Blues Trust launch survey for Community Shares

To All Supporters of Birmingham City Football Club

We are, and we are sure you are, dissatisfied with the financial situation that prevails at our club.  Do you want to see a change in ownership of BCFC to an alternative that could offer more long-term stability and a sustainable future for our club?

Recent press reports indicate that the current regime may eventually want to sell the Club.  Or, some think that if the financial situation gets any worse, the Club could be forced in to administration.  A number of supporters have indicated that there is a case for collective supporter share ownership, or part ownership, primarily via the supporters trust model.  Some feel that in any of the above eventualities, we should be ready to consider all ways to collectively acquire a shareholding in BCFC, if indeed shares become available.  Supporter ownership of football clubs is a concept that has increased in popularity, credibility and profile in the UK in recent years.  The histories of Portsmouth and Swansea are only two cases in point where their supporters’ trusts raised large amounts of capital from a relatively small fan base.

Blues Trust is set up as a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (CBS) registered under the Industrial and Provident Society.  Supporters Direct (SD) in England (to whom Blues Trust is affiliated) recommends the CBS form of society because it is better suited to community ownership of football clubs as it provides for a unique form of share capital called Community Shares.  As a registered society, Blues Trust has the capacity to issue Community Shares to its members, which would enable a fund to be accumulated for the purposes of the above.

We wish to conduct a survey to measure the extent of your appetite for change and to assess the amount of collective monetary support that could be accumulated, in the form of pledges.  We emphasize that at this point in time, we only wish to know how much you could pledge.  If it proves that we could collectively amass a reasonable fund, then the Trust may take things a stage further.

Please complete the Survey which is on a separate page under Investment/Survey here.

Alternatively, it is available in PDF format here which you can download, print off and post to the following address:

Blues Trust, c/o Royal George Hotel & Bar, Garrison Lane, Birmingham B9 4PN.

You can find Guidance for supporters at: