Blog: Is it time for fan ownership in Australia?

02 March 2015

As the story goes someone said to Bill Shankly “To you football is a matter of life or death!” to which he replied “Listen!  It’s more important than that.”

Having flirted with the stock exchange, securitisation and selling up to private billionaires and oligarchs, football clubs around the globe are now in a position where serious investors know they will lose some or all of their money.  Banks fled the scene years ago, with football being one of the few areas in the years leading up to the GFC where they seemed to show restraint in who they lent to.

Some Australian sporting clubs have lost their way by shifting their attention to other interests such as property development and poker machine licensing and operation to either survive and/or supplement their economic position which does not necessarily align with the interests of the fans and the community.

What is the purpose of a football club anyway?  Some now consider it a billionaire’s hobby, just another piece of play equipment in the billionaire playground.  If the club cannot afford the golden boot, that’s ok, the bloke arriving at the games in his private jet and aviator sun glasses will pay for him.   However, this is dissonant with the true nature of a football club, which is inherently community in character, tribal in nature, “one for all and “all for one” as it goes. We love our sporting clubs for what they are, not for what they can do for their owners and players.  That’s why a co-operative, as a business structure, is a nice fit with football and any other sporting clubs.   The economics of the co-operative is subservient to the purpose and not the other way around.

In Europe, co-operative and mutual ownership is commonplace, with almost a quarter of the top-flight clubs in UEFA’s 53 member countries being owned and run this way. Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga, one of the most successful football clubs in history, is owned by its fans.  The results on the field (and in the office no doubt) speak for themselves.  Bayern have won the most domestic and international championships of any German football club, having won eleven international trophies.  Bayern is also one of only four clubs to have won all three major European competitions and also the last club to have won the European Cup three times in a row, entitling them to wear a multiple-winner badge during Champions League matches.  On Bayern’s stats, we can proudly say that co-operatives are for champions.

In the United Kingdom, Sheffield FC and FC United of Manchester have adopted a co-operative ownership structure with many other locally based football clubs starting to also consider the structure.

Other notable sporting teams which boast a co-operative ownership structure are the Green Bay Packers (NFL), FC Barcelona and Real Madrid (only to name a few).

It’s about time major sporting clubs in Australia took note.

Please contact Mayweathers if you require any legal information on co-operatives and mutuals or if you are considering the co-operative structure as the future of your sporting club.

Find out about co-operative fan ownership of sporting clubs in the UK at Supporter’s Direct.