Power To The People: A Brief History Of Ebbsfleet United Football Club

Football is perhaps one of the few things that unites people of all nationalities, cultures and faiths. The word 'football' followed by 'Barcelona', 'Manchester United' or 'Ronaldo' is likely to be met with a knowing-nod anywhere in the world. It's probably for this reason that football has become known as 'the beautiful game'.

Many argue that the real football fans aren't those that follow the big guns from La Liga or the English Premier League: it's those fans who turn up week after week to cheer the thousands of lower-league clubs across the world, where the chances of glory are slim and the simple thrill is eleven local men giving everything they have purely for the love of the game.

However, one small club in particular stands out from the rest as being a team that truly belongs to the fans.

Ebbsfleet United rose from the ashes of Gravesend & Northfleet, a club initially founded in 1946. The Kent club's name change was announced at a public consultation meeting in May 2007. The lower-league Football Conference team made history in February 2008, by becoming the first ever football club to be owned by an online community.

The power of the internet and the global love of football combined to create a football club owned by tens of thousands of people spanning seventy countries. The scheme - under the banner 'My Football Club ' - proved particularly popular in Scandinavia, where Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland boasted almost a thousand members collectively by the end of October 2007.

By the beginning of 2008, well over a thousand Americans were on board, paying £35 for a one year membership.

This new model of football club ownership is testament to the love of the beautiful game - and also how the internet has helped reduce oceans to streams by creating a true global footballing village. The fact that 'fans' from as far away as the Americas and Asia can democratically vote on player transfers and team selection, relating to a tiny team from Kent is truly remarkable. The food served up at the 'crowdsourced' club's stadium also goes to the ballot - a clear indication of how much power the people actually have.

The football club may be small in terms of attendance, but its global reach is far greater than many other English or European teams will ever achieve. And its ideal location by Ebbsfleet International railway station, with several Eurostar trains a day servicing the likes of Paris and Brussels, means the club is pretty well connected to the continent.

Whether Ebbsfleet United rise to the giddy heights reached by Manchester United or Real Madrid remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, the club's meteoric rise from being a small local team in Kent, to one followed - and owned - by thousands across the planet, is a remarkable story. Who knows what the future holds for them?

Janine Barclay writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.