FCupdate - a weekly round-up of world football news

Welcome to the fourth edition of FCupdate, our regular round-up of news and views from around the football world that should appeal to fans of a supporter-owned club like FC United.

FCupdate gives you a weekly fan-owned football hit every Monday. We hope you enjoy the latest edition and do let us know if you see anything that we should be including in future issues.

Community-owned club wins the Superbowl
It’s a little known fact that the result of this year’s Superbowl was a victory for fan-owned clubs. The Green Bay Packers, who beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, have been able to compete at the highest level and withstand commercial pressures to move largely because of their ownership model. They are the only non-profit, community-owned franchise in American professional sports’ major leagues. Read more at The Independent.

Watching Football Is Not A Crime! – free FSF event
Watching Football Is Not A Crime! is a free Football Supporters’ Federation event, hosted by The Guardian’s award-winning writer David Conn. The event, which takes place in Sheffield on 3 March 2011, gives football fans their chance to put questions to a panel of experts including leading journalists, police and Home Office figures. The event will address a series of issues including: Are football fans discriminated against? Unnecessary early kick offs thrust on fans by the police; the right to stand at the game; and the use of Section 27 and Football Banning Orders. For further details and to register your place at this free event see Football Supporters’ Federation website.

Kidderminster Harriers on the brink?
The board at troubled Kidderminster Harriers plan to meet with experts this week to determine the next step for the cash-strapped club. Players and staff at the club have not been paid this month as a result of their financial problems. Independent Supporters Trust committee member Karl Davies told BBC Hereford & Worcester he was still upbeat about the club’s survival chances. "We are still very hopeful the football club can stave off administration and we can keep on moving forward," he said. Read more at the BBC Sport website.

Plymouth Argyle facing closure this week
Another club on the brink are Plymouth Argyle. The next week could be the most calamitous in the 125-year history of the club as the Pilgrims must produce £500,000 for HM Revenue & Customs by 9 February just to stay in existence. The Plymouth Argyle Supporters’ Trust has been set up to try and ensure the continuation of the club beyond that date. For further information on the trust and the club’s plight see Argyle Trust website.

Transfer window shows that football is getting even sleazier
At a time of growing financial austerity across the country, many fans would have been rightly outraged at the goings on last week at the end of the January transfer window. Sky Sports News in particular plumbed new depths of hype with their minute by minute coverage of the deals being done and were beside themselves when the window closed with a record amount of business being done. Paul Wilson in the Guardian wrote a thoughtful piece on last week’s events here.

More feedback on Louise Taylor’s Guardian article on fan ownership
In the last issue of FCupdate we reported on Guardian journalist Louise Taylor’s article on fan ownership which questioned whether ordinary supporters really wanted to run their own clubs. The article provoked a great deal of feedback putting the fans’ case for ownership and a couple of the more interesting blog responses can be found at Twisted Blood and The Two Unfortunates.

Rugby League supporters trust in line for major award
Leading rugby league supporters trust, Trust in Widnes, has been shortlisted for Third Sector Organisation of the Year in the Halton Business Awards 2011 following on from the success of our very own FC United who won the Co-operative Values and Principles Award in 2009. Despite strong opposition from their club, Trust in Widnes have developed a strong presence in their local community and have been responsible for bringing rugby league to a number of new audiences. Read more at Supporters Direct.

Crawley Town – a cause for celebration or condemnation?
Normally a non-league team being drawn away to Manchester United in the FA Cup would attract an enormous amount of goodwill from all across the game. But according to many within the game, Crawley Town aren’t a typical non-league club and, as this piece from Two Footed Tackle illustrates, many neutrals won’t be cheering on the underdogs at Old Trafford. Read more at Two Footed Tackle.

Football blogs leading the way – 100 to follow in 2011
Given the amount of ill informed rubbish being written about the beautiful game these days, many fans are turning to the bloggersphere to find out what’s really going on in the world of football. There’s no doubt that there is some brilliant and incisive writing out there and it deserves a wider audience. Full marks then to the Guardian for their 100 football blogs to follow in 2011 feature. Read it at The Guardian.