The Magic Touch: How soccer club with financial obstacle is rescued by fans?

Eibar players celebrating their first victory in La Liga.

With midfielder Javi Lara’s brilliant free kick, Eibar secured a 1-0 win against Real Sociedad in their first fixture of the 2014-15 La Liga season. While many soccer fans were amazed by the performance of Eibar on the pitch in their first ever La Liga appearance, few people realize that the squad accomplish a far more amazing miracle off the pitch.

Located in the north of Spain, Eibar is a small city with a population of 27,000, and the only stadium in the town, Ipurua Municipal Stadium, has just 5,250 seats. By comparison, Bernabeu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid, can hold the entire population of Eibar and still have 58,454 seats remaining. To everyone’s surprise, the SB Eibar has earned two consecutive promotions. In just two years they have gone from the third tier of Spanish football to La Liga this season.

However, at the end of last season, the club realized it had a huge hurdle laid in front of them as they were being promoted to La Liga. According to certain Spanish financial regulations, every La Liga club should have the cash on hand to pay 25% of the average expenditure of all sides in the second tier (excluding the two clubs with highest spending and two lowest spending clubs). The rule was designed to ensure all clubs can attend to its debts. If the teams fails to do so, it will not be allowed to play in La Liga, and even worse, it will be relegated to the third tier. At the moment of their promotion, SB Eibar had just 420,000 euros (544,020 US dollars) in its account. In order to fulfill the requirement, it had to raise 1.72 million euros (2,227,892 US dollars) to reach 2.1 million euros (2,720,101 US dollars), the registered money threshold for this season based on the amount of money spent in the Spanish second tier. Although it may seem quite easy for a top club to raise 2 million euros, it an uphill battle for a tiny club like Eibar. However, the world loves a good underdog story, and Eibar accomplished this miracle.

After failures in seeking individual investors, the board turned to another way of financing - launching a stockholder share plan. Initially, the franchise sold its shares, 50 euros per share, solely to the Spanish public. However, after realizing the capital raised was far from the threshold, it resorted to international fans, an obviously much larger population. During this round of international financing, Chinese soccer fans played a crucial role.

After learning of the financials struggles of Eibar through the media, a large number of fans across China gathered on QQ, the most popular instant messaging software in China, to try and help the club. They discussed different aspects of the plan, they researched for and learned Spanish laws regarding purchasing shares of a company, and then completed the corresponding transactions. During that period, fans had to surmount various difficulties, such as the language barrier, their unfamiliarity with the law, and the inconvenience of international transactions. Eventually, with the support of fans around the globe, Eibar raised the sufficient funds three weeks before the deadline. According to the New York Times, more than eight thousand people from 48 different countries purchased a share of SB Eibar.

Actually, to a certain extent, Eibar followed the history of a number of clubs that did the same thing to save themselves while on the brink of collapse. Currently in England, Wales, and Scotland, there are almost 150 supporter trusts. This method to save a team by selling shares to the public can be traced back to 1992 in England, when Northampton Town was the first club to be taken over by fans. During that season, the club experienced a huge plunge in their standing, and even worse, the debt amounted to 1,600,000 pounds (2,610,000 US dollars). While failing to pay player wages from the last two months, Northamtpton Town released ten senior players and called up several youth players with lower wages, but the results did not improve. In January 1992, the Northampton Town Supporters' Trust was formed with the purpose of raising money to save the club, and becoming involved in the operation of the team. The trust helped the club escape the crisis and the Northampton Town Supporters' Trust is still helping to run the team today.

In terms of fans rescuing their beloved soccer clubs, the cases of Eibar and Northampton Town are just the tip of iceberg, as there are many more passionate and responsible fans who helped saved their teams. From donating to the sports club, organizing fan movement, and even taking over the club, fans have constantly found ways to help their teams in any way possible.