Some people may object that RamsTrust has an ambition to have a supporter elected to the board of the club, or that it declares a long term aim for fans to ‘take over’ the club. Will RamsTrust ever own the football club? The short-term answer is certainly ‘no’.

So if the answer is no, then what does the following mean, within the trust’s constitution? “To encourage and promote the principle of supporter representation on the board of any company owning or controlling the Club and ultimately to be the vehicle for democratic elections to the board.”

The answer is in the key word, ‘democratic’. Despotic or selfish principles in operating a community-based club that has been supported for many generations will not succeed, whoever should attempt it, because democratic forces will emerge. The football club board also relies on mass support to sustain the club’s income from fans and the very credibility of the regime in charge of the club.

We saw at Derby County recently that when such credibility of a regime falters and honesty is not apparent in the boardroom, then supporter influence for change is at its most effective - even though that clearly did not mean a withdrawal of any support for the football team itself on the field. That’s nother common misunderstanding!

Some Trusts and supporter groups - both at home and abroad and in all sizes of football clubs - do control their clubs or have been critically influential in marshalling local interest and investment in helping to assemble a company or consortium to take over the club, when crisis, conflict and collapse have occurred.

The board of a football club has traditionally been made up of local business people ostensibly putting something back into their local community. As with many passionate benefactors of their local clubs, be it Lionel Pickering, Dave Whelan, Jack Walker or John Madejski, they propelled their clubs forward though personal investment and took an influential hand in the future of their own clubs.

However in recent years a more business-orientated model has come to the fore, which now more typically involves international consortia. Clubs are run first and foremost as a business with their profit and loss performance being closely controlled (at least in theory).

This is the model that Derby County runs at the moment. The board is ultimately speculating on the future success of the Rams and hopes that in the fullness of time that this will return a profit on their investments. There is nothing wrong or underhand about this approach - it’s the model for the vast majority of businesses across the globe.

Imagine a scenario where the board of DCFC invited RamsTrust to appoint a director to the board of the club. Unlike earlier times in this decade, there isn’t a crisis of trust about the current board of DCFC, or great worries about the level of debt or the club to be capable of paying its way. How could representation possibly work within the current set-up of DCFC?

The first issue would be who to send to the boardroom? RamsTrust is representative of its 800-strong membership and by definition representative of fans. A trust doesn’t claim to represent all fans and neither can other organisations or groups; fans could represent themselves individually but collective representation is more effective. It is impossible for a club to counsel and respond to every fan’s individual idea of how the club’s policies should operate.

So should a trust send a board member or elect a representative from the membership? Electing a fan is a difficult process, as choices have to be made about the election process required. A ‘fan’ board member would be sometimes be privy to confidential information that could not be reported back to the general membership or fanbase - so the question is; what would this achieve?

Again, it’s about democracy, involvement, participation, communication. Derby County can have no claims to be a model club in these respects, If we look back through its history. It follows that the club should therefore strive to be ever more inclusive and community-oriented. If the club’s board is competent and well-resourced, not all of its outreach needs to be (or should be) governed by tempting the fan base to perpetually increase its spend per head in the club shop or ticket office. Feeling part of the club takes many forms, and these can’t all be directed by the club.

The first thing to stress is that RamsTrust is in no way separate to or different from other supporters of the club. Trust members are just ordinary fans with no aim of being an elite or vanguard of the supporters.

Trusts are however a catalyst for involvement and action, in community and heritage work and in the affairs and policies of the club that they hold dear. Members don’t harbour the personal ambition to sit on the board or own the club - at least none beyond the “if I won the lottery” level.

Very rich fans that have ascended to boardroom level have been both good and bad for our club - as with examples at other clubs - at different times in the Rams’ history!

Rather, a Trust should be seen as a tool to allow fans to democratically represent themselves to the board of the club and as a tool to pass comment on what they see as positive and negative at the club. The trust is necessarily fiercely independent of the club, which allows it to speak out when situations need to be aired that might make the powers that be at the club uncomfortable.

Today, we can observe the crisis at Newcastle United, whose owner Mike Ashley has invested over £250m in the club but is reviled by the fans for his policies and mistakes. The Newcastle United Supporters Club is now re-forming into a supporter trust and they have the aim of ousting Ashley and facilitating ownership by the fans.

The Keegan dream - or circus - is over; United are in real danger of relegation. The value of the club would plummet, the management is in a highly transient state, and the unhappy ‘Toon Army’ has found its voice. Newcastle is a very unhappy ship today, lumbering towards the precipice at a rate of knots!

How would they find a way to pay off Mr Ashley? Who will fund their massive squad wage bill or ensure that they win promotion and climb back to a position that their fans perceive they should occupy?

The fervour and scale of Toon suport can be compared to the passion and power of the Catalan fans that found ways to control mighty Barcelona, sustaining it as one of the biggest clubs in the world. So, who knows…? In that context, Derby County certainly don’t lack for the depth and strength of their support and potential, should such a situation occur at home. Unity, allied to true passion and purpose are prerequisites for such radical change, as well as the resources to make things happen.

Clubs might seek more local funding and input through share issues, for example. Financing an ambitious club is now less appealing or feasible to owning consortia affected by global economic factors. Super-rich owners like Abramovich acquiring and funding big clubs for their own amusement and diversion could soon become a ‘spent’ model.

Ironically, the boom that fed a global interest in football from the large consortia and rich individuals has led to a massive economic downturn - and a reluctance to invest so heavily could encourage clubs to again involve an increased level of local interest and input. Having many owners and contributors sharing the financial ‘burden’ in a democratic model based on (or including) significant local influence may be a re-emerging method - though a manageable, elected committee or board would still operate the club.

Football is changing - the credit crisis and lack of financial security affect the boardrooms of football clubs to greater or lesser degree just like other individuals and businesses. In the future it may well be possible for the fans to be more represented on the board of the club - in a way that resists the tokenism that a current “supporter appointment” would be.

It thus may also be possible for the fans of a club the size of Newcastle United or Derby County to own the club - note the use of the word ‘fans’- and the Toon trust or RamsTrust would be a vehicle for such an eventuality. Presently, it would be very wrong of the Trust to attempt to undermine the board at Derby with such an aim - indeed, the Trust categorically rejects the idea that it would do so.

There is a great deal of commercial and sporting knowledge within Derby’s current ownership consortium and the addition of Canadian entrepreneur Jeff Mallett to the GSE group has further strengthened the depth of potential experience and financial investment on the board of Derby County FC. These factors can surely be of benefit in the aim to fulfill their stated ambition of establishing the Rams in the Premier League.

They are also wise enough to know that consulting the fans and involving them in decisions will only stregthen the club and enhance its partnership with supporters. There is now the chance of stability, a sense of purpose and harmony - and even though there have been regular managerial upheavals at Pride Park Stadium, fans and club alike dearly want to facilitate a long and successful tenure for Nigel Clough and his new backroom team.

The Trust seeks to work with the board of the club to obtain the best deal and representation for its members and, by extension, all members of the extended community that make up the superb support of Derby County FC.

To join RamsTrust, go to www.ramstrust.org.uk or write to RamsTrust, PO Box 6377, Derby DE1 9XP or telephone 0870 4321871 and leave a voicemail message.