Fit and Proper People

OWNAFC promised fans the chance to buy and run their own football club. Fit and Proper People tells the story of the business that was supposed to revolutionise football, the people who lost out when it collapsed and the violent consequences suffered by those who tried to hold OWNAFC to account.

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In 2019, an app called OWNAFC hit the market promising football fans the chance to buy and run their own club. Just a few months later it collapsed, leaving customers hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket. Fit and Proper People tells the story of the business that was supposed to revolutionise the game, the people who lost out and the violent consequences suffered by those who tried to hold OWNAFC to account. The book uncovers how poor regulation and the financial structure of English football make clubs easy prey for unsuitable owners and how, time and again, the fans are left to pick up the pieces. With the aborted launch of the European Super League, there is finally widespread recognition that billionaires, venture capitalists, broadcasters and tech businesses must no longer be allowed to dictate the future of the game. Fit and Proper People is a powerful expose of the state of football and a call to properly protect clubs and to involve the people who really love them - the fans - in how they are run.