Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Fuller Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 11th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brady (Con)]

My Lords, I support the Government’s Amendment 18, which introduces a regulatory principle focused on necessity, proportionality and minimising regulatory burden. The Government deserve credit for this amendment. It is an attempt to recognise the concerns, expressed across the House during Committee, that this Bill outlines an overly complex and intrusive regulatory framework for football.

Indeed, I recall that the Government expressly ruled out a light-touch “watchdog” option in their impact assessment, in justifying the need for a more interventionist approach. We should bear in mind that this Bill overall is not easily described as “light touch”, but the Government’s amendment is an attempt to clarify Ministers’ intentions, which I believe are for a light-touch framework. We should note the obvious point that it is not an attempt to change the overall licensing framework, existing regulatory model, extensive range of powers, or broad suite of sanctions. Nevertheless, short of a wholesale change of approach and a much slimmer Bill, the tension this principle introduces is how the regulator exercises those powers, so it is welcome.

But I, for one, would like the Government to go further, both in the Bill and in guidance and their engagement with the shadow regulator. That is why I supported my noble friend Lord Pannick’s additional amendment detailing light touch, which I know he has now not moved. What I would like to suggest today is that Ministers enhance their amendment further by explicitly enabling different types of intervention approaches for different leagues, guiding towards greater reliance on leagues where appropriate.

The football pyramid is diverse, with varying risk profiles and governance capabilities. What is appropriate for Maidenhead United in the National League is very unlikely to be appropriate for Manchester United. The Premier League, for instance, has developed robust governance and regulatory structures over many years. It has built financial monitoring systems that effectively maintain competitive balance while ensuring club sustainability. I have not heard a single Minister or Peer in this House express any concern over the sustainability of Premier League clubs.

Steering the regulator more explicitly to tailor its approach to intervening based on a league’s governance standards, rulebooks and enforcement practices would be a very sensible approach. It would ensure regulatory resources target genuine areas of risk in the pyramid and would really help to bring about what I would describe as a “right-touch” regime—light touch where effective systems already operate, but more interventionist where they do not. I think this could deliver a more efficient model, as well as create positive incentives for leagues to strengthen their own governance frameworks.

Perhaps when the Minister responds, she could commit to working with me, the football authorities and the shadow regulator to encourage this common-sense approach, recognising the practical benefits that would be realised by working more closely with the leagues, by acknowledging the natural differences within our diverse football pyramid, and by steering the regulator to adopt a targeted, risk-based approach.

[Lord Fuller (Con)]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend Lady Brady about the importance of a light-touch approach: not just the light touch in the way we do things today but the light touch in how we might innovate and take our game forward in the future. My wife and I spent Christmas in Oman, when the Gulf states were having their own little world cup. The key point there was how they are innovating, building a nation through football, breaking down barriers and changing the way things are done in football.

More of the same will not be the recipe for success for the English game as we look forward. I want to illustrate this with a story. Earlier this evening, I explained that I was a shareholder of Norwich City Football Club. About 30 years ago, the club auditors told us that a certain Alan Sugar—a Member of your Lordships’ House—had decided to move his players from the profit and loss and on to the balance sheet. It was the first time this had ever happened. At that moment, in the blink of an eye, English football changed.

What our noble friend did was turn a series of cottage industries—clubs that were grounded in local communities—into investable propositions. Whether he appreciated it at the time or not, it was that stroke of the pen that put British football clubs on the path to greatness. Overnight, football became better capitalised, becoming a magnet for investment and success. People say that Sky made the difference, but the truth is that it was our noble friend who made football so investible in the first place.

Can you imagine how an overbearing regulator might have reacted if this astonishingly innovative but unprecedented accounting proposal to move players from the P and L to the balance sheet had been made? We need this light touch. This was a huge innovation. Would it have happened if this regulator had been overbearing? Of course not. I have always found it strange that the noble Lord, Lord Sugar, has not been publicly recognised for what he did. Viewing his innovation through the lens of history has transformed the prospects of English football.

My purpose in telling this story is that the regulator must continue to be flexible and to adapt to the future as it can be—not just as it is today. The principle of the light touch is essential for us to maintain the leadership of English football at the forefront of our industry, being flexible and imaginative. Nobody owes us our place in history. We have to keep moving forward to survive. If we are overly fossilised in the system as it is today, we risk falling behind. So I am very focused on and supportive of a light-touch approach and I am pleased that it is on the amendments in front of us.