Welcome to the BvB London fan club podcast as every week the focus of the show will be on exploring a facet of Borussia Dortmund life by talking to experts and former participants of the club's life, like players, fans, journalists who have covered the club and functionaries and experts and thus make our BvB more accessible to non-German speakers in particular.

On today's episode, Ben is joined by Mark Sheppard to explore the incredible story of 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth FC and the crisis that led to the 2013 fan takeover and find out why 50+1 the regulation in the Bundesliga that means German clubs remain majority-owned by their members could never, almost never, work in the UK and what it means for German football in light of clubs like RB Leipzig.

Special guests on the show are the former chairman of Portsmouth FC Iain McInnes, now the Chairman of Southern Football League team Gosport Borough FC (7th Tier Verbandsliga in Germany) the 2014 League trophy finalists that were founded in 1944, that play at the 4500 capacity Privett Park stadium. Iain runs a business in the electronics industry and himself played for Portsmouth U17 in his youth.

Also on the show is Colin Farmery a former board director of Portsmouth FC and a journalist who has written for Uk publications When Saturday Comes and The Guardian he is currently head of communications at Gosport Borough FC.

Both are long term Portsmouth fans since the 1960s and were instrumentally involved in the ownership of the club during the era of the ownership by the 'Pompey Supporters Trust' a takeover that saw thousands of fans come together to buy the club after a series of disastrous takeovers that pushed the club into administration twice.

We also contrast the financial crisis at Portsmouth FC with that at BvB of 2005 and find out what role the fans played in saving both clubs and laying the foundation for the future. They explain what happened, how it worked, why it was needed and what their roles in the takeover were.

As on every show the hosts and the guests also share stories of their visits to Westfalenstadion and what makes BvB, the club we love BVB.

We hope you enjoy the show, send us your comments, share the show with friends and remember for all the news and to apply for tickets to join the London BvB community at our Stammtisch at our online group at Facebook.com/borussiadortmundfanclubengland or come to watch a game at our meet-up Stammtisch at the Naughty Bar in Cleveland street during the season.

All rights reserved Borussia Dortmund London Ltd 2020.

iain mcinnes

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