MyFootBallClub (via Springwise) is a rather brilliant idea that could just work, admittedly with a bit of a following wind. You sign up, pledging to give £35 (about $70) when requested. Then, when 50,000 fellow enthusiasts have joined too, they’ll buy an English football club, or soccer club, to you Americans.
The £1.75 million clearly isn’t going to buy you a Man U or Chelsea, but might well get a debt-free club from a lower division.
But the fun doesn’t end there. As an owner, you’ll have a say in how the Club is managed from team selection and formation, tactics on the day and even substitutions. You’ll even get a say in player purchases and transfers and other forms of club expenditures, like the percentage of funds going into the youth team.
The site doesn’t actually say so, but the mobile is going to have to take on the classic Centre Forward position in this process. I mean, they can’t have people dashing home from matches to vote for substitutions in the middle of a match.
If this takes off, it’ll be a classic experiment about if the wisdom of the crowd really can take on the wisdom of other individual managers.
Speaking of footie, here’s an opportunity for a huge digression. The best footie chant I ever heard of was in a match when Leeds United were playing Manchester United. The Man U fans kept chanting “He’s French, he’s flash, he’s shagging Lesley Ash, Cantona Cantona” It transpired that Eric Cantona (Leeds) was shagging Lesley Ash (C-list actress) who was married to Lee Chapman, who was errr….Captain of Leeds United.
Golly.
Leave a comment if you’ve got a better one.
I always liked best the chant at Chelsea when we played FC Bruges (in case readers are not aware of the sensitivities involved they are from the flemish speaking part of Belgium) - “You’re French and you know are”
Brings happiness to the heart to remember the look of bewilderment on the faces of the 500 or so fans from Bruges.
[...] איך שקראתי את הפסקה הראשונה בפוסט הזה של ראסל באקלי מ-MobHappy ונפל לי האסימון, דפקתי על המצח ואמרתי פאק איט, זה יכול לעבוד. [...]
I’m not convinced MyFootballClub will fly, I’m not particularly interested in investing in a non-local football side, especially one that might compete with any team that I support. Interesting idea, but probably not best suited to the parochialism of English football supporters.
On a lighter note - “We all live in Robbie Fowler house” (sung to the tune of Yellow Submarine) always makes me grin. Although unless Robbie’s a really altruistic landlord I’d have thought he’d have been better off buying up half of Manchester and ripping off the Mancs, it doesn’t seem quite right for Liverpool fans to pay to watch their landlord play football.
Wikipedia has a lengthy article with some of the classics chants - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_chant
As a Leeds fan I feel we’ve never been that good at chants - the Cantona one was probably our best.
My other favourite was when someone came up with a reworking of Simon& Garfunkels Mrs Robinson
“and here’s to you Jimmy Hasslebank - Leeds fans love you more than you will know, oh, oh oh, oh.
It was an instant hit - but unfortunately it was late in the season and two weeks later Jimmy left.
Typical Leeds really.
Not sure about chants, but my favorite banner was one raised by Liverpool fans at the 1977 European Cup final, about Welsh midfielder Joey Jones:
“Joey ate the Frogs’ Legs,
Made the Swiss Roll,
And now he’s Munching Gladbach”
Referring to previously conquered French and Swiss opponents, and the German team they beat in the final, Borussia Monchengladbach.
I guess my vote for favorite chant will be whatever the Kop replaces “We won it five times” with after Wednesday night