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Four years ago, Ebbsfleet United suddenly became the future of football. An innovative and unusual internet experiment, MyFootballClub.co.uk, bid to take control of the Kent non-league side with the promise that every member would have the option to pick the team and more. While some journalists predicted it would herald a new dawn in football, cynics gave the project two years at most. They were both wrong.

Instead, the club with a unique and some may say battered ownership model has been quietly getting on with the business of preparing for life in a new division.

Ebbsfleet United didn’t receive quite as much fanfare for securing promotion to the Conference National as they did when MyFC announced their intention to buy the club in 2007, but it was still an achievement for a team that looked to be locked into a downward spiral when they were relegated from the Conference last year.

Given the number of members MyFC has these days, the lack of column inches isn’t surprising. From a high of around 32,000 members in 2008, the Kent outfit’s owners now have around 1,350 signed-up members. The scale of ambition has changed somewhat.

But while the numbers have dwindled, Fleet have actually moved closer towards the fan-ownership model that Supporters’ Direct advocates. Indeed, the Fleet Trust are minority shareholders, and their 180 plus members play an active role in the club.

Back at the start of MyFC, the unique project and some clever PR saw the project branded as a way for disillusioned and disenfranchised football fans to get closer to their team. This wasn’t quite accurate.

The concept was quite simple. Each member paid £35 for a year’s membership, and this was sold on the basis that once a lot had been selected and purchased, members could vote on every aspect of running a football club from picking the team and transfers through to the colour of the kit. To a certain extent, it was Championship Manager in real life.

Supporters’ Direct were no fans of MyFC and were quick to point out that this differed from supporter trust-run clubs, where actual supporters of the club were the majority shareholders, elected representatives to the board, and, crucially, let the manager get on with the business of running the team.

In truth, there were always several glaring issues with MyFC, the brainchild of former journalist Will Brooks.

The controversial Pick The Team pledge attracted many to part with their money, but a split soon arose between those who were happy to trust manager Liam Daish and those who felt the failure to implement PTT was a betrayal of what they signed up for.

Transfers too were problematic. Many members were disillusioned fans from higher divisions, or those from abroad who were enchanted by the idea. But few knew the non-league scene, the nuances and the players involved.

And finally, the Ebbsfleet supporters who cautiously welcomed the new fans but worried about the sudden influx of people with no connection to the club.

As Supporters’ Direct pointed out, yes MyFC members were football fans, but not fans of the Fleet before the takeover.

At a dispassionate level, these new owners were no different than the businessman who took over a club because he could, rather than any particularly affinity for the area. Except in this case, there were thousands of them rather than just one person.

Nonetheless, the purchase took place, and Ebbsfleet United were in the hands of an internet experiment. And for all the questions over the long-term viability of MyFC, the club itself desperately needed the cash.

Ebbsfleet, or Gravesend and Northfleet as they were known until May 2007, had been making steady progress in the Conference National but, despite signing a sponsorship deal with Eurostar, money was tight and difficult decisions lay ahead.

MyFC’s investment gave the club a much needed boost and saved the board from making some very tough budget decision. Manager Liam Daish talked about the much-needed training equipment this money paid for, while key players were retained.

These players would contribute to the feelgood factor around Fleet when they won the FA Trophy at Wembley at the end of the season. Despite the fact the majority of players were Daish’s squad from the start of the season, the media was quick to label this as fan power in action.

But even at its height of a 32,000 membership, MyFC members were far from engaged. A record 18,112 - just over half the membership - voted to purchase Fleet and in the first year it was rare if more than 7,000 cast their vote.

Ultimately, the dissatisfaction with a failure to implement the Pick The Team function (although members did have a say in the sale of striker John Akinde and signing Michael Gash and Darius Charles) and the lack of a long-term business model did for the original dream.

When the first year renewals for MyFC membership were due, the site said they needed 15,000 to rejoin to break even. They got just over 9,000. Subsequent renewals saw membership fall to 3,500 and, latterly, 1,350.

With a drop in membership came a drop in available funds, and Fleet kept cutting the budget. Eventually, in 2010, the club, operating on one of the smallest budgets in the Conference were relegated.

And here’s where the story gets surprising. Even at Conference South level, the league is competitive, with several ambitious clubs spending heavily to make the jump up a division, a few bigger clubs, such as Woking and Chelmsford, a several struggling to find their feet after relegation.

In short, a team like Ebbsfleet with dwindling membership numbers, an uncertain revenue stream and a cobbled together squad faced a tough season ahead. Certainly few would have put them down as contenders for promotion.

Yet manager Liam Daish, into his fifth year with the club, scraped together a team that was most definitely more than the sum of its parts.

Journeyman striker Calum Willock hit 26 goals in all competitions after joining from Cambridge, and has re-signed for the new season, as has goalkeeper Preston Edwards, midfielder Ricky Shakes, captain Paul Lorraine and promising teenager Tom Phipp.

In fact, it will be the first season since the MyFC takeover that Daish hasn’t had to rebuild almost an entirely new team. The budget may be small but it’s more consistent.

The former Birmingham City hardman has been a steadying influence on Fleet since he took over in 2005. Faced with the possibility of having a group of shakily-informed fans possibly picking the team and having control over transfer would have caused many managers to walk away.

But Daish has remained stoically resolute in the face of the off-the-field upheaval and, if anything, has enhanced his reputation by staying in Kent. Even when Fleet were relegated, they fought until the bitter end.

Money, though, remains tight and even in their season away from the Conference National, the picture has changed.

The number of professional teams has increased and both Adie Britton and Garry Wilson, managers of Bath City and Eastbourne Borough respectively, have spoken how hard the league now is for part-time teams, of which Fleet will be one.

The MyFC ownership remains both a help and a hindrance. Membership levels continue to drop, although many supporters’ trusts at this level would be delighted with 1,350 members.

The concept and site has undergone changes too since founder Will Brooks walked away from the project. Membership is now £50 a year, while there’s the option of sampling the project with free membership for a month and a sense of community in the issues that are voted on. Members still continue to trickle in from around the globe, while others who joined at the start have become die-hards.

While still an anomaly, Ebbsfleet are much closer in ownership model to a trust these days. But if the downward spiral continues to reverse, there will be some difficult decision for MyFC to make.

The Fleet Trust, while a shareholder, aren’t in a position to take over the club, while MyFC members are now down to the willing hardcore, although many can’t make games on a regular basis.

At the same time, having had a taste of democracy, many would be reluctant to cede control to a single owner.

It would be stretching a definition to call the MyFC project a success. Given the ambitions of the project and the membership high, relegation and shedding over 30,000 subscribers was not in the plan.

There were evident problems from the start and the website and owners never got to grips with them. Despite what the MyFC site says and the claims of various social media practitioners, many of whom have only read the concept, the project hasn’t exactly worked.

But, to the credit of the MyFC members, they have stuck with the club and made it work at a time when other teams at this level have seriously struggled. Keeping Daish in the manager’s chair, even after relegation, shows more patience and rapport than many supposedly better-run clubs.

Next season, then, is a key one for the Kent club. Daish’s ability means Fleet will give every side a game. In an ideal world, membership may even stabilise or rise.

Whether Ebbsfleet can re-establish themselves as a Conference club or become resigned to be a yo-yo club between the two divisions remains to be seen. But this internet-owned oddity has shown much more life in it than its critics would suggest.

Tags: Blue Square Bet Premier, Blue Square Bet South, Conference, Conference South, Ebbsfleet United, Fleet Trust, Liam Daish, My Football Club, MyFC, MyFootballClub.co.uk, Supporters Direct