Football Governance Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Addington and Lord Birt

Report stage
Tuesday 11th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Birt (CB)]

My Lords, I too will comment a little on the point about light-touch regulation. Before I do, earlier today—prompted, I think, by the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson—the Minister offered her good wishes to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final at the weekend. I wondered whether she would also be willing to offer her best wishes to Liverpool at the weekend, with the due impartiality that is merited. We need a little help tonight, because we are 1-0 down at half time to PSG, so she might like to send her immediate good wishes before it is too late for that game.

Needless to say—I have said this before—I truly support the regulation of English football, and I will not repeat what I have said in earlier debates. As the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, made clear, the Government’s amendment is extremely helpful. He intends not to press his own amendment, but I did not see anything wrong with underlining the point with the addition of “light-touch”.

Throughout my career, I experienced the public benefits of effective regulation in broadcasting. However, we know that not all regulation has proved successful in the UK or in other countries, and we must learn from both the successes and the lack of success. As the Chancellor said just a month ago, our economy has “suffered” due to “stifling and unpredictable regulation”. Overregulation bequeathed us the absurdly expensive and long-delayed HS2. On the other hand, under- regulation brings us sewage flowing freely into Lake Windermere, so we have to get the right kind of regulation.

These amendments should oblige the regulator to practise considered and proportionate regulation, focusing on what really matters—and more than one thing really matters, as has come out again and again in this debate. Above all, effective regulation here means ensuring that English football clubs should be well and prudently managed.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for Amendment 17, which I signed. It says that players and fans should be regarded. When discussing professional sport, the two key elements are: somebody to play and somebody to watch. Both should be recognised within the structure of this legislation as important.

With the huge amount of appetite for football, players are clearly under pressure of being overplayed. How they should be looked after is an important factor that all sports are dealing with. I encourage the regulator, when it comes out, to take a serious look at this, as well as the rights of fans. We had great fun debating which diverse group should be consulted. Well, let somebody else figure it out—we could not.

When it comes to light touch, I will break a habit of mine and read out something from the EFL which I received, I think, yesterday:

“The EFL does not support the enshrining of ‘light touch’ as a regulatory principle in the Bill … Light touch is an extremely subjective term that the IFR will struggle to meaningfully define as it goes about its activities … It also risks limiting the effectiveness of Regulators once it is operational, which instead should have the ability to determine what is the ‘right touch’”—


dozens of other expressions are available—

“to deal with any situation it is required to address”.

Hiding behind a mantra is never a good idea. What the Government have here is quantifiable at the very least, so I say yes to that. I hope that we can go forward, because the minute you get something like “It has to be light touch”, you will get it wrong. It has to be effective. I hope the Government and the regulator enshrine effectiveness from this point on; it does not matter if it is light or heavy, it matters if it works.