FC United of Manchester general manager Andy Walsh believes there will be a ‘long lasting legacy’ after the club reached its target of £2m in community shares.
Since launching the scheme in November 2010 and setting an original goal of £750,000, the club revised its figure twice to its current sum after huge success.
The club, which is owned and run by its supporters, received more than 1,500 donations with most investing up to £500.
Mr Walsh said: “This is one of the largest amounts ever raised by football supporters and the most ever raised for a sports club via community shares.
“Raising capital through community shares is a pioneering development in English football and FC United’s example has been rightly recognised as offering a real alternative to the way football is run and financed.
“Our groundbreaking development will create a positive and long lasting legacy in Moston, creating new sports and non-sports facilitates for the area for generations to come.”
The news comes at a time when other clubs are owned and being taken over by multi-millionaires, with teams in the top flight receiving a share of the eye-watering £5bn in its latest Premier League TV rights deal.
However FC United, who are only in their tenth year of existence, want to avoid taking that route and believe their method of fan ownership is inspiring other clubs to follow suit.
FC United board member Adam Brown said: “We believe community shares is a preferable way of raising finance to borrowing from banks.
“It’s more sustainable than relying on wealthy individuals providing soft loans or buying equity who may not always have the best interest of the club at heart.”
The club’s success with the community share scheme has enabled a further £3m of other grant funding to be unlocked.
The grant has been used to meet the £6.3m cost of their new ground, Broadhurst Park in Moston, which is edging nearer to completion.
Proceedings on the field are equally as good, as FC United enter this weekend’s clash away at Grantham Town top of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier and chasing their tenth league win on the bounce.
Main image courtesy of BBC via YouTube, with thanks.
