King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Web site buys English soccer team, fans to manage by vote. Click here to shoot! Plus: Michael Lewis skewers college football's Big Lie.

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Nov. 14, 2007 | Forget about the power struggles that go on in the front offices of your favorite teams. Never mind the petty tugs of war between this or that Steinbrenner. How'd you like to be one of 20,000 owners? Each, no doubt, with very precise ideas about how to lead the home 11, or nine, or five, or whatever, to glory?

Well, no time like the present.

The Web site MyFootballClub, which promises fans of English soccer that they can "become an owner-manager of a real football team," has agreed in principle to buy a controlling share of Ebbsfleet United FC, with an option to buy the club outright.

The BBC reports the deal should be complete in a few weeks, pending a due diligence process.

For 35 pounds, about $72, you can "have an equal say in team selection, player transfers and the running of the club," the Web site says. "MyFootballClub members will own the club, vote on team selection, decide which players to buy and sell and guide the club up the leagues."

The team, known as Gravesend & Northfleet F.C. until this spring, plays in Gravesend, Kent. It plays in what had been called the Conference National, but thanks to a new sponsorship is being called Blue Square Premier. It's the top level of "non-league" football, meaning teams are four promotions below the Premier League.

The new ownership group is off to a great start. It voted on which team to buy given a set of criteria laid out by the site. The club had to have at least 51 percent of its shares on the market, with manageable or no debt, that sort of thing. The members voted and the winner was ... Leeds United!

Ebbsfleet United came in second. But that's the way things go. You can't always get what you want, as another English club once said, so the voters don't necessarily decide everything. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out when the members are telling the manager how to set the lineup. For now, Liam Daish, who's being retained as manager, though his title is changing to head coach, made happy sounds to the BBC about the new arrangement.

MyFootballClub has been inviting would-be owners to sign up for free, with the 35-pound fee required to have a say. It says 50,000 have signed up and 20,000 have paid. That's a big cash infusion for a fairly low-level team, but it's also a lot of cooks stirring the broth.

Next page: The crowd-as-manager: An up-and-down record. Plus: Michael Lewis on the Big Lie of college football