Fans take majority control of Somerset League Two club after £3.2m community share issue

Supporters of a League Two club in Somerset have become its majority owners after a community share issue raised £3.2m in eight weeks, the largest sum ever raised by a fan group to buy a controlling stake in an EFL club.

The supporters’ co-operative, which was formed in 2019 and had previously held a single seat on the board, will own 51% of the club from Monday, with the outgoing owner, a local businessman who bought it in 2012, keeping 29% and the remaining 20% held by a group of small investors who backed the deal. The share issue, which closed on Friday, attracted 4,312 investors, of whom 78% live within 25 miles of the ground.

“We are not buying a toy,” said Gemma Lightfoot, chair of the co-operative, a primary school head who will become the club’s chair. “We are buying the right to make sure nobody can move it, sell it for flats or run it into the ground. The old owner has been good to this club. The next one might not have been.”

Shares were sold at £50 each, with a minimum purchase of £250 and a maximum of £50,000. The co-operative operates on a one-member-one-vote basis regardless of holding, so a supporter who invested £250 has the same say as one who invested the maximum. The club’s accounts show it lost £1.1m last season on turnover of £6.4m, a gap the departing owner had been covering personally.

The co-operative’s business plan, published alongside the share offer, promises to close that gap within three years through a new commercial deal with a regional cider producer, the sale of a plot of land behind the away end for housing and a reduction in the playing budget from £2.8m to £2.3m. The club is currently 12th in League Two.

The model is borrowed from Germany, where the 50+1 rule requires members to hold a majority of voting rights at most clubs, and from a handful of English clubs that have been fan-owned since financial collapse. What is unusual here is that the club was not in crisis. “Most fan takeovers happen in the rubble,” said Dr Ben Casswell, who researches football governance at the University of Bath. “This one happened because the owner was 68 and wanted to leave it to someone who would not sell. That is a much better position to start from.”

The Independent Football Regulator approved the change of control last week, its fourth approval since April, and the EFL has confirmed the co-operative meets its owners’ and directors’ test. The departing owner will remain as honorary president and will attend his first match as a minority shareholder on Saturday, when the club host a Cheshire side.

“I will sit in the same seat,” he said. “I just will not be the one getting the phone call when the boiler goes.”