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Share the Achievement

It’s a rare old day when you feel like framing a spreadsheet and putting it on the wall. But it was a bit like that on Thursday 15 March when we knew we had not only reached, but broken though, our target of £1.6m for the Community Share Scheme.

Because what has been achieved by FC United’s members raising that amount is the kind of landmark you want to remember. A truly, truly phenomenal effort by everybody. The fifth biggest community share scheme of any kind outstripped only by wind farms paying much more significant returns and the Phone Coop. One of, if not the, biggest fund raising efforts by a group of football supporters in the UK. And of course a huge step forward towards reaching our dream of our own ground.

Some facts:
- The total as of 21 March is £1,659,599
- £11,650 still to be signed over from the TAL scheme and not included.
- Expected instalment and branch schemes to come in of around £24,000
- Interest of over £19,000 which will go toward the Development Fund target.


It is also an achievement that is of national importance. If we can raise that sort of money then what could clubs with much bigger fan bases achieve to help them buy controlling stakes in their clubs?

However, it won’t count unless we get there. We still need to raise more for the Development Fund. We still have grant funding decisions to hear about and others to sign off. We still have some legal and planning agreements. And we still have some costs to finalise.

The board will give a full update on all of this at the General Meeting on 19 April, so make sure you are there if you can be (although all reports will of course be made available to all members). By then we hope to know more on all of these issues, and hope to have the smell of freshly cut grass in our nostrils.

So although it feels like a never-ending road, now is a time to take a moment, to reflect on what a monumental achievement this is and to metaphorically (or even literally!) pat yourselves on the back. Reaching this target says everything about what this club is - owned by its members, controlled by its members and sustained by the finance raised by its members.

Finally, though, it would be wrong to sign off this blog without acknowledging the hard work of a number of people who have kept the community share engine running. So a big thank you from the board and staff to:

Kevin Jaquiss, Estelle Wall and Janet Lindsay at Cobbetts for all their advice, processing and updates; Jim Brown, Hugh Rolo and Ed Mayo for their confidence in us developing the scheme in the first place; Michael Holdsworth, Naomi Pendlebury, John England and others who have managed the incoming data, enquiries and updates in the office; John Bradley, Tom Stott and everyone on the membership stall; Ste Wood and Jane Beresford on the DF stall; Mike Tomlinson and the webteam for the totaliser and other website work; Lynette Cawthra and her team of helpers who have phoned and phoned and phoned members asking for contributions and to get people signing over; Tony Howard for designing the share document and last minute correcting of all our mistakes; and funders at a local and a national level who have recognised the unique nature of what we have been trying to do - and backed us. And thanks to you all for your sterling efforts.


First Posted ~ 16:46 Fri 23 Mar 2012
News ID ~ 4122
Last Updated ~ 02:08 Tue 16 Feb 2021