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Fan ownership of football clubs 'to grow'

Owning a football club might seem a distant dream for hard-up consumers trying to pay off debt - but this might not be the case in future.

According to Supporters Direct - a government-backed football fans' initiative - part-ownership of clubs will become more common when the sport's economic growth slows.

Even today, supporters' trusts have control at three league clubs - in a system mirroring public-owned continental giants such as Real Madrid or Barcelona.

The Share Liverpool FC initiative has also received much publicity recently, as it attempts to solicit donations from 100,000 of the club's fans in order to buy it out from its current owners.

However, while football retains its enormous financial clout - with the top 20 clubs' revenues totalling £2.5 billion last season according to Deloitte - the cost of these schemes will simply be too high for fans.

Supporters Direct spokesman Kevin Rye commented: "All we have seen in football is growth, and all we have seen in the economy is growth, but it does not follow that that is how it is always going to be and that there is never going to be an opportunity to invest.

"There is, and there will be."

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