PLANS to give fans a more active role in a new Bradford Bulls can work, according to someone who helped create a similar rebuild in the Football League.

The Rugby Football League are assessing four bids to set up another Odsal club – one of which aims to incorporate the Supporters' Trust model.

Richard Lamb's Lucid Sports Management believe they can secure the long-term future of a reformed Bulls by working closely alongside fans, who would own the majority of shares.

The fan-ownership model is popular in Germany's Bundesliga and is making its way into English football.

Former Cronulla Sharks chairman Damian Irvine, who is also part of the Lucid bid, has seen it at close quarters with Wycombe Wanderers, where he works in a commercial role.

And Portsmouth are now in their fifth season as a community football club after two administrations in three years.

Colin Farmery, who was involved in the Trust's bid to buy them in 2012 and now works for the club, insists it can be an effective way forward.

He said: "We had an original shareholding of 59 per cent Trust and 41 per cent among 12 to13 investors. They weren't a consortium but they met collectively to make decisions.

"Capital remained open for another 15 months and by the end it shook down as 51 per cent for these individuals and 49 per cent Trust.

"We are no different to any other Football League club – a private limited company with an executive team that reports to the board of directors.

"There are eight directors and three of them are nominated by the Trust board.

"Their role is to effectively represent the 2,500 community share-holders' interests but ultimately they are acting predominantly in the best interests of the club.

"We set break-even budgets every season to ensure that whatever we spend, we earn. That's how we see we can develop a sustainable club model."

Farmery admitted there are pros and cons to the system. The Trust must have a "credible" leader to prevent their views from becoming fractured.

"We were in a similar position to what has happened with the Bradford Bulls – but we are a clean club now," he said.

"We did inherit a significant chunk of historical debt. But in terms of how the model would work, in the three-and-a-half years we've been community-owned, we've cleared all that and paid off the initial couple of bridging loans we needed.

"We have invested over £1million in training facilities that we have got a long-term lease on and another £1million in the backlog of maintenance work on the ground that hadn't been done.

"At least two or three times a year, the Trust have update meetings for shareholders. People feel they are involved in the process, even if the fundamental decisions are made by the club board."