How did I miss this: MyFootballClub.co.uk has finally (last month) reached the point its members have been waiting for since its launch last April: they have acquired a controlling stake in Ebbsfleet United! Next year, people will be controlling the doings of UK’s first truly crowd-managed sportsteam. This is very remarkable also because Ebbsfleet is one promotion away from hitting Football League.
One big question emerges in my mind: the crowds being able to vote on everything, including the starting composition and playing formation of the team in any given game, who’s to guarantee that there aren’t people working for the opposing team eavesdropping or influencing the conversation? It might be that the results aren’t shown before game date, which would also work to prevent groupthink and best harvest the wisdom of crowds (by forcing people to make independent decisions instead of looking at what others have decided and deciding afterwards).
What I found (to no big surprise) after researching the subject a bit further is that there are so many similar ventures at present - including MyFootballClub.ru (not affiliated with the original). Some of these are actually already working and so beat MyFootballClub to the finish line. Nonetheless, it will be very interesting to follow the teams whose fans can’t blame the coach anymore - only themselves - for making the wrong decisions. Here are some (from Wikipedia)
Denmark: Mitsuperligahold, which was launched in August 2007 with the aim of acquiring a club in the second tier of professional Danish football, the First Division.
France: Web F.C. allows its members, called “entraînautes,” to vote on strategic and tactical decisions relating to a lower-level French club in the Ligue de Basse-Normandie through a website. Unlike MyFootballClub’s members, members of Web F.C. do not have to pay a fee to participate in the decision-making, but the more they participate, the more value his or her vote is accorded.
Israel: Web2Sport currently operates Hapoel Kiryat Shalom, a Tel Aviv club that plays in Liga Gimel, the sixth tier of Israeli football. Web2Sport allows voting on numerous club functions, including the composition of the club’s starting lineup.
Russia: MyFootballClub.ru has a proposed start date of 2007-12-10, but is not affiliated with MyFC.
Spain: miclubdefutbol.com proposes to raise funds and buy a Spanish lower league club.
United States: MySoccerClubUSA will allow fans who pay a fee to join a website will start a soccer team from scratch to play in either the United Soccer Leagues or the National Premier Soccer League.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jon // Dec 26, 2007 at 12:03 am
I can tell u that from a research ive done the israeli site, web2sport.com, is the bast of all above,
they allow u the c the game live and decide even on subs during the game! Amazing…
2 sami.viitamaki // Dec 26, 2007 at 1:01 am
Yeah, that is pretty cool. From what I’ve gathered, MyFootballClub will also allow interaction in real time, e.g. picking substitutes during a game. If I lived in the UK I would definitely participate just for research purposes if nothing else (I know I can do that from here too, but it’s just not the same thing…).
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