007, 5:12 PM

I've signed up to it, but not sure how this is going to work. Supporters picking the team and formation etc. Doesn't sound like a good way of managing a club.

**LeixlipRed** · 02/08/2007, 5:15 PM

Signed up and got an email asking me to pay today. I'd never do it if it was an Irish club mind you

**Plastic Paddy** · 02/08/2007, 5:36 PM

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Sh!t idea that makes a mockery of football.

Meanwhile in the real world new business models are emerging in football and thanks to new technology this is one of them. Would you rather, Steve, that a small club slowly withered and died instead? Simply put this has the potential to increase a small club's following, profile and income and should be welcomed as such.

Just to take one example, Cambridge United have been skint for a good while now and have as a result dropped to the fifth tier of English football. It's fair to say that they could do with the extra cash and interest that this brings them. Barnet and Accrington could no doubt also use the investment although I know that Paul Fairclough wouldn't stay more than two minutes at Barnet if he had to take team orders from anyone else

. Accrington has the smallest support in the Football League so there's plenty of room at the Crown Ground for newcomers. Imagine as well owning a part of such an iconic club; you are buying a piece of a phoenix.

If existing fans or fans elsewhere want this style of involvement for their own clubs why not set up a supporters' trust and buy in themselves? You know all about the fan-owned clubs here and their varying levels of success so I don't need to list the examples.

And as for Leeds? Ken Bates is the very epitome of all that is wrong in football ownership today. The community or local businessman ownership model that still predominates in Ireland has been joined by several other methods in England but surely none can produce an owner so crass and cynical as Bates.

In conclusion, don't be so bloody pompous.

Why shouldn't this be a positive thing for the club involved and for the wider game? It's a fantastic alternative to the deposed despot/robber baron new breed of owner now taking root in the Premiershi*. It sounds like fun.

PP

And yes, me and the missus have bought a share...

**BohDiddley** · 02/08/2007, 5:49 PM

Certainly no less legitimate than a PLC, a US franchise merchant, a media mogul prime minister or a Thai human rights abuser.

**paul_oshea** · 02/08/2007, 5:54 PM

who would actually pay up when it came to the crunch? you can be sure half wouldnt bother putting their money in at the end. its a joke in fairness. A good PR stunt though. This lad knows what he is at.