As the United Supporters Trust prepares to enter its second campaigning week, they have received a significant boost from German clubs who went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly to retain their national rule which decrees that Bundesliga clubs must be owned by their fans.
That’s in direct opposition to English thinking, of course, where billionaires run the top clubs, but it’s precisely what NUST are trying so desperately hard to achieve.
The so-called 50+1 rule in Germany means all clubs are controlled by their members and cannot be taken over by private investors.
Even glamour clubs like Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern Munich and Hamburg, once the domain of Kevin Keegan, operate in this way which has not only kept German clubs close to their fans and roots, but kept ticket prices low and therefore filled grounds across the country.
The national supporters group Unsere Kurve had led a mass campaign to retain the 50+1 rule and handed in a petition signed by more than 100,000 fans of all clubs.
They were opposing Hannover 96 who wanted the rule overturned so that they could exploit commercial interests.
However, Hannover’s hopes were overwhelmingly rejected – 32 clubs voted against it with three abstaining and only Hannover themselves voting for the proposal.
“Germany is the perfect example of how fan involvement can work successfully,” said a Newcastle Trust source.
“They are the blueprint that English fans are now beginning to see as good for their own particular club.
“All we want to do is help Mike Ashley out of the club he has tried to sell twice.”
In the first few days of campaigning nearly 4,000 people pledged different amounts to the Trust from £1,500 to one of £1m. During the same period more than 60,000 visited the Trust ’s website to find out more including lots of ex-pat Mags from the United States to Sweden.
What is happening on Tyneside has attracted attention from the far flung corners of football, and there is much sympathy for the plight of Geordie fans.
Of course, the idea is ambitious simply because it has never been tried in top-flight English football, but it works in Germany and the momentum of the NUST campaign is gathering pace.
Interesting times lie ahead.
EC 16/11/09
Germans show our fans the way to go GERMAN football has given a resounding vote of confidence to the fan-led ideas on club ownership currently being loudly voiced across Tyneside. Such is the outcry against Mike Ashley’s brazen ownership of Newcastle United that fans have bonded together to try and buy him out.
As the United Supporters Trust prepares to enter its second campaigning week, they have received a significant boost from German clubs who went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly to retain their national rule which decrees that Bundesliga clubs must be owned by their fans.
That’s in direct opposition to English thinking, of course, where billionaires run the top clubs, but it’s precisely what NUST are trying so desperately hard to achieve.
The so-called 50+1 rule in Germany means all clubs are controlled by their members and cannot be taken over by private investors.
Even glamour clubs like Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern Munich and Hamburg, once the domain of Kevin Keegan, operate in this way which has not only kept German clubs close to their fans and roots, but kept ticket prices low and therefore filled grounds across the country.
The national supporters group Unsere Kurve had led a mass campaign to retain the 50+1 rule and handed in a petition signed by more than 100,000 fans of all clubs.
They were opposing Hannover 96 who wanted the rule overturned so that they could exploit commercial interests.
However, Hannover’s hopes were overwhelmingly rejected – 32 clubs voted against it with three abstaining and only Hannover themselves voting for the proposal.
“Germany is the perfect example of how fan involvement can work successfully,” said a Newcastle Trust source.
“They are the blueprint that English fans are now beginning to see as good for their own particular club.
“All we want to do is help Mike Ashley out of the club he has tried to sell twice.”
In the first few days of campaigning nearly 4,000 people pledged different amounts to the Trust from £1,500 to one of £1m. During the same period more than 60,000 visited the Trust ’s website to find out more including lots of ex-pat Mags from the United States to Sweden.
What is happening on Tyneside has attracted attention from the far flung corners of football, and there is much sympathy for the plight of Geordie fans.
Of course, the idea is ambitious simply because it has never been tried in top-flight English football, but it works in Germany and the momentum of the NUST campaign is gathering pace.
Interesting times lie ahead.
