Ethical clubs

[matthewclargent]

What are the most ethical clubs around that I could start a save with and why and which clubs should be avoided?

eg. Good = St Pauli - liberal politics, forest green environmentally friendly, Wimbledon and fc United- ‘fans clubs’

Bad = Lazio and Zenit for their far right tendencies. PSG and Man City - oil money, Mk Dons -sell out.

 

i appreciate no club is going to be perfect but what are the best options 

Edited July 21, 2021 by matthewclargent

[Speedyol]

Check this webpage: https://www.ethicalfa.org/top-flight-clubs

And perhaps this: https://www.dw.com/en/welcome-to-the-worlds-greenest-soccer-club/a-46694185

Edited July 21, 2021 by Speedyol

[Vänsterback]

Rayo is the Spanish version of St Pauli? They used to have rainbow details on their kits some seasons ago and attract the same kind of hipster following I guess. If you want to manage in Sweden you could pick basically any club since all are at least 51% owned and run by club members and contribute a lot to their local communities. But avoid AFC Eskilstuna, Östersunds FK, Dalkurd, Utsiktens BK and Team TG. They have been doing their best to exploit financial and administrative loopholes with sketchy minority owners or chairmen.

[Hovis Dexter]

here is a List of fan-owned sports teams which is headed by football clubs. I've no idea how ethical any of them are but it may give you some ideas.

[XaW]

3 hours ago, Vänsterback said:

Rayo is the Spanish version of St Pauli? They used to have rainbow details on their kits some seasons ago and attract the same kind of hipster following I guess. If you want to manage in Sweden you could pick basically any club since all are at least 51% owned and run by club members and contribute a lot to their local communities. But avoid AFC Eskilstuna, Östersunds FK, Dalkurd, Utsiktens BK and Team TG. They have been doing their best to exploit financial and administrative loopholes with sketchy minority owners or chairmen.

The same goes for all Norwegian clubs, everyone is owned by the club members.

[matthewclargent]

21 hours ago, Vänsterback said:

Rayo is the Spanish version of St Pauli? They used to have rainbow details on their kits some seasons ago and attract the same kind of hipster following I guess. If you want to manage in Sweden you could pick basically any club since all are at least 51% owned and run by club members and contribute a lot to their local communities. But avoid AFC Eskilstuna, Östersunds FK, Dalkurd, Utsiktens BK and Team TG. They have been doing their best to exploit financial and administrative loopholes with sketchy minority owners or chairmen.

Perfect, that’s the kind of thing I was after 👍

[Icy]

A bit biased question isn't it? So left=ethical and right=unethical? For me ethics has nothing to do with right or left but more about what they do with their money and how is it distributed/invested, how do they contribute to ethical projects, environment protection, how do they treat the fans, etc. But if they support or even allow extreme right or extreme left, or support or allow aggressive and violent supporters, no matter if right or left oriented, imho they are not ethical clubs but I guess it's a subjective matter.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Icy

[Brother Ben]

30 minutes ago, Icy said:

A bit biased question isn't it? So left=ethical and right=unethical? For me ethics has nothing to do with right or left but more about what they do with their money and how is it distributed/invested, how do they contribute to ethical projects, environment protection, how do they treat the fans, etc. But if they support or even allow extreme right or extreme left, or support or allow aggressive and violent supporters, no matter if right or left oriented, imho they are not ethical clubs but I guess it's a subjective matter.

I don't think that's what the OP has implied to be fair.

Thing is by definition a "right wing" run club is less likely to be involved in activities that distributes their money collectively and and are less likely (maybe to a lesser extent) to be involved environmental issues.

I'm also struggling to thing of a club with an extreme "far left" violent supporter base.  Of course I could be wrong.

The reality really is that I very much doubt that a club could hope to be successful at the highest level and be supporter owned, my own club Swansea made it to the Premier league being 21% fan owned but the local businessmen who owned the other 79% quickly sold their share to an American hedge fund.

I do agree though that ethics is highly subjective

Edited July 22, 2021 by Brother Ben

[Andros]

I guess 1 of the websites Speedyol linked could be useful in providing a (somewhat vague) definition for an ethical football club:  

 

We rate clubs that live some or all of the following: positive ownership practices, social inclusiveness, environmental footprint, ethical supply chain, and positive impact on the community

 

No mention of left or right leaning politics.  I guess that could come from our own biased views on left and right: where some argue that left is liberal and right is nazi.  The political compass suggests otherwise, however I feel I am getting far away from what we are looking for on a computer game forum!  

[Brother Ben]

My suggestion would be Clapton Community FC at level 11 in England using Messi's Database

This article explains why better than I ever could

[Yuko]

12 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

I don't think that's what the OP has implied to be fair.

Thing is by definition a "right wing" run club is less likely to be involved in activities that distributes their money collectively and and are less likely (maybe to a lesser extent) to be involved environmental issues.

I'm also struggling to thing of a club with an extreme "far left" violent supporter base.  Of course I could be wrong.

The reality really is that I very much doubt that a club could hope to be successful at the highest level and be supporter owned, my own club Swansea made it to the Premier league being 21% fan owned but the local businessmen who owned the other 79% quickly sold their share to an American hedge fund.

I do agree though that ethics is highly subjective

Yet Lazio is one of the largest sports* club in the world and the largest in Europe, with a very positive social note in the city of Rome and the region of Lazio (regular food banks etc). But you don't like their fans opinions, so they're on the wrong side.

They even have won international awards for ethics lol. For promoting all kinds of sport (50+ different sports offered to over 2,000 athletes + youth academies) to all individuals regardless of nationality, social background, race or religion. 

 

A "right wing" club may also be associated with Church, which is an institution that helps the poor for centuries as much as those who aren't fans, like myself, prefer to focus on all the bad stuff associated with that. 

 

 

*Sports, not just football. 

 

No need to get into left vs right violent clubs. There's plenty from both sides. And the irony is that Lazio isn't all that violent to begin with when compared to others. 

[FrazT]

Guys- this is not the place for a discussion about the politics in football- this a a Football Manager forum, so lets keep the chat relevant, please

[Brother Ben]

5 minutes ago, Yuko said:

Yet Lazio is one of the largest sports* club in the world and the largest in Europe, with a very positive social note in the city of Rome and the region of Lazio (regular food banks etc). But you don't like their fans opinions, so they're on the wrong side.

They even have won international awards for ethics lol. For promoting all kinds of sport (50+ different sports offered to over 2,000 athletes + youth academies) to all individuals regardless of nationality, social background, race or religion. 

 

A "right wing" club may also be associated with Church, which is an institution that helps the poor for centuries as much as those who aren't fans, like myself, prefer to focus on all the bad stuff associated with that. 

 

 

*Sports, not just football. 

 

No need to get into left vs right violent clubs. There's plenty from both sides. And the irony is that Lazio isn't all that violent to begin with when compared to others. 

I stand corrected, I acknowledge that the issue isn't black and white, far from it.

Millwall have a bad reputation but do a lot of great community work for instance and have won family club of the year.

Looking into this has been a real eyeopener 

[matthewclargent]

On 22/07/2021 at 19:22, Icy said:

A bit biased question isn't it? So left=ethical and right=unethical? For me ethics has nothing to do with right or left but more about what they do with their money and how is it distributed/invested, how do they contribute to ethical projects, environment protection, how do they treat the fans, etc. But if they support or even allow extreme right or extreme left, or support or allow aggressive and violent supporters, no matter if right or left oriented, imho they are not ethical clubs but I guess it's a subjective matter.

Yes it’s subjective and I would argue/agree with you that any fan base that is violent, aggressive and intolerant is ‘unethical’ but as brother Ben said I can’t think of a club with violent left wing supporters so have included that as more of a far right tendency 

[matthewclargent]

11 hours ago, Yuko said:

Yet Lazio is one of the largest sports* club in the world and the largest in Europe, with a very positive social note in the city of Rome and the region of Lazio (regular food banks etc). But you don't like their fans opinions, so they're on the wrong side.

They even have won international awards for ethics lol. For promoting all kinds of sport (50+ different sports offered to over 2,000 athletes + youth academies) to all individuals regardless of nationality, social background, race or religion. 

 

A "right wing" club may also be associated with Church, which is an institution that helps the poor for centuries as much as those who aren't fans, like myself, prefer to focus on all the bad stuff associated with that. 

 

 

*Sports, not just football. 

 

No need to get into left vs right violent clubs. There's plenty from both sides. And the irony is that Lazio isn't all that violent to begin with when compared to others. 

I used Lazio as an example as they were in the news just for displaying a banner stating that “Lazio were proud fascists”.  I’m sure the ultras don’t speak for all Lazio fans and I am of course not suggesting that all Lazio fans are racist and they’ve never done anything positive for the community however there have been multiple instances of racist chanting at Lazio which is why I put them in the ‘bad’ list

Edited July 23, 2021 by matthewclargent

[matthewclargent]

17 hours ago, Andros said:

I guess 1 of the websites Speedyol linked could be useful in providing a (somewhat vague) definition for an ethical football club:  

 

We rate clubs that live some or all of the following: positive ownership practices, social inclusiveness, environmental footprint, ethical supply chain, and positive impact on the community

 

No mention of left or right leaning politics.  I guess that could come from our own biased views on left and right: where some argue that left is liberal and right is nazi.  The political compass suggests otherwise, however I feel I am getting far away from what we are looking for on a computer game forum!  

I would argue left and right wing leads into “Social inclusiveness “.

Do you think that the fans of far right clubs would turn up waving rainbow flags? Be respectful of a female referee? 
 

my original question wasn’t intended to be delving too deep into semantics. I just wanted some examples of clubs around europe that had good reputations 

Edited July 23, 2021 by matthewclargent

[Andros]

7 hours ago, matthewclargent said:

I would argue left and right wing leads into “Social inclusiveness “.

Do you think that the fans of far right clubs would turn up waving rainbow flags? Be respectful of a female referee? 
 

my original question wasn’t intended to be delving too deep into semantics. I just wanted some examples of clubs around europe that had good reputations 

It depends on definitions.

 

According to the political compass, left and right refers to the amount of government control in economic affairs (with authoritarian and libertarian being the amount of government involvement in social affairs).  

 

Another way is left is liberal and right is conservative.

 

Anyway, your point is made, it is an interesting thread.  My earlier post was just in response to a question of ethics being subjective, so I tried to add a definition in that could be used/debated.

[FrazT]

This thread has gone past the point where it remains an FM discussion, so it is closed.

[FrazT]

@Juego de Posicion  I have hidden your post as, whist there is fact in some of your comments, it is inflammatory and likely to cause a reaction, which is not what the forum and this thread is about.