Articles 
Of the 11 players who started out on the field for Spain’s winning World Cup team, 10 of them play for a co-operative. Co-operatives UK with Supporters Direct have just launched a report alongside a first UK version in English of the Barcelona statutes – with the support and encouragement of Barca’s outgoing President Joan LaPorta. Barcelona has 170,000 members and is a remarkable case of democratic innovation – drawing members jury-style by lot for its Delegate Assemblies. If you want to change the Board in Barcelona, you vote for it, as 53,000 did in the elections last month. Not all Spanish clubs are organised on anything like this model and there is if anything more of a common tradition of ownership by fans in Germany where the fans understand that clubs have an inherent community value that should be protected. In England, the fact that they are owned privately means that the people who run them are unaccountable to the community for their actions. The NUST is intent on exploring alternative models of club ownership where fans would own a significant stake giving them a right to say but in the short-term will continue to encourage Newcastle United to take proper account of the interests of its supporters and the community it serves.
Co-operatives UK: Spanish formula launched for UK football clubs
Link to the Report: Barça - Fan ownership and the future of football
Link to the FC Barcelona Statutes in English
