‘Own the club, pick the team’ was the offer to bring fantasy football to life made to the 30,000 members of MyFootballClub. Eight months after the web-based company took control of Conference side Ebbsfleet in a blaze of publicity, the novelty has worn off and apathy appears to be setting in. Last Saturday, the team selector finally went live, with members asked whether they wanted to choose the players for the pre-season friendly against Charlton or leave it to manager Liam Daish.
‘Own the club, pick the team’ was the offer to bring fantasy football to life made to the 30,000 members of MyFootballClub. Eight months after the web-based company took control of Conference side Ebbsfleet in a blaze of publicity, the novelty has worn off and apathy appears to be setting in. Last Saturday, the team selector finally went live, with members asked whether they wanted to choose the players for the pre-season friendly against Charlton or leave it to manager Liam Daish. However, despite team selection being the cornerstone of the whole MyFC enterprise, only 1,865 of the 30,349 members bothered to vote at all. Of those, just 199 – less than one per cent of membership and 10.3 per cent of those voting – wanted to pick the team. For Thursday’s friendly against Torpoint, the total number of voters dropped to 1,144.
MyFC founder Will Brooks admits the low numbers have come as a shock but is convinced that things will improve once the season gets under way. He admits, ‘We did expect more people to insist on picking the team. But that’s the thing with MyFC – it’s an experiment and nobody knew how it would play out.’ However, a vital vote to set this season’s weekly playing budget attracted just 5,482 responses. All the signs point to a dramatic drop in interest and, with members due to renew their £35 annual membership in February, there could be big problems ahead. That fee, mutiplied by 30,000, brought more than £1m into the club in November, allowing MyFC to purchase the club, clear its debts and fund an increasing playing budget. If only the 5,482 people who voted on the playing budget renewed, that revenue stream would plunge to just £191,870. If the venture fails, control will be handed to the supporters’ trust.