Coventry City Football Club
Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)
May I first take the opportunity to thank Mr Speaker for granting me this debate? I also thank the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins), who has been very helpful over a long period and has made some very interesting proposals to reform the Football League. In fact, he has proposed a Bill and I thank him again for allowing me to put my name on it. I also thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth), who, like the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe, has been pushing for some changes to the practices of the Football League, particularly in relation to Coventry City football club. Both of them deserve a little recognition for the work they have done in this area.
My aim in this debate is to raise two key points. The first is the latest situation with Coventry City football club, and the second is what the story has shown us about the future of football governance and the need for urgent reform.
Two weeks ago saw a major development in the saga of Coventry City football club, with the announcement that the club is finally to return to Coventry after a year at Northampton. It follows a decision by the Football League that the club should pay Arena Coventry Limited, the stadium owners, just over £470,000. The club and ACL have agreed a two-year deal, which can be extended until 2018. Coventry will play their first game back at the Ricoh this week and I offer them my best wishes. Obviously, we want Coventry to win, to say the least.
We are all very pleased that the club is coming home. It is good news and nobody wants to be a killjoy. The supporters in the city are obviously very happy about the situation. I thank all those who played a part in making the breakthrough happen. However, in my opinion there is a distinct danger that, because Coventry City have finally returned to the Ricoh, it will be thought that it is a case of problem solved, but that is not true at all: it is only a short-term solution. The past few years have shone a harsh light on the realities of football in this country and exposed many problems. Although the most immediate problem has been resolved, we must not disregard the deeper, underlying problems that have been exposed.
Let us be clear: Coventry City football club should never have been moved to Northampton in the first place. That the Football League allowed it to happen was disgraceful and demonstrates that it is simply not fit for purpose.
The first criticism is that Sisu Capital Ltd and, subsequently, Otium Entertainment Group have prompted doubts that they are fit to own or run a football club. They have clearly not acted in the best interests of the club and have had a total disregard for the supporters, the wider supply chain in Coventry and, of course, the people of Coventry itself. In my opinion, they wanted to bankrupt the Ricoh from the start, and even went to the lengths of seeking judicial review when they were unsuccessful and the Ricoh had survived as a result. They could not care less about the club itself, and see it purely as some sort of cash cow. How can we feel confident that the same thing will not happen again in two years’ time, or even sooner, if the agreement breaks down for some reason? Therefore, although I am happy to see the club return, let us remember that we are not seeing a demonstration of good will and responsibility.
My second main criticism concerns the role of the Football League in this saga. I believe that it has simply not shown leadership and has not proved an effective governing body. It has finally taken notice and told the club to pay back some—not all, of course—of the money owed. Where was the Football League a year ago, when negotiations were at a standstill? Where was it when Sisu stopped paying rent? Where was it when Sisu called for judicial review, saying the council had acted unlawfully by keeping the Ricoh afloat? It was only in June that the judge threw the case out, and Sisu said that the ruling “removed any prospect” of its long-term return to the stadium.
The Football League has been conspicuous by its absence throughout. It can take little credit for intervening at this late stage. Its chief executive, Shaun Harvey, has made an incredible statement:
“When The Football League Board gave its consent to Coventry City playing its matches in Northampton, it did so with this outcome in mind.”
He went on:
“While we understand that the Board’s decision led to a significant amount of dissatisfaction amongst Coventry supporters, we would not be where we are today without it. On this basis alone, this very difficult decision has now been justified.”
I find that astonishing. How can the move to Northampton have been the reason for the return to Coventry? It is as though he is claiming that the Football League had some sort of master plan all along and knew from the start that this would happen, which I find very hard to believe. Quite simply, the Football League has not shown any leadership on this issue and has waited an unacceptably long time before intervening. This situation could have been dealt with years ago before it ever reached such a conflict.
Several problems therefore need to be addressed. The Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport published a report back in 2011 that outlined some of the reforms that are needed. I will not go into them in detail, as we have raised them on many occasions, but I want to give an idea of the sort of reforms that I believe are needed to protect clubs such as Coventry in the future.
First, we need reform of the Football Association, the leagues and their structures. For example, we do not believe that the current board membership is conducive to a democratic and well-functioning system. Secondly, we need an independent regulatory body with a licensing system that will ensure clubs live within their means and protect their long-term futures, avoiding short-termism and speculative spending. Supporters Direct have been making strong proposals in this area, and they are well worth considering.
Thirdly, we need to abolish the football creditors rule. We have already discussed it at length in the House. It is indefensible: if a club goes bust through irresponsibility, only the interests of players and other clubs are protected, not those of local businesses or the taxman. This is outrageous, and it encourages recklessness. Fourthly, we need to make drastic changes regarding club ownership. It is almost comical how weak the fit and proper person test is. We need a far higher and more consistent bar.
Fifthly, I am very keen to make it easier for supporters groups to establish trusts and to encourage supporter ownership. I am open to considering incentives for supporters groups to run a club and to reinvest profits back into the club. I would mention Supporters Direct’s call for a community-owned sports club scheme, creating a special status and incentives for clubs owned by their fans. The proposal is very much worth the Minister’s attention. Those are just a few of the reforms that might help to prevent what has happened in Coventry from happening again, and that might help to re-establish the central importance of supporters in football.
We cannot keep seeing such disputes and disasters again and again. Coventry is not an isolated case. We could discuss Brighton, Wimbledon or Portsmouth, to name a few. Owners are changing the identities of clubs such as Cardiff City and Hull City on a personal whim. Nearly 100 times, clubs have collapsed because of overspending and bad management. The Football League is not up to the tasks of governing, ensuring that there is proper management and ensuring the future of clubs.
What action might the Government consider taking? The Select Committee report was clear that the Football Association was in need of urgent reform. The Committee urged the industry to take the opportunity to reform itself and said that, if it did not, there should be legislation. The football authorities made proposals for reform, but they simply did not address the key problems. The then Minister for Sport, the right hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Sir Hugh Robertson), wrote to the Committee agreeing with its recommendations and describing them as “much needed”. He continued:
“I have already been given drafting authority by the Parliamentary Counsel, and my officials have started working up a draft Bill and supporting documentation, should football fail to deliver. This Bill will reflect the conclusions of your report.”
I therefore want to ask the Minister at what point the Government changed their mind. Why has there been such a U-turn? There was hope that the Government might take on board the reforms that were suggested by the Select Committee, but that hope has dwindled. Finally, I ask the Minister whether there is any hope for legislation in this Parliament or in the future.
Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) on securing this debate. I thank him for giving me notice of it and asking whether I would like to participate, which I am pleased to do. All the Coventry MPs have been fantastic local champions of their football club in its plight. My hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones), who is a Coventry fan, is in his place and has also taken a strong interest in the matter. I will not seek to add anything to their local knowledge and expertise but will speak of my grave concerns about the governance of football in this country.
Coventry City is one of the worst examples of poor governance in football. It is right that the House should look at what has happened to Coventry City and resolve that it should never be allowed to happen again to Coventry or to any other football club. Very strong lessons have been learned. The hon. Member for Coventry South was absolutely right when he said that there is currently nothing to prevent what Coventry has been through from happening again either to that club or any other club.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee looked at the ownership model under Sisu in its inquiry three years ago, when I was a Committee member. I was shocked at the time. We considered the case of Leeds United. I remember asking the chief executive of Leeds United whether he knew who owned Leeds United and he said he did not. He is now the chief executive of the Football League. The Football League did not require the public disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of a football club at that time and it does not do so now. It requires private disclosure, but not public disclosure. The Football League admitted during that inquiry that it has no resources to investigate properly who is the ultimate owner of a club. It largely has to take it on face value that the owner is who the club says it is.
There are many good reasons why we might want to know who owns a football club. We might want to know what other interests they have in the game or what other business interests they have in this country or around the world that might prejudice their ownership of the club. We have seen examples of very poor ownership at other clubs, including in the west midlands. In particular, the chief executive of Birmingham City was found guilty of money laundering in Hong Kong. He had to withdraw from running the club, but his son is still able to. There is no restriction on that. I know that a lot of Leeds fans are pleased to see anyone inject money back into their club, but should someone with fraud convictions in another country be allowed to take over the club? The Football League seemingly has no powers to intervene or else has a grave reluctance to do so.
The first lesson is that opaque ownership structures such as the Sisu model, where the investors sit behind a public face and no one knows who they are or what their real motivation or interest is, should never be allowed in British football. Fans should always have the right to know who owns their club, what their other interests are and what financial stake they have in the club and the facilities that the club shares. I do not think there has ever been an example of a club with that sort of opaque ownership model that has done well. The hon. Gentleman said he was concerned that the owners sought to strip the assets of the club and run it into the ground. Well, we may not know their motivation, but that is what happened and that is what it looks like. We are therefore right to be fearful and concerned about those ownership models.
The hon. Gentleman also touched on the fit and proper person test, which must be applied much more rigorously. He mentioned my private Member’s Bill in which I proposed giving the FA discretionary powers to oversee the regulation of that test. I think the FA should have subjective power to intervene and say, “We don’t believe that the owners of this club are upholding or intend to uphold the letter and spirit of the rules of the game.” I do not believe that would create a separate model just for football; in many ways it would follow the Broadcasting Act 1990, and there is an existing power for Ofcom regarding broadcasters in this country. Ofcom has a subjective power to interpret that Act and say whether it believes that an organisation holding a UK broadcasting licence is fit and proper to hold that licence and likely to live within the spirit and letter of the broadcasting code. I do not see why the Football Association could not be given the same power so that it could intervene when it feared that someone about to acquire a club might not be a fit and proper person or, as in the case of Sisu and Coventry, where a club was being run so badly that it was against the interests of the game for owners to be allowed to continue to do so.
I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman that the way the Football League allowed Coventry City to be moved to Northampton was against the interests of the club and its fans. We must consider why that decision was made so easily, and why there was no intervention sooner.
The hon. Gentleman rightly touched on the football creditors rule, which I have long campaigned against. The Select Committee recommended its abolition, and Ministers have stood at the Dispatch Box in this Chamber and Westminster Hall and said that it has had its day and should go. During the Committee’s inquiry, the then chairman of the Football League said that there was no moral justification for the creditors rule, and the Coventry case is a good example of the problems it creates. The rule means that as long as football clubs pay their football debts in full when they go into administration, they can get away with paying as little as 1p in the pound or even less to other creditors, and local businesses lose out. Those local businesses will get nothing whereas a football club that is owed transfer fees, or a player, will see every penny they are owed. There can be no moral justification for that. Everyone should be in the same boat when a club gets into difficulty.
The Coventry case is a good example of that, and the hon. Gentleman was right to ask, “What is to say that Coventry won’t be in this position again in two years’ time?” The club could get into financial difficulty, turn to the stadium and say, “We owe you lots of money but we’re not going to pay you”. It could go into administration under the rules of the Football League and get away with paying virtually nothing back to the ground and other debtors they may have in the city. As long as it meets its football debts it can just carry on, and nothing can stop that happening. That is morally wrong and should not be allowed. The local community and businesses that support their club deserve decent recompense in such situations, as that would stop irresponsible behaviour.
Getting rid of the creditors rule will create a more responsible attitude between clubs. If a clubs gets into a position where another club owes it money, it will think about whether that club can afford to pay it back. It may want more disclosure about the finances of that club before entering into a financial relationship that might put it at risk, just as other businesses would do when trading with each other. In getting rid of the creditors rule, we are not looking to impose new draconian laws that deal with football club insolvency; we wish to abolish a loophole that football exploits for its own interests—I do not believe it is in the long-term financial interest of the game for clubs to be allowed to do that. Getting rid of the rule would help the Coventry case and be good for football in the long term.
Other hon. Members wish to speak in the debate, so I will draw my remarks to a close. Local Coventry newspapers have done an excellent job in promoting this case, and I have been happy to talk to them over the past couple of years. After a recent interview with the Coventry Telegraph, the owners of Coventry City said that I was wrong in my assertions and that they would be happy to discuss them with me, but I have received no direct offer from the club for that discussion. I would be happy to discuss the issue, however, once they conduct their affairs not behind closed doors but in public. I would welcome and invite Coventry MPs to join me at that meeting, and the Coventry Telegraph and fans’ groups and anyone else who wants to come along. Let us have that discussion in the open. If the club thinks we are wrong in our assertions about the way Coventry City has been run into the ground, let us have that meeting in public and discuss the matter in detail. Under Sisu’s management Coventry City football club has been a disgrace, and that must never be allowed to happen again.
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) for securing this debate. I think that he and I would be agreeable to the kind of proposal that the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) made: to use him as part of a cross-party assault on what has gone on in Coventry, which is an indication of the wider and very dangerous disease that exists within our national game.
It is good news, of course, that the Sky Blues are playing in Coventry again. It would be amusing if it was not so offensive to see the Football League clamouring to take some credit for that decision. It has shamelessly sought to do so, but it deserves no credit whatsoever for the fact that Coventry City are coming back to play in the city of Coventry. The people who deserve the credit are many, but the Football League is not among them, I am afraid. The fans have to be congratulated, having organised a pretty effective boycott of the alternative home venue. They have attended away matches, but starved the club of attendance and support at Northampton, and they have done so in a fairly effective way. They must be congratulated for organising that boycott. Many different organisations, the Sky Blue Trust among them, have come together to help the boycott, but the fans in general deserve our congratulations on the campaign they have kept up most effectively.
The people of Coventry in general deserve congratulations and credit for the fact that the football club is coming back to the city, because they have never, with very few exceptions, been conned by the spin and the lies put out by the football club’s owners, Sisu Capital, about what it has been doing and why it has been doing it. The people of Coventry have seen through this pretty clearly, and it has been impossible, despite strenuous efforts and all kinds of expertise being employed, for the football club’s owners to get a grip on public opinion locally. It has singularly failed in that regard. In itself, that is indicative of the kind of people they are and the problems they bring on themselves.
Generally speaking, football clubs are fairly well-supported organisations, whereas local authorities and councils are not usually that well thought of, but I have to say that the council has not come under any real pressure as a result of this dispute, because the people of Coventry have seen through the nonsense and the spin they have been subjected to.
Mr Jim Cunningham
As the House and most politicians will appreciate, this shows the level of support that the people of Coventry, particularly the fans, gave. Tell me where it is possible to get 8,000 people demonstrating in a city on such an issue. It is utterly amazing to see 8,000 fans demonstrating. Not only that; there were thousands of them doing it week after week. I therefore agree with my right hon. Friend that if anybody pushed for this, it was the fans and the people of Coventry. We agree 100% on that.
Mr Ainsworth
I think that they have been the main agents of this partial victory.
Other people who deserve congratulations include the Higgs Charity, which has an interest in the stadium and has been steadfast in the face of intimidation and attempts to distress and bully it. I have got evidence that the Football League effectively joined in that bullying. This local children’s charity has stood fast and refused to get out of the way of Ms Joy Seppala’s ambition to get the Ricoh Arena on the cheap. That was its only crime—it stood in the way of that ambition to gain control of the stadium on the cheap, for next to nothing. We have seen a well-funded Cayman Islands hedge fund seek to take on, intimidate and distress both the trustees and a well-thought-of local children’s charity to achieve its ends, and it has failed to do so. All strength to their elbow for the tenacity shown in resisting that pressure!
Coventry city council, too, should be congratulated. Labour and Conservative councillors have stood together, and I have been able to detect no politicking. Nobody has been point scoring. The entire council—the Labour majority and the Conservative minority—has stood shoulder to shoulder to resist this attempt to gain control of the city’s asset provided for by the taxpayer at great expense. Officers of the council, some of whom have been traduced by this appalling organisation, were congratulated on their work by the High Court judges in their judgments in complete condemnation of what the football club had done. The councillors have done a tremendous job and the council deserves to be congratulated.
Local journalists should be congratulated, too. The hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) talked about the Coventry Telegraph. It has a first-class local journalist, Simon Gilbert, who has brought straight, unbiased reporting to this issue, which has done great credit to him personally, to his newspaper and to journalism in general. He should be congratulated on his in-depth reporting over a long period.
Damian Collins
I, too, would like to pay tribute to Simon Gilbert’s work on this story. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that because of how insolvency law works with football clubs, in such a case, where there is a financial dispute between a club and a non-football organisation, all the power lies with the football club, which can threaten administration, knowing that the other body is likely to get virtually none of its money back?
Mr Ainsworth
I was coming on to that. The hon. Gentleman clearly has more expertise on football governance than I have; I come at this issue from a Coventry point of view. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The football club creditors rule cannot be justified in moral terms; it does not apply in any other area of business, where following administration, creditors get treated in a proper fashion—but not in football. People are there to be ripped off by a system that was set up to protect the game. It really needs to be looked at further.
Some credit is due, too, to Mr David Conn of The Guardian, who fearlessly reported what was going on in Coventry and got threatened with legal action for his troubles. He was totally and fully vindicated in the subsequent High Court judgment, which made exactly the same claims as he had made in his reporting—that the fans and the Sky Blue Trust had been threatened with legal action by the club’s owners simply for providing a link to The Guardian article. That shows the kind of people we have had to deal with—people who have threatened their own fans with legal action for providing a link to a national newspaper.
One of my worries is that David Conn has been the only national journalist to look at this issue and to seek to expose what is an absolute scandal. In 2014, an offshore hedge fund has sought to attack the taxpayers of Coventry and gain control of an asset, attacking a local children’s charity in the process. So where were the rest of the media? Why have they not been as probing and as fearless as Mr Conn? We have had good local newspaper reporting, as the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe said, but we could have done with more from the national media to sort the problem out. What has happened in Coventry is indicative of a malaise in the game, as has been said repeatedly.
We must congratulate the two High Court judges, who made devastating comments about the club’s owners, Sisu, in their judgments. Coventry City are now playing back in Coventry. Ms Joy Seppala, the chief executive officer, said that she would never return to the Ricoh arena unless she owned it lock, stock and barrel. Well, she is back and she does not. She said she does not negotiate but tells people what she needs. As soon as the second High Court judgment was delivered, her right-hand man, Mr Fisher, was saying, “Let’s negotiate.” Therefore, there have been some U-turns and progress, but it has been off the back off some stern British justice that has seen through what has been going on.
Therefore, those are the people who deserve the credit for Coventry City coming back. I congratulate them. It is a good day. However, I want to give a warning, as my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South did, against thinking that that is the end of it and this is victory. I do not think that it is.
Sadly for the people of Coventry—I am not just talking about the fans; I represent not the fans, but a third of the city; my hon. Friend represents another third and the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones), who is sitting opposite, represents an adjacent constituency —the Ricoh Arena will never be able to reach its full potential, which is massive. It is on the Coventry to Nuneaton railway line. It is on the motorway network. It is a fantastic arena in the poorest part of the city capable of huge regeneration. That is the only thing that justified the taxpayer investment in that facility in the first place. However, it will never be able to reach its full potential until there are football club owners or partners in the stadium who are interested in creating value.
That is the thing that some people have not been able to understand. The owners of Coventry City football club have not been interested in creating value. They have destroyed the football club not through incompetence but through their deliberate actions. Their interest has been in destroying value to get their hands on the asset at a knockdown price. That is the problem, which is still there, because those owners are still there. I do not believe that they have changed and will now become partners in the local economy, working with the city council and other partners to create a good sporting culture and economic regeneration in my constituency. I do not believe they are that kind of people.
That brings me to the points that the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe made so well. What is it that brings that kind of owner to our national game? I have not been a football fan for many years. I used to be when I was younger but the money interest put me off hugely. Mostly these owners are flamboyant, rather extraordinary people—we see them at other clubs—with rather dodgy backgrounds. There are many of them. Up and down the country, there are many examples of the kind of owner who has been attracted to the game. The Coventry City owners are different. This is a hard and ruthless hedge fund operation prepared to destroy a children’s charity to make money. Something wrong in our national game attracts that kind of person. I think that it is the football creditors rule and the total lack of governance. I do not believe that the Football League genuinely acts as a governing body looking after the interests of the game, the fans and the British people at large. It is effectively a self-interested club for owners. The new chief executive officer of the Football League put his own club, Leeds United, into administration twice while he was there.
This is a malaise, and it is important. I am not making a party political point because we were in government for 13 years and we did nothing about this. The present Administration have been in power for almost an entire term and they have not done anything either, and it is not easy because football is glamorous, powerful and moneyed and it is hard for politicians to say, “Wait a minute, there’s something deeply wrong here,” but if we do not do so, then we saw what happened in banking. I am not suggesting that what will happen in football will be as economically disastrous as what happened within British banking, but in some respects it is more important, because this is not just economically important; it is culturally important as well.
After the World cup we are seeing the Americans getting into football in a bigger way than ever before, and there is a huge upsurge in football interest in China, too. Our national game has huge potential for this country if it is properly run and therefore can be properly exploited to project our national culture, our national identity and our national interests, but it cannot do that if it is not properly governed, and Government really must grapple with this.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mrs Helen Grant)
I thank the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) for securing this important debate, and I thank him and others for the valuable contributions they have made this afternoon.
As I have said before, the preservation of football clubs up and down the country remains a matter of great importance to me and to the Government. We debated this issue last October in my first few weeks—days, even—as the new Minister for sport. Since then, the Football League and I have maintained a close interest in the resolution of this unfortunate dispute involving Coventry City football club and the return of Coventry to the city. Football clubs remain a very valuable part of local communities, and every care should be taken by all owners and stakeholders to protect their long-term financial futures.
It has therefore been very sad to see Coventry City football club beset by serious financial trouble in recent years. I know the Football League appreciates that its initial decision to allow Coventry City to temporarily relocate to Northampton was not a popular one with Coventry supporters. Although understandably difficult for supporters to accept, the temporary tenancy at Northampton Town’s Sixfields stadium was deemed to be necessary by the Football League to ensure that Coventry could continue to take its rightful place in the football league in the short term.
Allowing the club to play in Northampton has at least ensured that Coventry was capable of playing its home matches in the league while all parties maintained their efforts to resolve the ongoing disputes. The recent case of Rotherham United demonstrates that the continuation of a club’s presence in the football league at another stadium can be a positive step towards a long-term solution. I am therefore delighted to hear today that the club and stadium owners have agreed terms to get Coventry back playing within the city this season—imminently, in fact—at its home ground.
I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Coventry South, the right hon. Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth), my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright), my hon. Friends the Members for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) and for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) and others who have worked tirelessly with loyal supporters. I shall think of them all when Coventry plays Gillingham at the Ricoh Arena this weekend: it will be a special evening indeed.
There is a great deal of focus on the amount of money in the top tiers of football, but I recognise that many clubs competing in the lower divisions operate on a very different scale. Coventry’s problems are rooted in several years of financial issues that unfortunately are ongoing.
The evidence given to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee by the Football League’s chairman acknowledged that debt is the
“single biggest problem for football.”
I share his belief that if football clubs ensure that their debt is genuinely sustainable, transparency of ownership, supporter buy-in and co-operative ownership will be much easier to deliver.
I share the frustrations of supporters and hon. Members at the football authorities’ slow progress in implementing some of the long promised and much needed reforms to the game, a key part of which is improved supporter engagement at club level.
The football authorities must find ways to improve supporter engagement beyond the customer relationship and recognise supporters as an integral part of clubs’ success. That is why my Department is working very hard on Supporters Direct’s proposal for an expert group on the barriers to supporter ownership in football. We hope to launch the group in the near future. It will include representatives from across football, relevant professional experts and representatives from a variety of supporter-owned clubs and supporters trusts. I am pleased that the proposal retains support across football’s authorities, demonstrating a critical continuing commitment to supporter engagement within the sport.
Supporter representatives on boards and better engagement could and will in many cases lead to fans being better informed about a club’s activities, such as its financial standing and the identity of its owners, and to their being genuinely consulted, as they should be, as part of the club’s decision-making process on matters of real importance, whether financial or cultural. I look forward to the expert group’s recommendations on how more help can be offered to supporters now and in the future.
Having said all that, I must acknowledge the progress made by the football authorities in introducing new rules in recent years, such as a strengthening of the owners and directors test, which has been mentioned and about which I shall say a little more in a moment, as well as a new means and abilities test that requires proof of funds from prospective new owners, an early warning system with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on tax returns, transfer embargoes, salary caps and the adoption of financial fair play principles across the 92 professional clubs.
Club insolvency has been declining, but it has remained a common problem in recent years. At the same time, TV revenues and match attendances are as high as ever. The implementation of financial fair play principles should lead to responsible spending by clubs and, as a result, I hope, fewer incidents of club insolvency at the top of the pyramid. The strong intention is that the financial fair play regulations will remove the need for football to rely so heavily on the football creditors rule in club insolvencies.
The football creditors rule has been mentioned by all hon. Members who have spoken.
Governance has also been mentioned by many hon. Members. The hon. Member for Coventry South queried whether the Government were doing a U-turn on their governance plans and I assure him that we are certainly not doing that. Governance is essential; it is the foundation of everything and of all good structures. Without decent governance a structure has no chance of surviving; there will be no chance of there being the strength to support a massive structure. It is very important to me personally. I want the football authorities to do what they need to do. A start has been made: there are smaller boards; there is a new licensing system to deal with financial matters; and various changes have been made on supporter engagement, with the introduction of supporter liaison officers. But I want much, much more to be done. I have regular meetings with the football authorities, and I will continue to raise these issues as a matter of urgency, saying that we need to see progress. If progress is not made, we of course have the option of legislation—we always have that option.
Mr Jim Cunningham
I do not doubt the sincerity of what the Minister has said, but this has been going on for a number of years. Has she set a deadline? A number of organisations are looking at football in general terms, but does she have a deadline when she will say, “Look, we have not seen enough progress, so we are going to do something about it”? Across the House, we all think that something has to happen. This is not a reflection on the Minister, because she has not been in her post for very long, but we are reaching the point where a deadline needs to be set, in order to get some real action from the Football League.
Mrs Grant
I have robust and candid conversations with the football authorities. I agree that we need to see some more progress. Some has been made, but we need more. I will be meeting them on Friday, and I will certainly relay to them what has come out of this debate and the crucial need for us to start to see further progress on a number of matters.
The issue of ownership was raised by all hon. Members in the debate and, in particular, by my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe. Again, I reassure him that the football authorities really do take club ownership very seriously, which is why the owners and directors test applies to all clubs in the Premier League, Football League and Football Conference, and in the three leagues below.
Mrs Grant
I will, but if my hon. Friend will just let me finish my point, he may find that it deals with the issue he is raising. Given what he and others have said today, and what I have heard—I have been listening very carefully indeed—I am happy to discuss with the authorities on Friday, and at subsequent meetings, whether they could make any improvements to the owners and directors test, or any other test that might help to deal with this situation.
Damian Collins
I am glad to note what my hon. Friend has just said. My concern, and that of other Members, is that the test, as it stands, is totally inadequate. If anything, the recent case at Leeds United demonstrates that the Football League does not have the legal power to apply the test as it might wish. If it sees someone from overseas coming in, as in the case of Mr Cellino, with a fraud conviction which happens to be spent, the Football League is subject to a legal challenge to try to prevent that person from taking over the club. I wonder whether there has to be some sort of statutory underpinning of the fit and proper person test to allow the Football Association or the Football League to enforce it properly.
Mrs Grant
I agree that certain improvements—further improvements—may need to be made to the test. We are in a better place than we were before it was strengthened, but I still have some concerns. As I said to my hon. Friend, I am happy to raise all these issues with the football authorities to see what further improvements can be made. The football creditors rule was raised again by most hon. Members, and I have touched on that. I have to say at this stage that there is no plan to legislate on that rule. The industry is trying to make changes from within. The proper implementation of the financial fair play rules should hopefully make dependency on the football creditors rule much less likely and reduce it considerably. Those were, I think, the main issues that were raised by hon. Members.
I just want to pick up one point in relation to the Football League, which has come in for a bit of criticism today. I recall Members talking about lack of leadership and the fact that it could have done more. Having looked at this situation carefully and worked with the League closely since being appointed the Minister for Sport, I think it has had to make a difficult decision in difficult circumstances. It came up with a sustainable solution, with the fans, MPs and journalists, which has allowed this great club still to be in the League. It will be back at home very shortly, hopefully focusing on football and continuing to do very well.
In conclusion, now that the differences have hopefully been resolved for the good of the club, the loyal fans and the wider local community, I am delighted that Coventry City football club may return to the city and have the chance to concentrate on football matters and their position in the League, which is important to their fans.
The Government’s strong expectation, guided by the Select Committee’s recommendations, is that the football authorities will continue to make progress in making the necessary changes and reforms. I will raise these issues with them on every occasion that I meet them in bilateral meetings at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. My Department will also continue its ongoing dialogue with the football authorities to ensure that the support for clubs continues and that progress on governance reforms is maintained.
In the meantime, I wish the Sky Blues the best of luck for the season ahead, and I look forward to their first fixture playing back in Coventry very soon.
Question put and agreed to.