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Scunthorpe United 20:06 - Mar 23 with 2408 viewsJames_Paddocks

Next in the firing line for that mad 'online fans make the decisions' ownership.

Pretty sure the scheme nearly destroyed Ebbsfleet.

Deal signed with FC100,000.

Not the Top 20 podcast lads involved as some sort of data analysts. Massively disappointing from them.

Sounds like a complete freak show.
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Scunthorpe United on 20:25 - Mar 23 with 2332 viewsderbyhoop

How many fans, even groups of fans, can stump upmillions to keep their club afloat?

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain) Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky

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Scunthorpe United on 20:34 - Mar 23 with 2299 viewsGaryHaddock

Scunthorpe United on 20:25 - Mar 23 by derbyhoop

How many fans, even groups of fans, can stump upmillions to keep their club afloat?


In the case of Bayern Munich, who’ve won 10 Champions Leagues, it’s by selling 49% of their club to commercial interests.

Unlike us, at least they get to choose their captors. It’s not a workers co op, it’s just a mild rebalancing of power towards supporters.

It’s really sad we (English football fans) are so terrified of it despite it working almost everywhere.

Wimbledon looking good for promotion this season on a related note.

Not picking you out especially by the way, because I appreciate it’s complicated and nuanced subject, but I really believe most of football’s problems can be solved by fan governance and would love to see more of it especially at our club in some way.
[Post edited 24 Mar 8:29]
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Scunthorpe United on 21:04 - Mar 23 with 2191 viewsCroydonCaptJack

Scunthorpe United on 20:34 - Mar 23 by GaryHaddock

In the case of Bayern Munich, who’ve won 10 Champions Leagues, it’s by selling 49% of their club to commercial interests.

Unlike us, at least they get to choose their captors. It’s not a workers co op, it’s just a mild rebalancing of power towards supporters.

It’s really sad we (English football fans) are so terrified of it despite it working almost everywhere.

Wimbledon looking good for promotion this season on a related note.

Not picking you out especially by the way, because I appreciate it’s complicated and nuanced subject, but I really believe most of football’s problems can be solved by fan governance and would love to see more of it especially at our club in some way.
[Post edited 24 Mar 8:29]


What to pick people out?
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Scunthorpe United on 07:57 - Mar 24 with 1672 viewsNorthernr

The theory behind the idea is a good one, and quite laudable really.

Scunny United struggles to sustain itself. It gets about 3,000 home crowd. There is the potential for more - they got 8,000 on Saturday for a top two clash with Chester - but not much more. It's a small place that's dying. Much of the steel works there has closed and been demolished. I was back again over the weekend and it really is a desolate, dying place. Grimsby's a bit better, and bigger, and they're losing £1m a year in League Two on gates of about 5,000-6,000.

So like most clubs it's reliant on a rich bloke sticking his money in to keep it going. Sometimes that goes well - Steve Wharton remarkably got it into the Championship - and sometimes now - Peter Swann bankrupted it, stole its stadium, dropped it into Conference North.

It's since been rescued by a group of local business people, former employees, supporters trust etc and had the ground signed over into a charitable trust so it can't be stripped from the club and taken off them again. That's probably the best model for clubs like this I think, but even then and in Conference North they're struggling to keep the show on the road.

So, in theory, this is a good answer. 100,000 people each paying a fiver a month or whatever, democratically run club except...

- It failed miserably before, people lost interest leaving Ebbsfleet on the hook and in danger of going out of business.

- Zero consultation with the fans again. They've basically found out about this because this company has launched a dodgy looking rudimentary website and a few people have spotted the picture is taken at Scunny train station. For a fanbase that's almost lost it's club once anyway, appallingly handled. One of the headshots on the website is a bloke in a Grimsby shirt.

- They appear to have sweet talked a couple of the club's fan site leaders into fronting this for them. One of them is on the board as a local business owner and used to host a Scunny podcast, the other currently does a Scunny podcast. So basically the decision to go with this has been done by a couple of internet blokes over everybody's heads. It's the equivalent of me and Finney deciding to hand over the keys to QPR to something like this which, believe me, you would not want.

- Other than those two it's all silence, media black out, they've had to sign NDAs. Apparently there's a big launch planned for Thursday, video already filmed, some chosen fans are ITK but have been gagged and others are in the dark. Some don't even like it on here when somebody says they know Cifuentes is unhappy, imagine a select few of our fans being sweet talked like this, promised a role, gagged with an NDA.

- How would you feel about a few thousand internet weirdoes getting more say over QPR than you do? Voting on everything from sacking the manager to who's playing in goal. What sort of manager would work under those circumstances?

- Even if it was all purely QPR/Scunny fans voting on these issues, have you seen Twitter? Can you imagine some of the mad decisions that would be made about QPR and our team if it was down to a fcking social media vote?

All in all it just feels like a bunch of tech bros, internet weirdoes, podcast hosts and people who think they "know ball" because they won the Champions League with Crewe on Championship Manager riding into what is now a successful and settled club owned by its town and snatching that away from them to try their little theory out that has failed once already.
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Scunthorpe United on 09:55 - Mar 24 with 1447 viewsderbyhoop

Scunthorpe United on 07:57 - Mar 24 by Northernr

The theory behind the idea is a good one, and quite laudable really.

Scunny United struggles to sustain itself. It gets about 3,000 home crowd. There is the potential for more - they got 8,000 on Saturday for a top two clash with Chester - but not much more. It's a small place that's dying. Much of the steel works there has closed and been demolished. I was back again over the weekend and it really is a desolate, dying place. Grimsby's a bit better, and bigger, and they're losing £1m a year in League Two on gates of about 5,000-6,000.

So like most clubs it's reliant on a rich bloke sticking his money in to keep it going. Sometimes that goes well - Steve Wharton remarkably got it into the Championship - and sometimes now - Peter Swann bankrupted it, stole its stadium, dropped it into Conference North.

It's since been rescued by a group of local business people, former employees, supporters trust etc and had the ground signed over into a charitable trust so it can't be stripped from the club and taken off them again. That's probably the best model for clubs like this I think, but even then and in Conference North they're struggling to keep the show on the road.

So, in theory, this is a good answer. 100,000 people each paying a fiver a month or whatever, democratically run club except...

- It failed miserably before, people lost interest leaving Ebbsfleet on the hook and in danger of going out of business.

- Zero consultation with the fans again. They've basically found out about this because this company has launched a dodgy looking rudimentary website and a few people have spotted the picture is taken at Scunny train station. For a fanbase that's almost lost it's club once anyway, appallingly handled. One of the headshots on the website is a bloke in a Grimsby shirt.

- They appear to have sweet talked a couple of the club's fan site leaders into fronting this for them. One of them is on the board as a local business owner and used to host a Scunny podcast, the other currently does a Scunny podcast. So basically the decision to go with this has been done by a couple of internet blokes over everybody's heads. It's the equivalent of me and Finney deciding to hand over the keys to QPR to something like this which, believe me, you would not want.

- Other than those two it's all silence, media black out, they've had to sign NDAs. Apparently there's a big launch planned for Thursday, video already filmed, some chosen fans are ITK but have been gagged and others are in the dark. Some don't even like it on here when somebody says they know Cifuentes is unhappy, imagine a select few of our fans being sweet talked like this, promised a role, gagged with an NDA.

- How would you feel about a few thousand internet weirdoes getting more say over QPR than you do? Voting on everything from sacking the manager to who's playing in goal. What sort of manager would work under those circumstances?

- Even if it was all purely QPR/Scunny fans voting on these issues, have you seen Twitter? Can you imagine some of the mad decisions that would be made about QPR and our team if it was down to a fcking social media vote?

All in all it just feels like a bunch of tech bros, internet weirdoes, podcast hosts and people who think they "know ball" because they won the Champions League with Crewe on Championship Manager riding into what is now a successful and settled club owned by its town and snatching that away from them to try their little theory out that has failed once already.


The theory of 100,000 fans paying would be great. Except, at our level, or Scunny's, that you'd be lucky to get 2-3% prepared to make that commitment. In a crisis, you might get that up to 10%. In year 1.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain) Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky

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Scunthorpe United on 11:11 - Mar 24 with 1279 viewsted_hendrix

Why Is this happening to football clubs? why the insane demand for cash to keep clubs going? It was never like this In the old days, you turned up at LR on a Saturday and never once was the clubs finances discussed at half time.
I thought the fans at Scunthorpe were great when we last played there, decent working class friendly people, you know football fans.
Look, If your club finishes the season on say 55 points but you are under the threat of a points deduction and possible relegation how can that be right and who the hell are these people In grey suits making these decisions?
I accept and understand rules and regulations are a must but strewth my love for the game Is getting stretched to the limit, clubs like Notts County, Bury and Scunthorpe mean a lot to me they are the backbone of football In this Country, the clubs who have had huge amounts of 'spendable' cash bestowed on them mean nothing to me nor do they're results on the pitch.

I seemed to have spent my decades watching and supporting our club looking at the league table every Saturday or Wednesday night when I got home, the thought of our clubs bank balance never entered my old head.

Sometimes you have to say why don't they just leave things alone.

My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic.

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Scunthorpe United on 11:41 - Mar 24 with 1184 viewsNorthernr

Looking at the news up there this morning it sounds like this is dead on arrival after enormous fan backlash.

Could have got out in front of that an involved the supporters from the start, but nah let's get a select few on NDAs and try sneak it in through the back door.

Another example of how being secret squirrel and trying to keep things hidden instead of just being open and honest with your supporters, involving and consulting them, will quickly blow up in your face.
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Scunthorpe United on 11:59 - Mar 24 with 1124 viewsderbyhoop

Scunthorpe United on 11:11 - Mar 24 by ted_hendrix

Why Is this happening to football clubs? why the insane demand for cash to keep clubs going? It was never like this In the old days, you turned up at LR on a Saturday and never once was the clubs finances discussed at half time.
I thought the fans at Scunthorpe were great when we last played there, decent working class friendly people, you know football fans.
Look, If your club finishes the season on say 55 points but you are under the threat of a points deduction and possible relegation how can that be right and who the hell are these people In grey suits making these decisions?
I accept and understand rules and regulations are a must but strewth my love for the game Is getting stretched to the limit, clubs like Notts County, Bury and Scunthorpe mean a lot to me they are the backbone of football In this Country, the clubs who have had huge amounts of 'spendable' cash bestowed on them mean nothing to me nor do they're results on the pitch.

I seemed to have spent my decades watching and supporting our club looking at the league table every Saturday or Wednesday night when I got home, the thought of our clubs bank balance never entered my old head.

Sometimes you have to say why don't they just leave things alone.


The obvious answer is that the clubs are paying out massively more than they are taking in. Once, the difference was smaller and, therefore, affordable to a local business.
Go read Charles Dickens' comments about Mr Micawber to see how that pans out.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain) Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky

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Scunthorpe United on 14:02 - Mar 24 with 883 viewsNorthernr

Statement from the chair (Michelle is the local businesswoman, former sponsorship sec at the club, who stepped in and saved it when it was at death's door).

https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2025/march/club-statement-from-the-chai

Like I say, if they'd got out ahead of this, consulted with the fans from the start, sold it as a fifth equal equity partner etc then it might have been better received.

One of the many, many, many sht things about modern football is even clubs as small as Scunthorpe in divisions like Conference North carrying on like they're Freuds been brought in to crisis manage the Deep water Horizon crisis, where information is tightly controlled, and everything's a secret, and people have to sign NDAs.

You're a football club. Just speak openly, honestly, transparently, to the people you exist for - your supporters.
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Scunthorpe United on 14:25 - Mar 24 with 812 viewsGaryHaddock

Scunthorpe United on 14:02 - Mar 24 by Northernr

Statement from the chair (Michelle is the local businesswoman, former sponsorship sec at the club, who stepped in and saved it when it was at death's door).

https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2025/march/club-statement-from-the-chai

Like I say, if they'd got out ahead of this, consulted with the fans from the start, sold it as a fifth equal equity partner etc then it might have been better received.

One of the many, many, many sht things about modern football is even clubs as small as Scunthorpe in divisions like Conference North carrying on like they're Freuds been brought in to crisis manage the Deep water Horizon crisis, where information is tightly controlled, and everything's a secret, and people have to sign NDAs.

You're a football club. Just speak openly, honestly, transparently, to the people you exist for - your supporters.


QPR 2001 levels of mentalness at that club. Feel sorry for them.
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Scunthorpe United on 20:22 - Mar 24 with 533 viewslave16

Scunthorpe United on 14:25 - Mar 24 by GaryHaddock

QPR 2001 levels of mentalness at that club. Feel sorry for them.


Headline should have read
Internet guys take over firewall fc

Poll: Are we gonna make the play offs?

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