Football Governance Bill (Fifth sitting)

Debate between Anna Firth and Stuart Andrew

Committee stage
Tuesday 21st May 2024 Public Bill Committees

[Stuart Andrew]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. This will be the statutory regulator, and this will be where the reporting will need to happen. If the leagues add anything, it is for them to make that decision. As this process progresses, I hope they will see that there is no need for the extra layer of reporting and that the regulator’s powers will be sufficient to secure the future of English football.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

On behalf of a National League club, Southend United, I welcome the light-touch approach set out in clause 8(c). I welcome the Minister’s comments that where the National League is already regulating itself well, there will be a proportionate, light-touch approach to any additional regulation.

[Stuart Andrew]

At the end of the day, we want to ensure a standard approach to regulation to ensure that we secure clubs in the future. As I say, I hope that as the regulator starts getting up and running, the leagues will see that there is no need for duplication and will make decisions accordingly. Ultimately, however, it is up to them to make that decision.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 15 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 16 to 18 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Schedule 4

Threshold requirements

--- Later in debate ---

[Anna Firth]

It relates to clause 37, so I will wait.

[Stuart Andrew]

Everyone is obviously getting so excited that they are getting ahead of themselves. To be fair, I understand why. It is important to acknowledge what my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford said about the many people who put themselves forward to support their local football club to build and become competitive. They are hugely important to the local communities in which they are based. We should acknowledge that there are many who do that well and with the best of intentions—even those who make mistakes, as the hon. Member for Sheffield South East said. Their intention is right.

We are focusing on ensuring that owners and directors tests get to the heart of the detail that we need. The test will be much stronger with the regulator, which will have access to information from statutory organisations such as the National Crime Agency, as the hon. Member for Barnsley East mentioned. She asked about the Premier League continuing with its own owners and directors test. It can continue with it if it wishes. I note that the EFL has made a different decision, because it recognises that the tests that the regulator will provide will get much more detail and information than the leagues may be able to. Because the tests will be statutory, they will take primacy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Anna Firth and Stuart Andrew

Thursday 20th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew]

The hon. Lady is right to raise this important area. I am extremely grateful, as we all are in the Department, to Karen Carney for such an in-depth review of women’s football. We are obviously looking at the recommendations she made in that report, and that will be a continuous agenda item in my regular discussions with the FA.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend is aware of the ongoing crisis at Southend United, where staff have gone unpaid for months and the 117-year- old club’s future is on a knife edge, which is absolutely devastating for the 6,000-plus loyal fan base. Please will my right hon. Friend agree to meet the Shrimpers Trust, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Sir James Duddridge) and me, urgently, to see what more can be done to save this vital community asset for the new city of Southend?

Football Governance White Paper

Debate between Anna Firth and Stuart Andrew

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew]

The hon. Lady raises an important point. While this is not about a foreign policy, we will ensure, first, that we know who the owners actually are—I have had examples of some clubs that have no idea who actually owns the club—and, secondly, that that person will have to go through a vigorous fit and proper person test, so we can examine the points that I think all the fans want examined. Fans want to know that owners have the best interests of their clubs at heart, just as they do.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

Southend United football club is the heartbeat of our local community, but that heart is currently on life support. Will the Minister pay tribute to the Shrimpers Trust, the ShrimperZone and The Blue Voice for all they have done to keep Southend United going? They will warmly welcome this White Paper and having a greater say in the running of their club, but will the Minister confirm that the strengthened owners and directors test in the White Paper should mean that Southend United’s current situation will never be repeated?

[Stuart Andrew]

I congratulate my hon. Friend and pay tribute to her for the enormous amount of work she is doing on behalf of her constituents and the fans at Southend. She has been relentless in pursuing me on this issue and I am sure the fans will be extremely grateful to her for that. She is absolutely right: the independent regulator will be monitoring the situation in each club at a much earlier stage so that there can be intervention, if necessary, before we get to the crisis point, to put those clubs on a stable footing so that they can be there not only for the people who enjoy them today, but for their children and grandchildren.

Fan-led Review and Football White Paper

Debate between Anna Firth and Stuart Andrew

Monday 20th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew]

The hon. Gentleman will have to see what is in the White Paper when we publish it this week.

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

I absolutely welcome the Minister’s statement and the Government’s commitment to implementing the fan-led review, because although next month marks the first anniversary of Southend becoming a city, our treasured football club, Southend United, faces severe financial difficulties. Supporters’ clubs have done a huge amount, but will the Minister meet me to discuss what the Government can do, if anything, to help? Will he also confirm that the upcoming White Paper will address the hugely unfair redistribution of Premier League solidarity payments, which is one of the reasons why Southend United is in the position that it is?

[Stuart Andrew]

I commend my hon. Friend for her work, particularly in support of her local football club. I would be more than happy to meet her. I can assure her that we are taking action exactly because of examples such as the one she raises, as she will see in the White Paper when we publish it.