Sometimes part of the problem trying to drum up interest in finding a different way to run English football is that it’s a particularly dry subject.
While a certain type of journalist salivates over these sports administration stories, as soon as the words “regulator” and “governance” crop up your average football fan closes the webpage, scrolls onwards, or, still in some cases, puts down the newspaper.
But what would be a seismic change to football, what could finally start addressing the game’s plethora of problems, has moved a big step closer and many in government believe something that has been attempted several times before could actually become a reality.
“If it’s implemented it will be a historic moment for the game,” Gary Neville, who has been part of the Saving the Beautiful Game Group campaigning for an independent regulator for over a year, said. “Nobody will look back and think this was a bad decision or something that went wrong. It’s the right thing for the game, something it needs at this time.”
Former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review of football has recommended as a priority the creation of an Independent Regulator for English Football. And the review did not hold back in its criticism of the way the Football Association, Premier League and English Football League currently govern the game. That they are disparate and ineffective authorities who seemingly stumble blindly in the dark through each major crisis, has been known for some time by the many who work within football’s confines.
But it must still be established by the passing of an Act of Parliament, and for campaigners such as Neville and his Saving the Beautiful Game Group contemporary David Bernstein, the former FA chairman, hard work is still to be done.
Certainly, the winds of change are blown on by the collapse of Bury and the strength of outrage prompted by the attempt of England’s six most lucrative clubs to place themselves above all others and join a breakaway European Super League. The government welcomed the report on Thursday and said that fans should expect a decision by spring.
“It is clear that current oversight of the game is not up to the challenge of solving the structural challenges and action must be taken,” Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries said. “The review demonstrates that there are fundamental issues with our national sport, and that this merits radical reform.” She declared this to be “a turning point for football in this country”.
The FA and Premier League released statements claiming they welcomed the review, but it has likely gone down a lot worse in private. The whole thing — even the need for a different regulator — is in itself damning of their inability to control and adjudicate football. Equally, it is unlikely they will want to cede power to anyone.
The Premier League said it did not want changes to be at the detriment of football – was that the rolling up of sleeves and an indication a fight is on the cards?
“The Premier League, alongside English football as a whole, is a global success,” the league’s statement said. “We have an outstanding track record on and off the pitch, including the positive impact on youth development, communities and the wider game, of which we are proud. It is important to everyone that any reforms do not damage our game, its competitive balance or the levels of current investment.”
It was left to Neville to say what virtually everyone else is thinking. “If you take away self-interest, greed and conflict, who cannot want a fairer distribution of money in the game? Who cannot want there to be a fit and proper person test? Who cannot want there to be better financial sustainability, monitoring and tracking in the EFL? Who cannot want more diversity and inclusion and better representation across the board?
“These are things that I can’t think anybody who has got the best interests of the game at heart would ever want to say they don’t want. It’s really simple stuff this.”
Neville: Don’t be hoodwinked by FA and Premier League
Gary Neville insists supporters of an Independent Regulator for English Football must not become “hoodwinked” by potential attempts from the Football Association and Premier League to make it appear as though one is not needed.
“We were sneered at 14 months ago but actually we’ve got to base one,” Neville said. “What we mustn’t do now in the next 12 to 18 months is be hoodwinked by the game’s attempts to put things in place to thwart the implementation of an independent regulator.
“I’m sure along the corridors of power in English football over the next few weeks they will be coming up with a new financial sustainability plan, they will offer up some more money to the EFL and try to keep them quiet, they will try to put together a new fit and proper person’s test and they’ll say look we’ve done everything, you don’t need it now.
“No, let’s not be hoodwinked. I think we all understand what the game will try to do. It will try to implement the recommendations in its own way. We mustn’t let that happen. This report has to be executed in its entirety for it to work.”
The review recommends that an IREF oversee stricter financial regulations, take control of the owners’ and directors’ test, ensure money is better distributed throughout the pyramid, including imposing a solidarity levy on Premier League transfers, make fan input into major decisions compulsory and give supporters powers to veto decisions to protect club heritage, including preventing owners joining a breakaway league not affiliated to Fifa, Uefa and the FA.
Bernstein said: “I think this is a moment in time. There have been many failed attempts in the past at reform. A number of things have come together. Tracey Crouch and her team have produced a really heavyweight report, well thought through, very comprehensive.”
“I’m delighted with what is in there — it contains virtually all the recommendations we made in the first place. If we really value this pyramid we talk so much about — a pyramid doesn’t work very well if the base collapses. It is in the interests of the country.”
Neville added: “The conclusions were a representation of the game’s thoughts. So why would anyone want to push against what would be a representation of the game’s thoughts, particularly from a fan’s point of view?
“I see this as a huge opportunity for football — I know there have been various different versions of reports and commissions over the last 40 to 50 years. This feels very different. I think coming off the back of the situation like Bury, Wigan, Bolton, Derby, the Saudi Arabian introduction into the Premier League [taking over Newcastle], whether you are for it or against it what we can agree is there is a lack of independence and transparency around how it’s been determined.
“We have got the European Super league, the Covid economic crisis, we have got Project Big Picture. Football has proven in abundance over the last 18 months to two years that it needs reform structurally. The work that has been done by the panel, Tracey heading it up, has been outstanding. We should see this as an opportunity to correct the ills within the game.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2ZpXvjp
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