Hot Air and a Cool Breeze

This press release of the momentous moment of the merging of these two bodies seems to me to smack of desperation now they have lost there most significant ally and focus of attention. Rafa Benitez.

Desperately short of any meaningful content and boringly long on self importance. Who exactly are they proposing to take the club back from would seem a pertinent question to me?

The exisiting owners have the club up for sale so it can't be them. The new owners who are not as yet known and who will part with hard cash to rightfully own the club?

This may be an admirable cause that aspires to the dreams of fans to control their own club and have a say in how it is run if it wasn't for the calibre of people who seem to be behind this campaign. Sadly they seem to think that being a fan of a football club gives you automatic rights to say how it is run because you choose for your own personal pleasure to support this team. Get real lads or at least get some people to represent you who can win the support of the supporters let alone the owners. The truth is with your most important agitator who used you to try and keep himself in a job gone you have been sidelined by the appointment of Roy Hodgson and new owners would only push you further back.



Can't help being reminded of certain verses from Pink Floyds "Wish you were here"

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
And cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war,
For a lead role in a cage?



LIVERPOOL Supporters Union Spirit Of Shankly and ShareLiverpoolFC vowed to “take back our football club” after reaching an agreement to push forward as one united force.

The two organisations have been working closely together for some time but have recognised the need for a unified organisation to successfully pursue their goal of fan ownership of Liverpool.

The target is to make Liverpool the first Premier League club in the UK to be owned by its own fans. They want to emulate the model of successful European clubs like Bayern Munich where fans own 80% of the club.

In a joint statement the Spirit Of Shankly management committee and ShareLiverpoolFC board added: “This will see ShareLiverpoolFC rebranded as Spirit Of Shankly – ShareLiverpoolFC (SOS-SL), bringing together the combined resources of both organisations to work on the issue of supporter ownership.

“By working as one we will be much more effective in achieving that goal.

“Using the strengths and attributes of both Spirit Of Shankly and ShareLiverpoolFC, along with the supporters who back them, we will: continue to develop the model of supporter ownership, work to secure the funds necessary to acquire supporter ownership of the club, through direct share purchases and the Spirit Of Shankly Credit Union, oversee the launch of the share issue to raise these funds, promote the issue of supporter ownership through high quality, consistent communications and represent 50,000 (and rising) Liverpool fans on this issue, providing a unified voice that cannot be disregarded


“SOS-SL will retain ShareLiverpoolFC’s constitutional status as an investment vehicle through which shares can be purchased to take a stake in LFC and will, like the soon to be launched Credit Union, have its own management committee.

“This will comprise members from the current board of ShareLiverpoolFC and representatives from Spirit Of Shankly.

“In order to bring greater unity to the supporter ownership campaign SOS-SL will be represented, alongside the Credit Union, on the Spirit Of Shankly management committee, enabling us to build one unified campaign.

“Working together is clearly the best result for all of us. By combining forces on this issue we are creating a massive organisation of LFC supporters in pursuit of a shared aim.

“Every single one of us, speaking with one voice, letting everyone know that this is our club, not only emotionally but financially too.

“We have to build on the momentum we have now, grow and become stronger, to become truly representative of the entire fan base.

“Then as one, working together, speaking together, let's become proper custodians. Let's take back our football club.”


Get with it lads and stop this divisiveness for the sake of it and get behind your team and club, I really do wish you were here.

Below is an article on the Arsenal fanshare scheme and a reccomendation from the journalist Henry Winter that every club should have one?

But is this truly the case? If you look at this scheme in detail it actually gives the fans very little if nothing for their money. They have no influence in decision making on the board, they have no votes, they will never be allowed to increase their stakeholding to the minimum level required to truly make any difference.

It seems the only merits of the scheme for the supporters is that they might be better informed of what is happening at their club albeit with absolutley no power to prevent whatever it is from happening.

The advantages for the club? A nice steady stream of cash flowing into the club and an automatic market for any director deciding to cash in some of his shares. Not exactly a fans nirvana of actually having some control over their club though is it?


By Henry Winter
Published: 7:30AM BST 18 Aug 2010



Fans' voice: Arsenal supporters' say in club matters has grown stronger since the club first moved to the Emirates Stadium four years ago A touch of class has also governed their thoughts and the club's assorted rulers deserve praise for recommending the Arsenal Supporters' Trust's innovative, well-organised Fanshare scheme.

It's not all old-school paternalism, though. By backing a mechanism that allows a fan to own a fraction of a share for £10 a month upwards, the leading shareholding quartet of Stan Kroenke, Alisher Usmanov, Danny Fiszman and Lady Bracewell-Smith will effectively, if inadvertently, ensure the share value should stay high, currently up to a stratospheric £10,000.


The scheme also ties fans closer to the current board, making them easier to sell merchandising to. It also precludes the possibility of terrace dissent as witnessed at Anfield and Old Trafford. Clever stuff. Yet it needs stressing that the board's intentions are largely altruistic.

The scheme has not emanated from the Emirates boardroom, from the mountains of Colorado or the dark wilds of Uzbekistan, but from the Arsenal Supporters' Trust, who have spent five years working on a heavyweight initiative that fans of other clubs should look at (as Sheffield Wednesday's did in the Eighties).

The AST's aim is impeccable: protecting the long-term future of the club. The right custodianship is essential. Nobody wants unloved types like Hicks, Gillett or the Glazers at the Emirates. As a survey in one Arsenal fanzine will shortly reveal, the majority of supporters are against private ownership by one Croesus-rich individual.

The general principle of "plurality of ownership'', however diluted on the fans' front, deserves to be fostered and implemented at all clubs.

Every board should have a fan on it, somebody who sees the club through an emotional prism not financial.

For the Fanshare scheme, nirvana is generating such interest and investment that supporters can own a percentage of Arsenal. Yet it would need 50,000 fans each agreeing a direct debit of £20 a month for five years for the Fanshare scheme to own 10 per cent of Arsenal. Always assuming people would sell. Always assuming Kroenke or Usmanov have not made their takeover move by then.

The chances of acquiring enough shares to gain representation on the board are slim. Arsenal are as likely to become a north London Barcelona as the Holloway Road is to become a café-filled, sun-dappled pedestrian haven like the Ramblas. What the Fanshare should do is ensure supporters are more aware of the major shareholders' intentions.

Fanshare may provide an early warning system, a reminder to the major shareowners that the fans are on the inside. Giving fans access to shareholder meetings will also ensure the spirit of the Highbury Barn, the Arsenal Tavern and other assorted fans' debating chambers permeates the august boardroom.


Spanish club Barcelona and Bundesliga teams set the standard for fan ownership:

Barcelona

Barcelona are the most celebrated fan-owned club in the world, with 150,000 members or 'socios’ electing a president and board every four years. The result has been sporting success and fan-friendly policies such as cheap season-tickets. Membership costs less than £100 a year.

Bundesliga

Under Bundesliga rules, no individual can own the majority of a football club. It means that fans control at least 51 per cent of every club’s shares while some, such as Hamburg, remain completely fan-owned. German clubs were the most profitable across Europe last season, with those in the Bundesliga making £146 million.

Ebbsfleet

Since February 2008, the club has been owned by the web-based venture MyFootballClub, whose members can vote on key decisions. Yet membership has dropped and, earlier this year, it was reported that only 800 out of 4,000 members have continued to pay their fees. They were relegated in May from the Conference.

Stockport

Became supporter-owned in 2005 and promoted to League One before falling into administration in 2009. In June, the club were saved following a buyout by the '2015 Group’, comprising of local business people.

Notts County

Like Chesterfield and York City, Notts County became owned by a supporters’ trust in the aftermath of the collapse of ITV Digital and the launch of Supporters Direct — the initiative set up in 2000 by the government to promote fan involvement in clubs. All have since moved back into the hands of businessmen.

Exeter City

With Brentford, the only Football League club to have remained under the ownership of a supporters’ trust. The club have flourished in recent seasons with two promotions in consecutive years taking them to League One