Football Governance:
Fan-led Review
(Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
What steps he is taking to progress the fan-led review of
football governance.
(Rochdale) (Lab)
What steps he is taking to progress the fan-led review of
football governance.
(Coventry South) (Lab)
What steps he is taking to progress the fan-led review of
football governance.
(Slough) (Lab)
What steps he is taking to progress the fan-led review of
football governance.
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
()
Football is nothing without fans, so it has been a joy to see
them back cheering on their teams this week, and we stand
unequivocally on the side of fans. Our manifesto committed to
putting them front and centre of our review of football
governance and we are delivering on that. That is why I appointed
my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford () as chair and, this weekend, I will announce the
membership of the expert panel, which will include players,
management, regulators and, of course, fans. This is a serious
review; I know people want to see change and this review will
deliver it.
I am sure the Secretary of State will join me in congratulating
Hull City on being league one champions this year. Hull City are
one of many examples in recent years of where football club
owners have not had the best of relationships with their fans.
The recent breakaway attempt by the European super league cartel
of greed brought many of the issues that concern fans to a head.
Fans do not just pay a lot to support their clubs; they are
custodians of their heritage and they deserve respect. To avoid
taking his eye off the ball, will he explain a bit more about
exactly how fans will lead the fan-led review and when it will
report back to the House?
I thank the right hon. Lady for her question. First, of course, I
join her in congratulating Hull City. She is absolutely right
that football clubs form the heart of their communities and,
indeed, our heritage. It is essential that fans play a
significant role in the fan-led review, and I have been
discussing that extensively with my hon. Friend the Member for
Chatham and Aylesford.
In terms of explicit engagement, the chair will be engaging
extensively with supporter trusts and fan groups over the coming
weeks, but I understand that that will not work for everyone, so
there will also be a consultation process, which we will set out.
Of course, the chair, the Sports Minister—the Under-Secretary of
State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, my hon. Friend the
Member for Mid Worcestershire ()—and I will be engaging with parliamentarians as
part of the review as well. On the question about timing, I would
expect an interim report by the summer and a further report by
the autumn.
[V]
There are two football teams in my life: Manchester United, who
are No. 2 in the premiership, and Rochdale, who are sadly heading
for league two of the football league. The idea that they are
part of the same football pyramid has frankly been a nonsense for
many years, but what unites the supporters of both those clubs
and many more is the demands that we will never again see the
ability for a European super league to take place, that the
clammy hand, the dollar-studded fingers, of the corporates such
as the Glazers be taken off the throat of football—that is so
important—and that, once again, we will recreate a proper pyramid
of football in this country. Will the Secretary of State
guarantee that he will legislate to bring about those kinds of
ends?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. The points he made
about the football pyramid are precisely why the terms of
reference of the review, which we set out to the House,
explicitly covered examining
“the flow of money through the football pyramid, including
solidarity and parachute payments, and broadcasting revenue.”
I have said before, and am happy to say again, that I have set up
this review with someone who is genuinely independent in the form
of my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford. I fully
hope and expect to accept the recommendations, and should those
require legislation, we will find time to do that.
[V]
As an MP for Coventry, where, in recent years, our football club
has repeatedly forced fans to drive miles from the city to watch
home matches, and as a diehard Liverpool fan, one of the clubs
involved in the proposed breakaway European super league, I know
fans’ anger at owners’ decisions all too well. Ultimately, this
will be changed only with fan ownership, like the 50+1 rule in
Germany, but the Government could make a more immediate change to
improve this. On major decisions such as moving ground or forming
a new league, they could require clubs to secure a 50% plus 1
majority of season-ticket holders. Will the Government heed that
demand or will they just kick the problem into the long grass?
The hon. Lady mentions the governance structures in other
countries. The terms of reference of the review explicitly say
that we will be exploring
“governance structures in other countries, including ownership
models, and whether any aspects could be beneficially translated
to the English league system”.
The review will proceed at pace, as I set out in a previous
answer, and we will then proceed at pace to implement any
recommendations that follow from it.
Mr Dhesi
The greed of the super-rich club owners who wanted to destroy the
football pyramid, which benefits everybody, and proceed with
their botched plans for a European super league has been well and
truly kicked into touch by the power and solidarity of football
fans across our country, but this Government helped to create the
crisis by ignoring Labour’s calls for years and by failing to
progress with a fan-led review of football governance, so would
the Secretary of State like to apologise on behalf of the
Government for failures and missed opportunities and tell us
exactly when the review will report back to this House?
I do not intend to apologise. I would have expected the hon.
Gentleman to welcome the robust action that this Government took,
standing behind fans and standing alongside the nation, in
stopping these outrageous proposals. On the fan-led review, while
Labour has talked for years and years, it is this Government who
are actually delivering on it.
Mr Speaker
We now come to the Chair of the Select Committee. I call
.
(Solihull) (Con)
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
“Guess what? Next time you come into the stadium you will be
paying, son, not playing.”
That is how one youngster of my acquaintance had his dreams
crushed by a Premier League club when being released as a player.
With the fan-led review into football, chaired by my hon. Friend
the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (), under way, does the Minister agree that it needs to
be more than about the architecture of our national game and that
it needs to incorporate a review of how clubs treat the 98% of
young people who do not make it, how they equip them for life
beyond football, and how they safeguard them and their mental
health?
My hon. Friend raises an important point, which I have discussed
with him. As ever, he is absolutely right. Clubs clearly owe an
obligation and a duty of care particularly to the young people
they work with, and I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for
Chatham and Aylesford will consider those points. As my hon.
Friend is aware, the Football Association has recently received a
report on safeguarding and has committed to implementing all its
recommendations. We will certainly be holding the FA to account
for doing that.
(Wirral South) (Lab)
Given that there was a Select Committee report and a Government
response saying that they would legislate 10 years ago, it is a
bit rich for the Secretary of State to claim that he is acting
swiftly—but anyway, that aside, given the announcement only last
week that the Government are prepared to set aside competition
objections to preserve the status quo for three years, he will
understand the healthy scepticism at the idea that the Government
genuinely want change. So to answer that scepticism, will he
confirm that, by the end of this Parliament, we will see a better
model of redistribution in football that will see more money
shift down the pyramid—yes or no?
The hon. Lady is conflating two issues about competition law and
the Premier League. The Sports Minister has set out the
Government’s position in a written ministerial statement. This is
about securing football finances during a period of crisis, and
it is essential that we do that. Clearly we will all have an open
mind as we get the response, but the reason for considering this
is that we want to ensure that money keeps going into the game.
On the point about change, of course that is precisely why I
asked my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford, who I
know the hon. Lady has worked closely with in the past, and I
think we can trust her to come up with serious recommendations to
address precisely the issues that the hon. Lady raises. I do not
want to pre-empt the outcome of that review, but I can give an
assurance that I will deliver on the outcome of the review as
much as we possibly can. I am not pre-empting it, but we will
find legislative time for doing so.
Football Super
League
(Wellingborough)
(Con)
What assessment he made of the potential effect of the super
league on levels of competition in professional football in the
UK.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport ()
The Government were vocal in their opposition to the European
super league, which would have been detrimental to the entire
football pyramid.
In fact, the whole House was united in opposition. I am glad that
all the English teams that were to be involved have now withdrawn
from the project, and that was the right result for football
fans, clubs and communities right across the country.
Mr Bone
The super league was based on the American model of football,
which does not have promotion and relegation. It has other
criteria such as the draft and salary caps to make it a more
competitive league. Will the Minister give an assurance to this
House—in fact, prejudge the review if you like—and promise that,
whatever happens, there will be promotion and regular relegation
between the different football leagues?
I thank my hon. Friend for those comments. I know that he shares
my passion for American football, but it is not necessarily a
model that we would wish to emulate. It has strengths and
weaknesses, but, at heart, football—in fact, all sport—is about
competition and fairness, and those should underlie the sport. We
are conducting the fan-led review. I am afraid that I cannot
pre-empt the conclusions of that review, but I think that we are
all looking forward to the work that my hon. Friend the Member
for Chatham and Aylesford (), a highly regarded and respected Member of this
House, will be conducting over the coming weeks, and I am sure
that he will contribute to that debate.
