Football fans have bought a regional publisher’s shares in the club they support.

The Canaries Trust has confirmed it has bought 3,500 shares in Norwich City from Archant.

The move will make the trust, which is funded by subscription fees from City supporters, the sixth-largest shareholder in the club.

According to Archant’s Pink’Un sports title, the deal is expected to be completed at the club’s next board meeting.

Chair of the trust Robin Sainty, pictured, told Planet Radio: “We have been in discussions with the administrators for the best part of two years, so to finally get it over the line so really good and obviously with the fan-led review pressing for more supporter input, it puts us in a very good position moving forwards.

“Fans have a significant stake in a lot of major German clubs and Barcelona is famously owned by its fans.

“There is definitely a trend around the UK for fans to have a bigger input, because at the end of the day managers and owners come and go, but the fans are the constant. It’s right and proper that they should have a stake.

“I think are relationship with the club is pretty strong anyhow, so I don’t think this makes too much difference to it.

“But obviously from a fans point of view, it’s a very strong position for them to say well, actually we are the sixth-largest shareholder.”

Two of Archant’s holding companies – Archant Limited and Archant Community Media Holdings Limited – were placed into administration following Rcapital Partners’ purchase of the publisher in 2020.

HTFP has approached Archant’s new owner Newsquest, which bought the publisher earlier this year, for a comment.