Fans take a shot at big time buying soccer club

HUNDREDS of Irish soccer fans have invested almost €20,000 to become part-owners of an English soccer team.

The MyFootballClub website which was launched in Britain four months ago by ex-football journalist Will Brooks is seeking fans willing to invest £35 (€52) each to buy a team, with each member an equal partner.

The aim is for 50,000 people to sign up, meaning the site would have £1.37 million (€2.03 million) from the joining fee alone to buy a club.

Members will then have a vote on which club and players to buy and they will pick the team each week.

Only decisions made just before, or during, a game will be purely down to the coach.

When the website went live in April, 53,000 people declared an interest in joining.

Mr Brooks is now thought to have raised more than £500,000 (€740,000) since the fund-raising stage started last month.

The most popular targets among the site’s fans are League One teams Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, plus Conference side Cambridge United.

Mr Brooks said they have received massive interest from Ireland and already have about 400 paid-up Irish members.

He added Dublin football club Shelbourne is a club they intend to look at as a second football club to buy.

“Somebody recommended Shelbourne to us as a club to buy because if we bought it we’d have a chance to play in the Champions League. It’s something we might consider in the future but not this time round as we have always said from the start that it’ll be an English club we’ll buy,” he said.

One football club to have approached MyFootballClub are Halifax Town, who are facing a winding-up order tomorrow over £100,000 of unpaid taxes.

The MyFootballClub legal team said: “We are not privy to Halifax Town’s internal financial dealings. However, the club is a popular choice among our members, so it is one we will consider.”

The MyFootballClub trust has registered with Britain’s Financial Services Authority and brought in Michael Fiddy, former Fulham managing director and a partner at City law firm DLA Piper, to lead any negotiations.