English Football

Lord Pendry Excerpts

Wednesday 8th May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pendry (Lab)]

My Lords, I begin by congratulating my noble friend Lady Taylor of Bolton on raising this important topic, which has been in the throes of debate for many years. I anticipate that she—and indeed the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton—are feeling sorrowful tonight at the plight of their club. Over 30 years, in this House and outside, I have heard my noble friend bellow the needs and virtues of this club. Along with my noble friend, Nat Lofthouse—a great man and a great footballer—always reminds me of this club. I hope this debate might bring a bit of comfort to both noble Baronesses if we can take some constructive approaches to this problem. I declare my interest in this matter as the current president of the Football Foundation, which is very much part of the football family.

I think it is a universal view that the governance of English football, particularly the structure presently in place at the Football Association, is in need of further reform. It was only after a great amount of public and parliamentary pressure that we saw any significant reforms made to the FA’s governance in 2017 to bring it into compliance with UK Sport’s governance code. While these reforms have provided positive moves in the right direction—particularly with three out of 10 members of the board now being women and a number of specific representatives for black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and disability, youth and women’s football now added to the council—the need for reforms is still strong. More energy and action is needed if we are to address the gaping holes that still exist in football’s governance. The vast majority of the increasingly large FA Council remains white, male and aged over 60—hardly representative of the great diversity among our fans and, indeed, players. Our eminent House of Lords Library has informed me that as of 2018 the FA’s equality, diversity and inclusion plan shows that only 5% of leadership roles are currently held by people from BAME backgrounds.

It is therefore clear that we continue to need more diverse management of the FA, particularly so that it is better equipped to handle the unacceptable growth of racism we have seen in recent months in and around our stadiums; we all know that. I hope noble Lords agree that the terrible handling of discrimination cases we have all heard of recently must not be repeated.

Equally important is the need to address the lack of female representation at the top levels of the game. I remember only too well going to women’s soccer events over the years—even to cup finals—to find only a small crowd of supporters. Now, the women’s game is flourishing, with talented players and crowds to follow them. They must be represented at the top levels.

I declared my association with the Football Foundation, and I am proud of the part that this body plays in meeting some of these challenges. As the nation’s largest sporting charity, the Football Foundation’s focus on the funding of grass-roots sports facilities saw an increase in football participation of 11% at foundation-funded facilities last season, with an increasing percentage of these being female users and players.

To be fair, in recent times we have seen a more enlightened approach to supporters’ representation, and these steps should go much further. Fans must be at the very centre of decision-making. As Labour first recognised in its 1997 charter for football:

“Fans are central to the development of football, which would wither and die without them. Supporters invest heavily in the game and they have a right to be consulted”,


and represented at the highest level. The numerous issues that our fans face—not least continuing to be ripped off by train companies with inflexible tickets, the lack of choice over safe standing spaces in their stadiums and many other issues—are best spearheaded by fans themselves at the top level, to ensure that they are properly addressed.

By way of conclusion, in a debate so ably opened by my noble friend, time is limited for us to make all the points that we might like to make. But in any criticism of the FA, we must remember that it is historically organised differently from almost all other football governing organisations in the world. By definition, being the first, it will find it difficult to adapt to some of the measures necessary today—but it must be capable of so doing. All of us wanting change must recharge our batteries and make positive suggestions for the coming years, for the good of the game we all cherish.