Each week, those fans vote on United London’s starting lineup by reviewing player statistics, scouting reports and videos of previous weeks’ matches posted online by the club. After voting closes each Friday, the squad for Saturday’s match is announced.  “I think it’s cool because it keeps the club’s supporters involved,” said John Frusciante, a 19-year-old from Aberdeen, N.J., who recently signed up. “The fans have more input than, say, at Real Madrid. Zidane isn’t going to ask you if Ronaldo should be starting or not.”  North said the idea behind the team came to him last year while he and his wife were watching TV on a Saturday night. Tired of ballroom dancing shows and singing contests, North, who worked in financial recruitment at the time, began devising ways to apply the reality TV voting model to soccer.  Like the contestants on such shows, players for United London have something at stake in each week’s voting. While researching how to find players for a grass-roots team, North realized he might be able to mine the large number of academy prospects that are released by English professional clubs each season.  After this highly competitive annual cull, many players abandon their hopes of professional soccer, around age 18. United London has positioned itself as a second chance for such players; the club’s badge depicts a phoenix rising from flames.  “A lot of players, by the time they get to 18, 19, 20, they haven’t got a résumé,” said Jon Willis, the head of recruitment at the Football Careers Centre, an organization that helps place former academy players with new clubs, and who helped organize United London F.C.’s summer trials. Willis said United London allowed players to reset their career path, or try to attract the attention of a new club. “This program is interesting,” Willis said, “because they record every game. It’s going to put people in the shop window.”  Already, United London F.C. has created a diverse squad of second-, third- and even fourth-chancers, among them a Turkish youth international; a player who, the club claims, was the fourth-fastest soccer player in Britain last year; and the nephew of an England international striker.  “Right now, I don’t really think about it,” Georges Kekota, a player who once played in the third tier of Belgian soccer, said of fans’ having the power to pick, or cut, players. At 26, Kekota is one of the oldest members of the team. “If you play,” he said, “you know it’s because people like you, the way you play and what you bring to the team.”  For now, United London supporters can influence the team’s lineup only before matches. On a basic-looking website — North admitted that it had had some growing pains — fans are met with a formation empty of players that they can fill by selecting names from drop-down menus beneath each position. Clicking on a star above a player selects him as the captain, earning the manager double points for that player’s performance. As technology improves, North said, the club would like to allow fans to make in-game decisions on substitutions and other questions. For now, those decisions, and practice sessions, are handled by United London staff members.
United London F.C., which plays in the 12th tier of England’s soccer pyramid, lets its fans set the team’s lineup each week.