It can’t be often that Harlequins makes the Financial Times but that’s what happened this week following the announcement it was issuing a mini-bond.

The club is aiming to raise £7.5m – but could increase that figure to £15m should there be sufficient demand.

Clearly this scheme isn’t for everyone. Not all supporters will have a spare minimum £2,000 lying around to invest in a sports club which is hardly on the brink of needing to get out its begging bowl.

But you have to applaud Quins’ initiative on this. You may question how necessary it is when the club is already solvent – the club’s pre-tax profits in the year up to June 2015 were around £15m – some of which will be spent trying to build support for the club in the United States.

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However, if owners Charles Jillings and Duncan Saville – both financiers themselves – feel they need to raise capital it is surely better to tap into supporters’ passion rather than giving up equity and potentially control of the club.

You only have to look at some of most famous football clubs, such as Aston Villa, Leeds United and even Manchester United, to see that selling out to the richest person you can find tends can mean that supporters’ interests and what happens on the field can be more than compromised by the money men.

Plenty of other sports clubs will be watching with interest. In the 1990s there was a trend for football clubs to go onto the Stock Market but that rather crashed and burned when people realised they haemorrhaged money – the £750 or so I spent when my heart ruled my head was quickly worthless as the club I support narrowly avoided going into administration.

Equally in Quins’ case, financial experts have been quick to point out that despite the headline 5.5 per cent gross interest rate, the investment carries risk because it isn’t covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

I suspect this isn’t an investment for anyone without Quins’ best interests at heart but that is exactly how it should be.

Anything that gives supporters the opportunity to have a stake in the club’s success should be applauded.