Online campaigners urge fans to share a link

Fans of Evo-Stik Northern Premier League FC United of Manchester have been set a target of raising £26,000 in eight weeks to help kit out the club’s new ground.

FC United are set to play their final game at Bury’s Gigg Lane next month before moving into the supporter-owned club’s new stadium in time for next season and have joined forces with the public fundraising platform Crowdfunder.co.uk to launch their 'Kit it Out' campaign.

The fundraising drive started on Monday and aims to fund the kitting out of a community space and function room at the new ground and community facility which is being built in Moston, North Manchester, pictured.

Crowd funding is an alternative means of funding that allows people and organisations to take their ideas forward and in the first 48 hours of the campaign, FC United raised £5,000.

After their excellent start, the club’s officials want supporters from far and wide to circulate the Crowdfunder link so that even more people have the chance to hear about the campaign and offer their support.

FC United are offering extra rewards to supporters who decide to pledge and general manager Andy Walsh, said: "We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to help fund our new ground and facilities and we think the Crowd funder platform will enable us to do just that.

"We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target of £26,000 to kit out the community space and function room and we have just eight weeks to get the money in.

"Crowd funder works by enabling lots of people – each giving a small amount – to make good things happen. Essentially, the ‘crowd’ decides what’s good, what’s not, what they want to fund and what they don’t. If the crowd doesn’t back the project then it won’t happen.

"Put simply, if we hit our target then we get our money, if we don’t then the money goes back to those who pledged it and we end up with an empty community space at the new ground. We hope that our supporters won’t let that happen!

"Can we do it? Our supporters will decide along with anyone else who supporters what we are trying to do as a fan-owned club, by visiting our campaign site at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/kit-it-out and making a pledge."

Walsh also hopes fans from throughout football who care about the game will decide to chip in.

He added: "A strong supporter-owned movement will put a check on some of the excesses in the game and, who knows, if our movement gains enough strength we may bring about some fundamental changes.

"One thing is for certain - if we do nothing then nothing will change. This is about more than just FC United, this is about changing the way that the game is run."

For more information visit: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/kit-it-out.