Who owns your football club?

Lots of silliness at LFC at the moment, which fans of other clubs can't help but feel ambivalent about.

On the one hand, tribal loyalties make the long, slow pressing of the self-destruct button morbidly fascinating viewing.

On the other, it makes me ask myself who these "businessmen" squabbling about a football club are and what they think they're doing.

Ok, so they may have bought the assets/debts of this "club" on the basis of some hopeful projection of future revenue flows concocted by folk who really wanted the cash injection needed to match the likes of United and some of them like the idea of being the great Saviour/Patron BUT the club is really owned by the fans.

Without the fans' adoring and forgiving loyalty to the football club (and each other), then the assets are worth little more than the property and IP portfolio.

Without the fans, there's bugger all.

Without the fans and their interaction with each other, there's Sweet FA to squabble over.

The Great Bullmore once wrote that "People build brands as birds build nests, from scraps and straws we chance upon." (That's the People, out there not you marketers).

The best a marketer can do is host, facilitate and encourage them to collaborate to build brands (and "brand value") with each other. The better you get at doing this, the greater the value of the assets you have in the bank.

But don't ever forget where they come from...