By David Gold
June 30- A supporters group is looking to buy a stake in ailing French third tier outfit Racing Strasbourg, with the club’s financial position becoming increasingly precarious.
Jonathan Helbling (pictured), the group’s organiser, told insideworldfootball that he wanted supporters to have a greater say in how the team was run.
“The ultimate goal of our project is to integrate the supporters in the club’s financial structure, so that we can have our say,” Helbling said.
He added that he hoped “at least 10 per cent of the club would be owned by fans”.
A group has been set up using social networking site Facebook, asking supporters to donate to the cause, entitled “project to buy Racing Club Strasbourg by its supporters.”
More than 1,000 fans have so far donated to the cause, raising some €740,000 (£657,000/$1.1 million).
Strasbourg is one of the six to win all three major French trophies: the Championship in 1979, the Coupe de France in 1951, 1966, 2001 and the Coupe de la Ligue in 1997 and 2005.
But in recent years they have been plagued by financial problems and an offer has been made by a consortium led by former owner Jack Kientz to buy the club.
The team are currently playing in the National, the third tier of French football, and narrowly missed out on promotion to Ligue 2 at the end of last season to Guingamp.
With a running deficit of €700,000 (£621,000/$1 million) and debts of €8 million (£7.1 million/$11.5 million), the club could go bankrupt without a solution to their problems.
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