Football is littered with passionate supporters who have stood on the terraces wishing they owned their local club so they could buy a star centre forward to turn them into championship contenders.The top striker may still be elusive but many fans now find themselves owning their local team through their involvement in the Supporters’ Trust movement that has swept through the English game as ailing clubs realised they had no-one to turn to but their followers.York City, Lincoln City, Chesterfield and Port Vale are owned by the fans through trusts, while at Huddersfield Town a survival trust has been set up to save the club.There are now 85 trusts across the spectrum from premier to non-league and 34 of them have a share-holding in their clubs, usually ranging from a nominal stake up to 20 per cent.“When a club is in crisis they (the trusts) really come into the spotlight and become the rallying point for everyone to gravitate towards,” said Andy Burnham, chairman of Supporters Direct, a British government initiative to help the trusts.“With clubs like York City the trust has put a rescue plan together to save the club because there has been nobody else. The trusts have a substantial share-holding and for that they get a seat on the board and exert an influence that way.”But trusts are only one part of the picture when considering fans’ involvement in the financial side of football. Apart from the money they spend at the gate and in the club shop, many are also becoming direct investors by taking up new shares.Queen’s Park Rangers are the latest club to be looking to tap their supporters for funds through a share issue. “Given the current (negative) investment climate in the city (of London) it is more likely to be aimed at our fan base,” said QPR Finance director Paul English.But there are limits to what can be raised via a share issue, as Third Division Leyton Orient and owner Barry Hearn know only too well.“The last share issue we had was for 500,000 shares at £ one 25 pence a share, which was £625,000. The supporters put in something like 70,000 and I took the rest,” said Hearn. In any case, unless fans take over a club their involvement, even as shareholders, is limited.“It doesn’t buy you any more than a share certificate and the knowledge you can go to the AGM,” says Hearn, who is definitely at Orient for the long-term.Orient has its own supporters’ trust but Hearn makes more time for the much larger supporters’ club. If Hearn is right, fans may finally be able to sit back and concentrate on what they love best — cheering on their team. (Reuters)
