Why Freiburg are fitting opponents on Motherwell milestone

Freiburg are fitting European opponents - and an inspiration - for Motherwell as the Fir Park club reach 10 years of fan ownership. Well Society director Derek Watson regards the Conference League play-off with the German side as the "pinnacle" of Motherwell's fan-owned journey so far. "It's such a special occasion," Watson told BBC Radio Scotland. "When you talk about fan ownership, the German model and probably Argentina are the two you look at as the best examples of that. "Freiburg are a 100% fan-owned club, they operate as a democratically registered member association, so they've got about 35,000 members rather than the external investors that is often the model in the UK. "And beyond that, Germany also has the 50+1 rule that requires club members to hold the majority of voting rights against commercial investors. "So when we're looking at that, and seeing how successful these clubs are, not just domestically but also in European competition, we have to be striving to be just as good as that. "At the moment we have over a 70% stake in the club but looking at the way Freiburg do it, there's a lot of lessons we can learn from them." Watson says more Scottish clubs should be looking to become fan owned. "Not just at Motherwell, you need to look at the success of fan-owned clubs across Scotland," he said. "Last season you had Falkirk finishing top six after back-to-back promotions, St Mirren winning the League Cup, Hearts almost winning the league. "It's a really good time to be a fan-owned club. Other clubs across Scotland should be looking at our model and asking, can we do that?"