An LFC co-operative could provide a template for future club ownership

Sick and tired of how clubs give themselves away to ownerships who look on them as mere cash cows, caring little for the fans or club history?
Amidst fears that the Tom Hicks and George Gillett re-financing deal is being loaded onto LFC’s books comes an ambitious new plan by LFC supporters who want to take matters into their hands. They want to takeover the club, pooling in their money.
Rogan Taylor, a football academic and prime mover of the Share Liverpool plan, said: “The time is right to offer a different solution to the rising concerns that football fans have about the patterns of ownership developing at our major football clubs.
The Share Liverpool FC plan involves a £500m buyout through the contributions of 100,000 fans who sign up. The plan mirrors Barcelona’s ownership by fans. This is the first ever co-operative takeover proposed in English soccer history and it could change the future of club ownership structures.
“It’s one member, one vote. It’s democratic, it’s fair, and it protects Liverpool FC from becoming the target of corporate buyers ever again.”
The idea is supported by Supporters Direct, a trust set up Andy Burnham, the culture, media and sport secretary in the Gordon Brown government. The trust encourages fans to become share holders in their respective clubs. Burnham is watching the developments at Anfield very closely.
“The Barcelona model, to me, is how a football club should be run. They are one of the most pre-eminent names in world football, yet the club is owned by its supporters on a one-member, one-vote basis and they control it. That strengthens it because it’s never subject to the whim of one person; it’s a collective endeavour. English football should see that as a big strength. I’d love to see if we could grow the Barcelona model here.”
Kevin Jaquiss of Cobbetts law firm, a lawyer intimately involved in the formation of Supporters Direct, and a specialist in co-operative law is advising Share Liverpool FC in the formation of a constitution.
If this works, it would mean that long suffering Man Utd fans priced out of watching matches could also potentially buy out their club from the Glazers who have also saddled the club with millions of pounds in debt.