Myfootballclub.co.uk Spawns Mysoccerclubusa.com
The success (in terms of attention) of myfootballclub.co.uk has spawned an imitator Stateside. Mysoccerclubusa.com is a venture to create a fan-funded club in Scranton, Pennsylvania, best known as the setting for another American copy of a British success: the sitcom The Office.
Indeed, the man behind it is an active member of MyFC himself. You’ll notice I haven’t given them an active link: if you want to check it out, copy and paste to your address bar. But I’m not giving them google pagerank by linking directly to them until I get some answers from them. In any case, though their site was working slowly earlier, as the screenshot to the right shows, those fires must have started up again in California tonight and knocked out their site.
Their basic idea is to launch a team in the semi-professional National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), which is below the USL, which is below MLS. Which is a pretty low rung world soccer wise, and would cost perhaps $50-100,000. Still, I think it’s a more admirable idea to start a fan owned club from fresh than to take over an existing one, so kudos on that front. Here’s what they say:
In 2009, a bold initiative will come to fruition, a soccer team with a ready-made fan base of thousands from across the country, where the fans are also part-owners in the endeavor and where THEY will have a voice in how major issues are handled within the operation of the franchise. This is My Soccer Club USA, and a new way of running sports, built upon a club of the people, by the people, and for the people, is on its way.
Unfortunately, to say their operation is slapdash would be me being very kind. For some weeks they’ve been accepting sign-ups (at $50 a piece) to a paypal address. If they’re registered as an actual business somewhere, it’s not evident from their website.
They’ve been claiming for some time they are in the process of applying for non-profit status, but if there’s a genuine reason for the delay in getting it, it hasn’t been revealed. I got in touch with them via email of course, but my follow-up questions have not been addressed. You’ll also notice, if you do check out their site that there aren’t any real names being put publicly to the venture.
I’m not cruel enough to reveal the name of the fan behind it myself, as I think this is a case of gross naivety rather than malicious scamming, as best I can tell. But they claim to have signed up over sixty members, and what will happen to their money is unclear if the venture falls through.
Maybe we should leave fan ownership on this side of the Atlantic out of Dwight Schrute’s grasp and in Drew Carey’s hands.
Update, December 6th: Three weeks after sending the founder follow-up questions, I received a response on their non-profit status. The email stated that “We are also on our way to having non-profit status.” This is something they said many weeks ago, as well, but no details have been provided on why it is taking so long. Further follow-up questions on this have not been responded to in the last week.
Update, December 26th: No further reply has been received from the founder of mysoccerclub, which has received further attention thanks to a piece in the New York Times. Should we receive answers to the questions from the founder about the financial set-up, we will be more than happy to publish them; once again, we see this venture as well-meaning but retain concerns about the lack of transparency.
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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There is another UK fans consortium that has been running a couple of months called The Peoples Club. They seem a professional set up – proper contact details etc. They have a very similar business model – power to the fans is their mantra. I think it’s http://www.thepeoplesclub.com
Cheers for that info Jason, though that link doesn’t seem to work. Anyone know the right URL?
The URL seems OK. I read somewhere they reckon they will buy a club by the end of the season. I would rather have funs owned by football supporters than the Glazers of this world, so good luck to them !
I think this article is a bit harsh, i am a member of My Soccer Club USA, and if you had correctly read the site you would see that it is not a clone of myfootballclub. This site has been in the works long before myfootballclub and aims to do something completely different, starting a club from the ground up.
If you read what I wrote, Patric, you’ll see I noted exactly that, and even quoted from the website.
However, they only really got off the ground after the success of MyFC, and I’ve seen one of their founders trying to attract members on the MyFC board. It’s become a key part of their marketing strategy everywhere I’ve seen them tout it.
I believe they have a single thread on the forum, started by a member, not the founders of the project, they’ve told their current members not to spam the MyFC forum and too keep all discussion limited to that single thread, if i were you i would do a bit more research on a project before writing an inaccurate article, its poor journalism.
Patric, it’s almost certainly one of the founders commenting on there. Since they don’t put their names to anything, that’s hard to prove (another example of what an amateur operation this is. You might think this blog is “poor journalism”, but at least I’m not afraid to put my name to it.)
Evidence: One user commenting on MyFC is called “walkingcity”, and funnily enough, there are domain redirects from walking-city.com coming up when you go to mysoccerclubusa.com. He also answers the latest question on that thread by saying “we’re still researching several locations to find the best fit, members are suggesting locations on the forums.”
Furthermore, there is a thread on Bigsoccer started by “walkingcity” that begins with the line “Hey, im trying to gauge support for a scheme similiar to myfootballclub.co.uk, based in the US, possible a USL2/PDL or NPSL team i’ve seen some related posts, but they are looking to do some different things, would anyone be interested in a very similiar set up as the UK folks?” — posted at 02 Aug 2007, 10:03 PM.
The WHOIS records for http://www.mysoccerclubusa.com give the following details:
Hayward, Trevor
tv@walking-city.com
Walking City Records
Finally, my request to Trevor for further information was not responded to for weeks. I received a speedy reply initially; then as soon as I asked questions about the financial set-up, no response for weeks. He finally responded yesterday, and I’ll update with that information soon. But if you’re going to take people’s money, it’s slapdash to not respond in a reasonable timeframe — and that’s measured in days, not weeks.
Don’t accuse me of inaccuracy with no evidence of your own. They are marketing off of the MyFC idea. And actually, that’s not my problem with it at all, that’s perfectly valid. The problem is the rushed nature of this, taking people’s money without everything in place. And again, I didn’t attribute malice to this or call it a scam. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be judged for what it is.
Tom you’re a sad man that really needs to move on, does this make you feel better about yourself ? trying to smear others efforts, i’m not a member of MySC USA yet, but i have spoken to the people behind the effort and they surely have they’re things together. I’m sure if someone had that little going on in their lives they could dig around and finds all kind of postings you’ve done. So simply grow up and move on.
John, I’m not “smearing” anyone; such an accusation is groundless.
All I’m asking is for some simple questions to be answered regarding this venture. The founder simply refuses to answer questions on repeated occasions about this venture’s status.
MyFC, whatever one thinks of it, at least explain where the money is going (27.5GPB to the “trust”, and 7.50 to “administration”), whereas MySoccerClub is not explaining things. If people still want to give them their money, then fine — I’m just asking questions, which is perfectly legitimate whether it makes me “sad” or not.
I would be all in favour of this were it properly organised, and I’ve repeated twice that this does not appear to be a “scam” — such is not my claim. It seems to be well-meaning.
But on this site, we question all those who take football fans’ money and are not transparent in their activities, from Fifa to Manchester United to Mysoccerclub. The bottom of the ladder might be more well-meaning, but I’d say they should be working to set an example in transparency (given the lack of it at the top of the ladder) rather than in obfuscating things.
Call me “sad”, fine, that’s your opinion; claim I’m perpetrating a “smear”, and you’ll need to back that up.
Thomas, I totally understand where you are coming from, people have the right to know more about this. I am a member of MYSCUSA and although I believe they are legit, I want to make sure they are as well. I can see you are not smearing them, you rightfully just want to know the truth. Anyone who gives their money away to a group deserves to know where it is going. As a member, I want to try and find out more from the founders about their legal stance. What sort of information is needed to know if they are legit?
One thing I think has to be said though, these guys who started this aren’t professionals and thats perfectly fine. They are soccer fans like all of us who saw a good idea, and wanted to try it here in the states. I respect them for trying this, just as long as they are legally legit.
Non-profit status (501C3) usually requires several month delay (could be up to 6 months) in obtaining and also a few hundred dollars in application fees.
appears that their website is gone, along with I suspect the money…I contacted the NPSL and found that they were never given approval. Oh well, live and learn I guess…
Well the guys in the States can count themselves lucky. The UK version turned out to be a sham. They promised that members could own the club, and pick the team. In reality, they own nothing and can only vote on who they think should play, and it has absolutely no bearing on who the coach picks. If over 50% of “members” vote on a team, it still doesnt matter, it has absolutely no bearing on who gets picked. Utterly pointless.