I posted on this issue a number of times on the MYFC website but never got a meaningful reply to my concerns.

Like dafydd, I wish Ebbsfleet well in the future. If MYFC decide in the future to offer something in return for my £35 other than a subscription to a holding company then I’d reconsider my decision

Then I watched on as all of the elements that made the project so exciting were gradually wittered away. It became a bit like animal farm, allmembers are equal but some are more equal than others.

I stopped fooling myself that anyone had a say in anything beyond a select few. Opinions on the forums were restricted, any people with dissenting views were booted.

Great idea, but a complete con!

“The current economic climate is an easy starting place and although £35 isn’t a lot of money, many people may decide it could be better spent elsewhere.”

It’s definitely not a complete failure, although it’s far from a success. The coming weeks will be very interesting indeed.

@52 Quincel, when I get a spare (long) moment, I’ll put a bit more on here on the Supporters’ Trust issue. One of the reasons I asked was because my team (Exeter) is fan-owned and, after some initial hiccups, it’s found quite a nice democratic structure of sorts.

Also, if you do want to set a petition in motion to get rid of Cronin, we’ll happily have him

I’ve renewed my membership in MyFC, despite its flaws. It’s hard to it’s a complete failure when it allowed the team to get Gash and Charles – two players that wouldn’t be there without MyFC – and when the “downsides” are 100% based on lower numbers of voting members and what MIGHT happen.

Brian I dont own the club, MYFC own the club and no member has a share in MYFC. therefore I, and all other members don’t own the club..

I wanted to own the club, even the MYFC logo says “own the club” false advertising.

I dont really care much about the pick the team section, I think that this cant really work in the real world.

I also get emails asking me to vote on transfers, and doing this and that, but I feel that I dont have the right information, or enough information to be able to do this.

I am sorry to say this, but I think MYFC are doomed to fail, as there will only be a core group that will be able to support this year on year, unless the 8000 that are members can turn up week by week..

The question of a supporters trust is an interesting and at times agonising one for MYFC. I’d say the difference is in potential. MYFC can potentially do almost anything, we can sell players or buy them. We can PTT (though we choose not to, something that does mystify me somewhat). I guess much of the difference is that we are majority shareholders, but not all. We also have a potentially fairly bold structure. Any member can make a proposal. I could make a proposal, right now to sell or failing attempts fire Lance Cronin (I’m not planning to, Lance is awesome). If this proposal received sufficient support it would go to a vote. If it got a plurality of votes in support of it then a major squad member would be forced out of the club.

Now I don’t intend to try this (despite what some media stories may suggest about us!) but in principle I could. And there are far-reaching proposals members have and will attempt. Transfer policies have been seen in the last year, we recently passed a transparency bill forcing the club to show us great detail on all contracts offered to it by third parties. I suspect if a ST did own a club, they wouldn’t operate on such a direct democracy setup. It may not really have locked into place in year 1, but member empowerment is coming along and has the potential to reach huge levels.

Altrincham
Eastbourne
Kettering
Burton
Histon

Barrow and Kidderminster are possibles. Most of the others (maybe with one or two exceptions) will, I imagine, post losses. Quite a few of the BSP clubs are in very precarious or poor financial positions.

It’s quite interesting to see that the majority of those who’ve re-signed for another year seem to think MyFC will survive but in a different form from currently. This makes sense, I guess, given that the project probably is still finding its feet even after a year. If (and, sorry, I know I keep stressing the word if) MyFC does survive, it’ll be interesting to see exactly what format it’ll be in. Certainly going part-time for Ebbsfleet wouldn’t be the end of the world (Burton and Histon haven’t found being part-time too much of a problem).

It still seems (and I’m taking overly hyperbolic comments on both sides on the argument on here with a small pinch of salt) though that there are issues that need to be thrashed out with the interactive element (although this has always struck me as one of MyFC’s greatest stumbling blocks anyway.

A quick question to MyFC renewees though: what advantages do you think your model has over a Supporters’ Trust? Because that’s one of the greatest confusions I have over the whole project. Take out the more excessive voting elements (PTT, transfers, etc) and you’ve got a model that isn’t a million miles away from a trust model, albeit with some fairly significant differences in leadership. Have MyFC ever considered looking into bringing the Fleet ST on board? (This isn’t a criticism, it’s a genuine question – just view it as thinking aloud on my part).

Also, I may have over-estimated the annual losses a bit – think it may be closer to £500,000 than £800,000 (although from what I’ve seen the latter figure is by no means unrealistic, but perhaps more along the lines of worst-case scenario).