Shoefayre / Cambridge City

Since my last post, Shoefayre (the shoe shops owned by the Co-operative Group) have been sold to a rival shoe retailer. This marks the end of the Co-op's 48 year history in this area of business. While some will undoubtedly bemoan the sale of yet another business (after our motor dealerships and department stores were sold a little while ago), there is some sense in the Society's strategy of focusing on the businesses that we are good at, and that our Co-operative and ethical nature can give us an advantage. Shoefayre was a struggling business, represents about 1% of our turnover, and didn't really fit into the re-branding exercise particularly well. If we got a good price for the business, then it doesn't seem like a step backwards.

On a very different issue, I realised on Wednesday that when I mentioned on here the Cambridge United Supporters Trust (a co-operative of football supporters who aim to seek representation in the running of the club), I was ignoring the newly-formed Cambridge City Supporters Trust. Cambridge City Football Club are based just North of the river at their Milton Road ground, and as so often in football clubs it was the ground that was to cause all manner of concern about the club's future. While I don't want to write a history of the last four years of City, suffice it to say that CCFC suffered from the usual blend of directors taking *ahem* unusual *ahem* decisions, dodgy businessmen, and the greed of man. This had left them not owning their own ground, having very little in the way of assets to find a new one, and a very real possibility of not continuing the fantastic job they do as a community football club. However, following a High Court judgement last week, they have managed to reverse the deal that led to the complete appropriation of their ground.

What makes all this of interest here is that Cambridge City have been, since 2006, owned and controlled by the Cambridge City Supporters Trust. It is through the drive, passion and committment of these ordinary supporters that the club has come back from the brink. Incidentally, this judgement represents the second huge challenge that the Trust has overcome. The first was taking over the club in the first place - the City board at the time had plans to merge with Cambridge United, effectively reducing City to a name for the reserve team. Such a course of action was not paletable to the City faithful, and, by coming together in a mutual organisation, managed to save and run the club where a conventional business had failed. See the story of this first triumph on YouTube - I think that it is fair to say there was a tear forming in the corner of my eye at the end of watching that...

Good luck to the members and officers of the Supporters' Trust in running their club, and to City in their FA cup tie on Saturday. They will be looking to build on their 4-1 win in the Conference South yesterday - the perfect way to celebrate their off-the-field success and relief.