HELPING CLUBS TO BUILD A BRIGHTER FUTURE

FROM Enfield Town to the new East Thurrock with AFC Wimbledon and FC United of Manchester among those in between, the community ownership model has been around now for almost 25 years.

It’s not a new way of thinking as such, but more and more Non-League clubs are exploring this hands-on approach to control and ownership of their club. Perhaps your club is thinking the same?

So, what does it mean and what’s it all about? Richard Irving, the Football Supporters’ Association’s Network Manager for community owned clubs, explains all...

AT the FSA, we use the terms fan ownership, supporter ownership and community ownership interchangeably but feel the latter gives a much better sense of what it’s all about.

As history goes, the roots of community ownership can be found in the Football Task Force report all the way back in 1999. Within that report was the recommendation that an organisation be set up to oversee the establishment of supporters’ trusts at clubs across the country and, where needed, supporter owned clubs.

That need became apparent almost immediately when, following the creation of the organisation Supporters Direct under the leadership of Brian Lomax, the first community owned club was set up at Enfield Town.

Brian had been responsible for the establishment of the first supporters’ trust in English football, at Northampton Town back in 1992, and it was through his vision and that of the Labour government of the day that Supporters Direct was quickly able to demonstrate its influence on the game.

The community ownership model encompasses clubs that have been launched as phoenix revivals after a disastrous period of private ownership has caused a club to go out of business, through to clubs that make the conscious decision to be run more transparently as a community enterprise. This model includes clubs that have been described as ‘protest clubs’.