0% Villa: Arsenal fans launch share-save scheme

[Woody]

Congrats to Arsenal Supporters Trust in launching this initiative in supporter-share ownership.  A lot of effort has gone into it, and it appears that Arsenal fans are heavily interested in the scheme.

It's a shame that the Villa were not the pioneers here...we had our chance pre-RAL takeover, when the idea was proposed by the Trust and also appeared out of the VFC rally at Aston Villa Leisure Centre...

here's hoping that RAL may follow the Arsenal lead (when other matters are not so pressing)...

[Monty]

It's following the Bundesliga lead, in fact, and if it were made a rule here like in Germany that the fans must own at least 51% of the shares (in practice most are 100% fan-owned) I for one would be very pleased. However, with Scudamore and co in thrall to the mega-rich, this is unlikely to happen. Well done Arsenal, though.

[Dante Lavelli]

Monty, in the German system, with 51% of the club owed by umpteen hundred thousand fans how do key decisions get made?

Either way, I would like to see villa introduce something similar.  If nothing else it would be another crucial and needed revenue stream, at least in the short term.

[N'Rexy]

I think this is a geat idea.  25% of shares would represent a blocking vote and prevent any stupid takeovers. Given that the football bubble is going to burst sooner rather than later then this has to be the future.

[TRO]

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but we had share holders and also a floatation in the mid or early 90's.

I bought 60 shares in AVFC which had to be bought in multiples of 20 and paid £660 for them.

My intention was to carve them up to my future family, when I had kids.

Then when RAL bought out Doug, he insisted that we "HAD" to sell them back or lose them.

I think I got back £200 from a £660 investment. However it was my aim to not sell but have pride in being a shareholder / owner, even if it was tiny.

I wouldn't do it again.

[wif]

A nice idea, but 25% of shares in Arsenal is a figure in the hundreds of millions of pounds, so they'd better have some rich supporters. 

Short of a mass act of synchronised philanthropy by all the owners of all the clubs in the top leagues of English football, there's no way we can get to the kind of system they have in Germany.

When you say this has to be the future, you wish it would be the future, it should be the future, but without the option of going back and changing the past, there's just no realistic way that your future happens.  Sad, I know...