An article on co-operative ownership of football clubs in the League of Ireland.
Might be of interest to some in this group.
It looks at the success of co-operative ownership in Irish professional football and the threat of new investment to the model.
Can it work? Would you want to own your club?
Will big money kill off community ownership in League of Ireland? (rte.ie)
Yes but the only way it can happen is that the supporters boycott the club and essentially hold the owners to ransom. If supporters held a full boycott for a 3-4 seasons, the club would lose so much value that the owner would have to sell to a fans group. Or at least cede 50+1 like in Germany.
People just are not willing to suck it up for a few years. Or, are just so disorganized that they cannot arrange a meaningful boycott.
If you are extremely unhappy with the owners/board, such as Man Utd, Everton etc and you’re still buying season tickets then you are a part of the problem. You are sponsoring it.
If Everton for example are so unhappy with how the club is being run, boycott next season. Let the club go into crisis, let them drop down the league’s, let them go into administration, even liquidation. Start a new fan owned club and when the liquidation occurs buy the branding rights. The council wouldn’t allow the new stadium to be rezoned, it would have to go to the new Everton.
People are just not willing to suck it up for a few years though. And I’m not having this whole thing “Support the team”.