Scunthorpe end talks with fan subscription group

Scunthorpe United are top of the National League North

Scunthorpe United have ended conversations with subscription-based investment group FC100,000 amid supporter backlash.

It was reported on Sunday that the group, which is aiming to raise £6m through 100,000 subscribers paying £60 a year, had reached an agreement with the National League North leaders.

However, Iron chair Michelle Harness has said the club have now "unanimously decided to end" discussions.

"Since FC100,000 made their own announcement it has been widely reported that Scunthorpe United was the club potentially involved, and our fans have understandably voiced their concerns," she said in a statement on the club website.

"We have listened to those concerns, we share a number of them, and we have unanimously decided to end our interest in this project."

Harness took over at the Glanford Park side in October 2023 after previous owner David Hilton withdrew all funding.

She added: "We know that your trust is earned, and I believe that over the last 18 months we have earned it. Myself, Roj Rahman, George Aitkenshead and Ian Sharp remain 100% committed and united in our quest to create a sustainable future for this football club.

"As part of that commitment, we have made no secret that we are open to investment from a potential fifth owner and see it as our responsibility to explore all possible options"

The Iron were a Championship club as recently as 2011 but their 72-year spell in the Football League came to an end in 2022 and they were then relegated down to the sixth tier the following season.

They beat then second-placed Chester 3-1 on Saturday in front of a National League North record crowd of 8,274 and are four points clear at the top of the table with six games to play.

'Crazy' to work with fans who don't want us

FC100,000 is co-founded by Will Brooks who headed up the MyFootballClub group which bought 75% of non-league Ebbsfleet in 2007.

That group gained membership from 27,278 people before voting on which club to invest in.

However, Brooks left the project two years later. By 2010 membership had dropped to 3,000 and in 2013 they sold the club, which owed money to HM Revenue and Customs.

Fellow co-founder of FC100,000 Michael Brady, who had no involvement in MyFootballClub, said he had been saddened by the "vitriolic" reaction to them having discussions with Scunthorpe but said that no agreement had been made with the Iron.

"We have not reached a deal with anybody. We are actively talking to a number of teams around the country, both men's and women's. We are keen to find welcoming owners who want to try and disrupt the funding model for football," he told BBC Radio Humberside.

"In our conversations with multiple clubs we found that many of these clubs are in dire financial straits.

"We wont be doing anything without full fan support but I think what has been upsetting in the past 24-48 hours is the general cynicism around the idea of a social enterprise that we are all volunteering our time, effort and indeed money to try and support.

"We can't keep having a situation in this country that football clubs can go under because of the voracious capitalistic notion that you can come in, strip assets and ignore fans. We're the polar opposite of that.

"We're tying to collectivise the funding where we get many, many people to contribute to create what is a more sustainable model that we already have.

"We wont be working with any club where fans won't welcome us, that would be crazy."

Hilton took over from Peter Swann, whose ownership fans had protested against, in January 2023, the same month the club had been served with a winding-up petition by HMRC.

Under Hilton, the club were relegated to the sixth tier and that September he removed all funding having tried to move home games to Gainsborough Trinity because of a dispute with Swann.

Fans then raised £50,000 to cover unpaid wages and former commercial director Harness then came in to take over.

Brady, who called Scunthorpe a "sleeping giant", said they were understanding of what the club had been through before.

"I appreciate the club has been through all kinds of trauma in the past," he said

"The thing about this is it is the exact counter to what it has been through. What do people want?

"You've had horrible owners who have led to all these challenges and we are trying to do the exact opposite of that and yet we've been met with vitriol.

"Where we're at now is we're not talking to Scunthorpe."

Model can 'propel' club

Brady believes a subscription-based model is more likely to work now than it did in 2007 because the way people consume entertainment has changed.

Unlike the MyFootballClub project, which initially suggested members would be able to have a say around on-pitch decisions, something which never came to pass, FC 100,000 would only give subscribers a vote on "very selective issues".

As of 12:00 GMT on Monday, Brady estimated that around 750 people had subscribed and he remains bullish that the project can be successful.

"I've got enormous sympathy with fans and what they've been through," he said.

"What you have had across the country is companies, individuals and in some cases fraudsters buying clubs and running them into the ground, we are pledging to do the opposite of that.

"I guarantee when we do this with somebody we will propel that club. We are not rank amateurs. We have run businesses and done things in the past that are successful.

"We are passionate about football and we are passionate about the fact that it is unsustainable in its current form."