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.

Our own discussion here earlier today reflects the passions the purchase arouses, and there are very interesting points made for and against it. Let’s consider this further: hell, despite my own doubts, I signed up myself this morning to see what the fuss was about on the inside (unfortunately, their forums broke under the strain of my addition). Yet there are genuine concerns about both the potential damage to a traditional club and where all of the members’ thirty-five quid is going.

Supporters’ Direct, who have been critical in England in assisting fan ownership in the lower levels of the football pyramid, issued a statement reflecting their considerable concerns.

Spokesperson Kevin Rye, said: “Fundamentally, playing fantasy manager is not about responsible democratic supporter representation or community ownership, which are the core values of the trust movement.

“Indeed we are one of the most vigorous exponents of reform of the ownership structures in football, but our interests are in long-term sustainability and governance of clubs.

“This might be seen as a one off gimmick, and harmless enough by many, however this is a real football club, these are real finances, and real fans. The question needs to be asked what happens to the club finances and its supporters if the novelty starts to wear off?

Yet it’s worth considering the MFC members’ defense. The Metrologist believes much of the MFC membership is not treating this as a gimmick, and says they will take the issue of local community seriously.

I think, just from gleaning the myfc forums a while, that the vast majority of people there “get it.” They may not all be local in the sense of living in the area, but that does not mean they aren’t driven to preserve the native character of the club. On the contrary, I think the group has a pretty high ratio of enlightened, right-on, participatory-democratic types, who are inclined to act in ways that enrich and serve the club and its community.

So the naysayers don’t bother me – they may be right in the end, for all we know. Only the people who don’t quite understand the project, and imagine that the next move is to rebrand the club MYFC FC or something gimmicky like that. That’s not on the agenda. No, I think there’s potential for a good marriage of technology and traditionalism here.

Frankly, only time will tell on whether the traditionalists such as Adam Bird or twohundredpercent are right to fear this venture or not. I think their concerns do need to be heard by MFC members, but at the same time, there is a certain joyous optimism to the venture as an expression of fan power that is hard to deny.

Most people that I’ve read about who have invested don’t seem interested in just playing Alex Ferguson for a few weeks. Some of the complaints seem to reflect a rather unpleasant view that this must be the idiocy of a plebian mob, with no evidence proffered to sustain that view.

Yet I’m not sure I would have wanted my team to be taken over in an experiment, either: conceptually, it’s a fascinating idea, but not one without dangers.

But there is one aspect of the actual implementation financially that concerns me. Whilst MFC is a registered Trust (similar to the many supporters’ trusts that have played an important role in lower league football recently), a significant portion of the members’ money also goes to a for-profit company. An informed member of One Touch Football explains:

The Mutual Society which I understand owns the club is separate to the private company which ‘administers’ MFC. That takes a flat £7.50 per member for admin, which is another way of saying that before any club gets a penny, the people behind the idea take 21% regardless. And presumably could sell this private company for a sum too.

So, in essence, a not-for-profit shell hiding a for-profit company run by the people behind the idea. As far from a supporters’ trust as you can be, really.

I suppose one could say, why shouldn’t they profit from their idea? Obviously there are significant administrative costs in running this venture, and they’ve been very professional and impressive in their handling of the website and the media so far. I also think it’s unfair to impute a motivation of greed to those running MFC without any real evidence.

But just speaking personally, as a member myself now, I would be far more comfortable if the administrative side was run on a non-profit basis. How about you?

“I look forward to the experiment but I think it will be an utter disaster, although I could be very wrong,” said Sullivan, who spoke to BBC Sport before the takeover announcement was made.

Sullivan predicted the website could face insurmountable hurdles if fans were involved in player transfers.

“If a player is in demand you need an instant decision, you can’t go on the internet for six or 12 hours and let people vote,” added Sullivan.

From the other side of the barricades, many fans of non-league football are concerned about the experiment, seeing myfootballclub.co.uk as coming in and messing with the existing community that surrounds a small club such as Ebbsfleet United. Blogger twohundredpercent, for example, rips into the entire concept:

A period of contract signing will now begin which, it seems likely, will result in another club being taken over by a group of people that know nothing and care little more about the long term wellbeing of Ebbsfleet United FC. Whether that organisation has 2 members of 20,000 strikes me as being utterly irrelevant. Ultimately, this club has been sold to be the plaything of a few thousand would-be Alex Fergusons. Whether this proves to be beneficial to the club and its supporters is open to question, but one thing remains certain. Myfootballclub and Jason Botley have done very nicely indeed out of this, and would appear to be the only thing that matters to them.

The choice is interesting as Ebbsfleet supporters seem to have accepted fairly meekly another big chance in recent times: they were previously Gravesend & Northfleet, but in May changed their name to reflect sponsorship by Eurostar, who use Ebbsfleet International railway station. We’ll soon find out how the supporters take to their new fan overlords, and how manager Liam Daish (who will stay on) deals with MFC’s role in team affairs.

Here’s Ebbsfleet are at play last month:

This will shine a spotlight on English football far, far below the focus of 95% of coverage on the Premiership. Whilst some will argue a gimmick threatening a club’s tradition is unwelcome, English football still thrives in the lower reaches like nowhere else in the world. Indeed, supporter ownership there has been crucial in recent years, with supporters’ trusts stepping in to save numerous clubs threatened with extinction. That kind of native effort is, of course, vastly different from myfootballclub.co.uk’s approach.

But the latter does reflect a growing interest in supporter involvement; Drew Carey, a member of Barcelona himself, hinted the new Seattle team would give fans a role in running the club. There is already an American imitator of myfootballclub.co.uk attempting to launch as well.

But will this more extreme experiment work, on and off the field?

Update: see here for more about the concerns and questions about the ownership.

Over 53,000 signed up to phase one. A unique Trust with online voting has been registered with the FSA. The forum has amassed 80,000 posts. Over £700,000 has been collected from members in 70 countries. Nine football clubs have come forward, and we’ve sounded out several others.After many meetings and much travel, we have finally narrowed it down to one. We believe that this football club offers MyFootballClub members the best chance of success.

We’ve agreed terms in principle for the purchase of the football club, and the due diligence process has started. We are doing all we can to ensure an agreement is signed ahead of the January transfer window. And all the indications are that this process will move quickly.

By my math, that means 20,000 fans have invested in this (unless some invested more than the minimum, if that’s possible). £700,000 isn’t going to buy them Manchester United, but the smaller they start the better, to be honest. Smartly, on their site they’re urging members to consider the public relations aspect of the deal.

Every MyFC member will have a PR job to do. Clearly there are ways to go about it. For example, turning up to their ground in your MyFC top might not be the best move. Nor will 1000 messages from MyFC members on their website’s forum go down too well. Less PR offensive, more PR inoffensive will be the key.

To help us with this, I’m confident that the many members we have who write for newspapers, magazines and websites will be wearing their MyFootballClub hats and give our story a fair hearing.

The new owners and the current fans are obviously going to have a novel and tense situation to deal with. Are any of our readers on the “inside” of this venture? If so, what’s the story?