Update: Five Pound Football Club
In case you didn’t catch our first post about this, we ran across this awesome fan ownership campaign on the web run by a suave guy by the name of Nick Thompson. The idea is to get people from across the globe to invest £5, and in turn, you will become part owner of a Football Club. Yes, you can be an owner, it’s pretty sweet. So far, the project is moving along nicely. There are 367 members to-date. However, we are still shy of the first membership goal of 500. That’s where you come in. If you’ve ever played FIFA and torn your hair out at how lame the Manager Mode is, this is your chance to really get your feet wet in the administrative world of Football. I’ll give everyone a run down on how the project works:
Community Focus – First and foremost, the FPFC project prides itself on promoting a sensibly run club that will be active in the community. This means we won’t be running up ridiculous debts, selling out to Oil Tycoons, or tapping up Ashley Cole to play much worse for us than he did at Arsenal while we pay him way more. (Chelsea jibe) We want to help the club progress, while maintaining a sustainable model that will stay focused on doing good in the community. This is as open-ended as supporting youth Football to building recreational parks or civic buildings. A library would be nice. It could have historic textbooks that will help teach young children about the evils of the Nazis or the mismanagement of Portsmouth Football Club.
Member Discussions and Voting – As this model is central to fan-ownership, the FPFC website provides a great forum for discussion and voting for owners. So far there have been some great discussions about which league, which nation, and which tier the club we invest in should reside. There have also been polls such as “The Most Important Football Club Factor”, in which the BigSleezy threw his vote to potential fan-base. It won with a whopping 62%. BigSleezy… a trendsetter? You better believe it. Anyway, in the future, when we find a club to invest it, you will be able to vote and discuss everything from player signings to what the club should invest its money into. Also, plenty of information regarding squad performance and the state of the club will be provided to the owners. Live match-streaming will hopefully be available so you can watch your investment score from a brilliant header off a whipped in corner.
Where We Stand – As I stated before, our first goal is the reach 500 members. That means we need 133 more people to meet our first milestone. The sooner we meet our goal, the sooner we can get serious about investing in a club. That brings me the the next point: choosing a club. We are strategically scouring Ireland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland as we search for a club to purchase. If anything, the project has been a great way to get informed and learn about how these prospective leagues/nations operate.
Check out FivePoundFootballClub.com to learn more and buy a share. It really is a cool idea, and could be a revolutionary one as well. There is even a money back guarantee. (like £5 is really a lot to lose anyway… well maybe in America… that’s like $800 I think)