Thursday, January 3, 2008

Your Dreams Can Come True

No, you're not bedding Giselle. But, have you ever dreamed of owning your own football club? Dreams of ü75 FC dancing in your head when it hits the pillow? With the advent of the ebays and intertubes, your dream is only a few clicks and a few Andrew Jacksons away.

The latest trend in club ownership, besides Americans buying Premiership clubs, is purchasing a share of a lower-tier club and participating in the operation of the club. Plus, you can do it any number of languages--English, Danish, French and even American.

If you can't afford to purchase a team, there is always an oppotunity to just participate online of the management of a squad, regardless of whether you want to help or hurt the team. Tel Aviv club Hapoel Kiryat Shalom allows--quick, tell your local al Qaeda member about this wonderous opportunity for pratfalls, hijinks and the such against their most hated enemy.

In 2007, Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg bought Tel Aviv soccer team Hapoel Kiryat Shalom. Although fans don't own the team, they can go to a Website set up by Mr. Hogeg -- web2sport.com -- and vote for free on team selection and formation. Fans can then watch the game online and vote on substitutions during the match. So far 11,500 fans regularly log on to watch the matches. (In 2006, the Schaumburg Flyers, an independent minor-league baseball team near Chicago, allowed fans as part of an interactive online series to vote on lineups -- which left, on occasion, outfielders playing the infield.)

For Mr. Hogeg's soccer team, there have been a few glitches along the way, as well. During a recent match, fans from rival teams went onto the Web site and voted off Shalom's star striker. This cost the team the match. Another problem: Since fans like to stay home and watch the match interactively on their computers, stadium attendance has fallen. Web2sport is now planning to implement a voting system via text message, and Mr. Hogeg says he hopes to buy a club in England this year.



Take the plunge and you can drop the fantasy from your title of fantasy football manager.

Hat-tip to The Big Lead.

6 comments:

Jacob said...

I think some of our boys here want Liverpool to be the English club bought.

The NY Kid said...

sadly, the Scousers around here would do a better job than Rafa, and I think Babel and Torres would appreciate the consistency

Precious Roy said...

I'm sure you guys have seen this... or maybe you haven't.

http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/

But here you actually pay for a stake in the club. Although I don't think it's a true equity position, even though you have to pony up annually.

I remember reading through it at some point and thinking it was kind of a crappy deal, but it was only like 35 GBP a year.

The Fan's Attic said...

if you read the linked article, you would know that was one of the clubs they talked about.

i feel so unloved.

Unknown said...

NY Kid -- why is it sad that we'd do better than Rafa? That makes me feel kinda special.

Jacob said...

Oh, and thanks for using the umlaut. It means a lot to me.