Bringing the football back to the fans

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Abstract

Fan ownership is a quite recent phenomenon in the UK which is expanding and creating more or less solid realities in the football leagues. Most of these clubs are established as community interest companies, rather than for- profit business and are part of the Third Sector. However, a fan-owned football club shares most of the characteristics of other alternative forms of organisations/third sector companies, but operates in a competitive system of leagues which adds several pressures and challenges. Martin Parker (2002) would define them as utopian organisations, leaving room to interpret the word “utopia”: either as something to strive to achieve, to escape from an undesired world; or with a negative connotation, as something which will never be achieved and can only be dreamed of. The vision of a better future seems to be common denominator for the formation of third sector organisation (Hull, 2011), and football clubs are no exceptions. The studies on alternative forms of organisations have not touched yet fan owned football clubs, which have been mainly analysed within the sociology of sport. Critical Management Studies (CMS), as Hull (2011) states, offers an almost natural fit to many third sector organisations, due to the political principles they are often based on. Fan owned football clubs instead have to deal with a bigger set of challenges, given the competitive nature of the leagues. CMS can offer a solid ground to bridge the gap between a community interest company, aimed at benefiting its members, and the completion in leagues where the opponents are privately owned clubs. Is it possible to have both? In other words: is the utopia possible? How are those issues managed? How sustainable is a business model that starts from principle of cooperation and social inclusion but has to deal constantly in an environment where it is one of a kind? Are these clubs just parasites living off the big clubs, ready to become a smaller scale version of them if an opportunity arises? Fournier (2002) envisaged a solution for alternative forms of organisations to pursue their aims of social development and liberation of the individual from oppression: remaining as small and local as possible to maximise their effectiveness, and create strong links across the different companies. This would partly explain the creation of entities like Supporters Direct, but fails to capture the competitive status of football, where success on the pitch is to be pursued at all levels. At what cost though? This is a proof that in management studies and even more in CMS, we cannot adopt a “one size fits all” model of management, given its contingency to the socio-political conditions which led to the development of fan-ownership. This tricky dualism between social development and restless competition deserves attention and theoretical development. This paper brings together literature on the sociology of sport, especially around fandom and fans resistance, and elements of CMS literature around alternative forms of organisation. The empirical work conducted takes place at FC United of Manchester, a fan owned football club born out of years of political struggle between fan groups and the way modern Premier League football is set up, and the way Manchester United is run. The club was formed in 2005 and run as a non-profit cooperative with a democratic membership system. The fieldwork consists on an ethnographic project that will carry on until the first months of 2014. It led to volunteer for the club, with the role of community manager’s assistant. During the first months at the club there has been an involvement in the community projects FC United runs in schools and other sites, to write for the match day programme, to follow almost every game home and away, and to attend social events and members meeting. The work so far is getting complemented with interviews to board members and volunteers to grasp how the organisation is led and what are the daily challenges in sustaining and promoting an alternative business model. When football is placed within a wider socio-political context than just merely on what happens on the pitch, growth and expansion assume a different meaning. Ethnography can be the best way to bridge all this gaps and get a sound understanding of the organisation as a whole within a wider context than just the football one.“This football club can only go as far as you (members) want it to go”(Andy Walsh, at the FC United General Meeting, 28th April 2013)

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