Fascinating idea emerges explaining how fans could finally force Mike Ashley out of NUFC

Football writer Graham Ruthven has written a thought provoking piece for Yahoo Sport today, suggesting that fan ownership could be the way forward at Newcastle United if we do truly want to see the back of Mike Ashley.

This comes just a few days on from some barmy claims that Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather could be interested in taking on the Toon as his latest business enterprise – however we all know this is both unrealistic and totally unwanted.

Our club has become a laughing stock at times over the Ashley era and Ruthven believes that fan ownership – a model that has worked well at several clubs in the past – is the best options for NUFC given the lack of credible candidates that have come forward to date.

Here’s what he’s had to say:

“The club has become a circus over the past decade and with Mayweather in charge that circus would only continue. Newcastle, after over a decade of turbulence, needs stability. More so, they need an owner who understands the club and its fanbase.

“With no obvious candidate, the time has come for the fans to back control themselves. Newcastle United’s supporters must mobilise to put together a collective offer for the club they love. Fan ownership models have been successfully adopted at clubs up and down the country and now the same must be attempted at St James’ Park.

“Newcastle United boasts one of the largest fanbases in English football, demonstrated by the size of their home crowds, even in times of trouble. Under Ashley’s charge, that fanbase has grown detached, disenfranchised, but the fervour has remainder.

“It’s time for that to be harnessed in order to secure the future of the club.”

“Of course, there would be a number of obstacles to such a takeover. While fan ownership has given smaller clubs, like Portsmouth, AFC Wimbledon, FC United of Manchester and Motherwell in Scotland, a stable footing, it hasn’t yet been attempted in the Premier League. It would be extremely difficult to raise the £350 million required to buy the club from Ashley without some sort of benefactor.

“But the size of the club might provide Newcastle with an even greater foundation for a fan ownership model. They could set a precedent for the future of club ownership in a wider sense. They could provide the litmus test, and theoretically there’s no reason to believe it wouldn’t succeed. It works for Barcelona, so why couldn’t it work for Newcastle United?

“The Newcastle United Supporters Trust is already one of the most active fan groups in the country, and so the infrastructure is in place for a mobilisation. Newcastle and their long suffering fans deserve better than what they have been served up for the past 11 years. They deserve to be in control of their own fate for once. Newcastle United is the club of the city and now it should be the club of its fans too.”

What do you make of this folks? Do you think this a realistic route to finally see the back of Mike Ashley?

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

4 thoughts on “Fascinating idea emerges explaining how fans could finally force Mike Ashley out of NUFC

  1. So you would need 50,000 people to invest about £10k each to buy the club, then you have enough to buy it, and invest a bit……But finding 50,000 Geordies willing to invest £10k is a tough one..

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  2. Unrealistic in the extreme.

    A more realistic idea would be for an organisation such as The Newcastle United Supporters Trust to work with Staveley to start a ‘Crowd Funding’ campaign. For example get 100,000 fans to provide, say £500 each (in return for shares in the club) and this would provide Amanda Staveley with the additional money needed to get Ashley to sell. In effect become part of the takeover. I suggested this to the AshleyOut group but got no reply.

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  3. Oh what short memories you have.

    When NUTS were set up they came racing out the gates with a plan to take back the club for the fans. That’s why they were set up – to buy the club. Thats why the word Trust is in there.

    But they very quickly realised that its one thing to sit in the pub talking about it, but its an entirely different thing to actually get out there and raise millions of pounds.

    And it all just fizzled away to nothing.

    The fact that you think this is a fascinating idea suggests you don’t know much about the club or its history.

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  4. It just seems to me that the NUST, the AshleyOut, and the flags thing want to be seen and heard but are actually unwilling to do very much about the problems.

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