Football joins the mutual admiration society

The Red Knights say if they buy Manchester United, the club's supporters trust will be centrally involved in running the club. If so, they would follow a well-trodden path. In the UK more than 160 clubs are owned by fans outright. They include Exeter City, Brentford - where Greg Dyke is chairman - and AFC Telford, which has won plaudits for becoming a "delivery partner", helping the local council meet social inclusion and health targets. Football has become an outrider for the remutualisation of Britain. Supporter trusts generally inherit clubs whose balance sheets are parlous and are, in effect, owners of last resort. Despite this, they place the teams on a sure financial footing while playing an important role in the community. But they often have difficulties competing with bigger clubs, which borrow huge amounts to pay transfer fees and wages. Football is reeling from how short-term greed took precedence over sustainability – best exemplified by Portsmouth, whose fate currently hangs by a thread. And for football, read the broader economy. With the public's trust in politicians, financial institutions and regulators eroding, the co-op movement believes that after years in the doldrums, this is its moment. Around the country there are success stories, from the resurgence of John Lewis, an employee-owned company which has seen increases in revenue and market shares, to the restoration of the Co-op supermarket chain as a force in British retailing. Last year the Co-op completed the £1.57bn acquisition of Somerfield, and is increasing revenues, as the first major retailer to embrace the fair trade model. Leisure operator GLL started in 1993 after Greenwich council, forced to impose 30% cuts, handed its facilities to a not-for-profit trust. Now, it is the biggest provider of municipal sport facilities within the M25, with more than 250,000 members. Mutual societies are spreading to the public sector. In 2002, Labour created foundation trusts to run hospitals. Advocates argue this represents a coming together of staff and patients to improve services. The government is also behind plans to take the co-op model to schools. There are currently 40 in existence, with 200 planned by the end of the year. The Co-operative party, the political arm of the Co-operative movement, is campaigning for the co-op model to be rolled out to social care, the Sure Start early years scheme and social housing, in a move that supporters argue would stop businesses profiting from public services. The party is also behind a campaign that would see Northern Rock, currently owned by the government, converted into a mutual. It believes the government must resist siren voices in the City calling for a quick sale to the private sector, as that would leave the taxpayer out of pocket. The Conservatives are also keen to champion employee-owned co-operatives to run chunks of the public sector. But critics point out that the last Tory government passed legislation that allowed for the demutualisation of dozens of financial institutions and argue that they do not fully understand the sector.