Football Governance Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Markham and Lord Hayward

Committee stage
Monday 9th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank noble Lords for their contributions, and the Minister for replying. Before I come to address what has been said, I thank my noble friends for their contributions and especially my noble friend Lady Brady for her point that there are concerns about UEFA competitions as well that we are seeking to address in this.

Although I did not hear anyone say that these were not desirable objectives, I heard two reasons not to introduce them. First, the Minister said that we are already successful on investment and the Bill will not deter it. I am afraid that is where there is a fundamental disagreement, because the Bill introduces new aspects to this. It gives the regulator responsibility to make sure clubs are sustainable and says that the regulator can look at this through things such as the parachute payments and the solidarity payments. That fundamentally changes the investment proposition in clubs. The letter from the Brentford chair makes the point, as have others, that clubs would be much less likely to invest in new players and in resources if they did not have the safety net of parachute payments if they were to go down. That will directly affect investment in clubs via the change in the laws that we are talking about and the responsibilities of the regulator to look only at sustainability. It is the same for solidarity payments. We are changing the playing field and moving the goalposts, so we cannot expect everything to go on as normal. That will inevitably affect the investment proposition, so it will impact the amount of money we see going into the game.

That comes on to the second point that was raised about why we should not introduce these amendments: that we are somehow trying to expand the regulator’s duties, which goes counter to everything we have said so far about it being light touch. That is not what we are trying to do. We are trying to make sure that the regulator will have more than one objective when it looks at the measures it can take. If it has only one objective, about sustainability, we hope it will interpret it broadly, but I could make all clubs sustainable tomorrow by saying that all the Premier League money should be distributed. That would do it. It would give everyone loads of money, it is completely sustainable and the regulator could say, “That’s fantastic, job done”. But we know it would fundamentally harm the whole structure and the whole environment.

I do not think for one moment that a regulator would be as unwise as that, but the main point of what we are trying to do is to set out what we believe are the right objectives. As I mentioned, the Government have done that with the Bank of England and given it growth objectives alongside inflation objectives. They have done it with Ofwat and with Ofgem. They have given all of them their regulatory requirements and a growth objective. We are trying to make sure that the regulator is wise in any measures it puts in place by always having other objectives that are for the good of the game. That is not increasing its reach; it is just making sure that it has more than one objective. I hope this is something we will be able to talk about further.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

Was my noble friend as surprised as I was by the Minister’s use of the phrase that the Bill should be clear and concise? Is not the problem we have been trying to tackle precisely that there is a complete lack of clarity in a Bill that is anything but concise?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Yes, and I thank my noble friend for exactly that point. It is about the clarity of the objective. The most important thing we can all do as legislators is set down what we think the regulator should do. That is why we spent three days trying to work out exactly what we want. It is fundamental to everything we are trying to do. That is why it is taking time. I hear reasons such as, “It’s not necessary”, but why not make it an objective? If the regulator is going to do it anyway then fair enough, but why not be sure that it will take growth and success as its key North Star in all this? With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Markham and Lord Hayward

Committee stage
Monday 9th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My Lords, in speaking to Amendment 120 and following on from the point that my noble friend Lady Brady made, I hope to put some meat on the bones of what we would be asking the regulator to produce in its annual report.

Right now, all that the Bill says is that we are asking it to produce a summary of the activities undertaken during the year and for any other information that the Secretary of State sees fit. The whole purpose of our debates over the last few days is to make sure the regulator is fit for purpose in its objectives and that its performance is then measured against those objectives. My amendment—non-controversial, I hope—is about trying to hold the regulator to account. It seeks to add that the regulator should look at and report on clubs’ compliance against directed action, regulator finances, enforcement action, their performance against their own objectives, how much time it has taken to grant licences to clubs and any salaries above £100,000. It is quite a simple list that seeks to hold the regulator to account and get clarity on what its performance has been for the year, so it can then improve performance going forward.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, I will briefly follow on from the noble Lord, Lord Ranger, and the other contributions. The transitory nature of sport is such that, when the noble Baroness, Lady Brady, stood up to speak, West Ham were leading 2-0, but by the time she sat down they were leading 1-0—VAR had intervened. I pay credit to the noble Baroness for being here and paying such attention to the detail of the Bill, given the interest she declared, and which we are all aware of, in relation to West Ham.

The series of amendments here all deal with the reporting duty after the Bill has been passed and at the point of implementation. As others have indicated, it is key that there is a clear understanding, not only for the regulator or government but for the fans, who are key to the Bill—the whole idea of the Bill is about involving the fans—that the regulator is obliged to explain to the fans precisely why he has done things and that he recognises the impact of his actions on fans, clubs and players. At all levels, it is necessary that we have that information and understanding—and rapidly.

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Markham and Lord Hayward

Committee stage
Wednesday 4th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for introducing these amendments, which are also in my name. As in previous groups, he set out some of our concerns, particularly where there are media interests involved—by media interests we are speaking very much about involvement with media rights and, as we discussed earlier, inside information and conflicts.

Amendment 49 is all about the transparency of the process. The real value of an expert panel is that there are a lot of complicated issues. If anything, the last three days have shown us that this is a highly complex area and that we would be asking the expert panel to opine on a large range of issues. The strength of that panel will be its breadth.

One area of particular concern to me is the example I gave before about clubs which are in what you might call the start-up phase—for example, Brighton, as they were a few years ago, when they invested heavily in players as part of a well-reasoned plan to get promoted. I am concerned that a regulator, with its sustainability hat on, might say that that is not very sustainable.

However, I would expect and hope that the expert panel had a range of views. While some may be more of the button-down accountant-type who would have concerns about that, I would hope that others would be of a more entrepreneurial nature and would understand what these aspiring clubs were trying to do, and so give that balanced view. To me, that is exactly what a good expert panel should be doing. On transparency, being able to hear those minority views and take them into consideration overall is an important dimension to all of this.

We have plenty of good examples of this. In the Monetary Policy Committee you have so-called hawks and doves, and a lot of information is often gained by not just the majority view in the vote but the dissenting voices. You see similar things in Supreme Court rulings, where you have minority opinions. It is about trying to bring that sort of richness to this, so that we have a range of expert views, which we will all benefit from. That was very much the thinking behind Amendment 49. I look forward to the Minister’s views.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, I will make one or two comments in relation to this group of amendments. First, Amendment 42 seeks to set an upper limit. I strongly support that, whatever the number happens to be. Many years ago—not that many—I drafted the changes in legislation in relation to parliamentary boundaries for the Commons. Over the years, we had seen a steady drifting up, with ever-more Members of Parliament, as the Boundary Commission decided to duck a decision here or a decision there. Ultimately, we set a figure for the total number of Members of Parliament. I will not go into detail as to whether I think the figure is right now, but I had watched it drift ever upwards.

The debate about this House has included very heavily the question of the numbers that there should be in it. I am a strong believer that there should be a limit, and that the limit should be very substantially below where it is now. The numbers have just drifted up and up, because some people have appointed too many people into this House. I am therefore in favour of having a limit on the panel, because I can see the risks of not having one. I do not mind whether it is 20, or whatever it may happen to be, but I am in favour of some upper limit on any public panel in these circumstances.

I am not going to comment on the next two amendments, on the basis that I have done so already in previous conversations, but I will refer to Amendment 49. I agree strongly with the principles outlined in it. We are talking about a public body here. We are saying that the football clubs, which are regulated and licensed, must be open to comment from their fans. If the football clubs must be open to comment and scrutiny from their fans then surely the regulator and the expert panels must also be open to that same public scrutiny. It is not acceptable for people who are on that sort of panel to hide behind an overall decision. It would therefore be important to go down this sort of route.

I made an intervention on the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor. I do not think I misinterpreted what she said earlier—I apologise if I did, because she is not here at the moment. When I asked her about strong or weak chief executives, she expressed concern that the wrong chief executive might be in the position. If there is, and he is leading a weak panel, then people could hide behind it. I am strongly in favour of a public display of decision-making in that process.

I would not necessarily agree that the amendment has perfect wording. For example, in proposed new sub-paragraph (2)(d), whether or not you have “the reasons why” is another matter. However, one category that is not in here is the question of timescale, which has come up in other elements of our discussion. It must be right that, throughout the process of regulation, there should be timescales imposed. It is all too easy for people to drift on decisions, whatever they happen to be, and put them back and back.

We are talking here, as we have identified, about a very competitive industry, competing not only in the football world but in other worlds as well. To maintain the position of our competitive pre-eminence within that field, we need to ensure throughout that regulators abide by timescales. I therefore suggest that, on Report, not only in this amendment but elsewhere, there should be timescales involved, as well as the other classifications that are identified.