Five pounds for 'fans' to own a football club. Have they never heard of Ebbsfleet?

It's February 2008 and football is told to prepare itself for a new chapter in fan ownership as internet site MyFootballClub.co.uk officially takes over Conference club Ebbsfleet United. A new era beckons, where fans have control of the team right down to voting on transfers and team selection. 32,000 eager owners, each having paid their £35, await the opportunity to indulge in a real-life version of Football Manager.

Fast forward to the present day, and Ebbsfleet United find themselves one division lower, with a weekly playing budget of between just £3,000 and £6,000 per week, a whole lot of fundraising to be done, 4,000 members and the MyFC experiment filed in the drawer marked 'fail'.

This post isn't intended to pick over the rights and wrongs of MyFC at Ebbsfleet (although you could quite easily write a thesis on the experiment). Even though the Fleet are in a lower place, they now have a committed hardcore who would never have fallen in love with the Kent club otherwise, amongst other positives.

But even though Ebbsfleet and MyFC didn't exactly have the fairytale ending, it hasn't stopped a steady trickle of social media writers proclaiming it to be a successful example of fan power in action. And, surprisingly, it hasn't stopped schemes that, while not exactly imitations, bear more than a passing resemblance to MyFC.

The Five Pound Football Club is one such offering that's been attracting a lot of attention both online and in the press (possibly due to a very active PR campaign). It differs slightly from MyFC, most notably that membership is, unsurprisingly, five pounds as opposed to £35, although should an individual wish to they can contribute more.

There are other differences: members don't, thankfully, get the option of picking the team (which was never put into practice at Ebbsfleet) or voting on transfers; the voting issues are on the investment fund, and the scheme is looking to purchase a club in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

So, is this a refining of MyFC into something more workable or just another scheme looking to tap into the growing trend towards fan ownership in football? It's hard to say.

The press release states that Five Pound Football Club are looking to create a British Barcelona, albeit one that overlooks Ireland's geographical status or the intertwining of Catalan politics with Barcelona FC. Happily, the website does note the 50+1 rule in Germany.

The brains behind the scheme, Nick Thompson, talks a good talk as well. The site won't take over any club where the supporters don't want them, the club will be run sustainably with the playing budget set as a "sensible proportion of the club's turnover".

All well and good, but there are several issues that were present at Ebbsfleet and, unless the site has found a magic formula, will probably be present with the Five Pound Football Club, should they ever purchase a team.

Firstly, just as very few people knew about Ebbsfleet or the lower leagues, few will know the players, intricacies or standard of the assorted Celtic leagues. Anybody wanting to sign big name players will be disappointed. This is not glamorous football - those investing their fivers will need to be more than just disillusioned Premier League fans.

And this leads onto the second: the 'fans' themselves. Yes, these are football fans buying a club, but it's akin to describing yourself as a fan of music then buying a band. Football fans are not necessarily fans of the club the website ends up buying.

Sure, a large proportion will initially take an interest in the team, be it Barry Town, Annan Athletic, or whoever, and some may fall in love with the team. But for many, that emotional bond won't be there. They can, and in the case of Ebbsfleet many did, walk away when they get bored. The emotional bond with the club won't be present.

Which leads us onto the third and most important issue for the Five Pounders: yearly budgets. If the bulk of your cash for a small team is coming from a source that relies on unpredictable and untested renewals then you're in trouble.

Put simply, Ebbsfleet went from 32,000 fans to 9,000 to 4,000 fans over the three years, which includes those who'd signed up for multiple years' worth of memberships. If you can't be certain of the number of renewals, this leaves a big black whole when it comes to budgeting for future seasons beyond the current campaign.

And given the membership will be unpredictable until you've had several years of stable renewals, or even growth, this becomes a huge financial problem, and one of the main reasons that Ebbsfleet's budget last season was lower than the last time the team was a part-time club.

The numbers show what an uphill struggle The Five Pound Football Club face. With 4,000 members paying £35, MyFC's membership subs amounts to £140,000 for a year. If Five Pound Club achieve their stated goal of 5,000 members, they'll have raised £25,000. Even assuming they take over the smallest club possible, this may just cover the wages of two part-time admin staff.

On paper, there's no reason why Supporters Trust-run clubs shouldn't face the same issues as these internet sites, given they rely on annual subs from their members.

However, those that have succeeded, such as Exeter, AFC Wimbledon and Telford United, have seen membership stay, at the very least, at a stable level, often growing. The emotional life-long pull of members and directors and the serious democratic and non-gimmicky intentions seem to hold sway.

That is the level that initiatives such as the Five Pound Football Club need to aim for and, at present, there's little to suggest they will achieve this. On the flipside, however, other schemes could argue that MyFC was a one-off that made mistakes that they won't make.

Until we have a run of failed schemes running along the principles of MyFC, Five Pound Club, and The People's Club, we can't say definitively that this model doesn't work. But, if from the out, some of the same unanswered questions and problems are present it's also not unfair to suggest new ventures won't be successful.

Five Pound Club could work. Having a lower financial entry point, with no capping limit on subs, makes it more accessible to the casual fan and makes it less of a burden to renew your subscription. Aiming for smaller clubs in the Celtic leagues, where there's more opportunity for success, as opposed to the English non-league pyramid shows a level of practicality.

But these changes this may also just be the equivalent of creating a new Titanic with differently arranged deckchairs but the same construction and route in place.

It's entirely possible an internet site pulling together a disparate group of fans of many different football clubs my succeed, most likely if they attempt to start a club from scratch. This would sidestep the issue of taking over an existing team, along with its histories, boardroom issues and financial concerns.

Until then, despite describing themselves as "fan owned", these schemes are still just an outside owner riding into town taking over a club with fans and history with plenty of promises and enthusiasm, and uncertain levels of funding. The difference is, they'll be a lot more hands-on and interfering with the team than many owners. And when you look at it coldly, this isn't so different from many of the other failed chairmen who've littered the lower leagues.