Football Governance Bill

Clive Efford Excerpts

Friday 7th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) on his Bill. I commend him for his consistency on this issue—he has frequently spoken out, particularly on the football creditors rule—and for being a consistent fighter on behalf of football clubs and fans.

I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) on his speech. I am grateful to him for his comments about our policy, which we announced a couple of weeks ago, on fans’ involvement in the management of football clubs. As he said, we undertook an extensive consultation over a long period.

Like the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe, we concluded that fans should be given more powers, and that they should at least be represented at board level in football clubs. That is not to give fans a veto over what an owner does with their club—that would be foolish—but to give them a voice. In our consultation, they were quite clear that they wanted to be heard, so we concluded that they should have the power to elect representatives to the board of directors of a football club. They should be able to elect up to 25% of the members of the board, and be able to remove them when necessary.

We recognise that it is a two-way street: the policy is not just about giving fans the keys to the sweet shop; they must be held responsible. We have spoken to fans about that. They must ensure that they have a proper democratic process, and that the people they elect are representative. They must be responsible in carrying out the functions of a board member, and they must respect the confidentiality of matters that are under negotiation. We are very much in tune with the hon. Gentleman, and our proposals have been very much welcomed by fans, trusts and supporters groups across the country.

We have also said that fans should have the right to buy a stake in their club. When 30% or more of a club is up for sale, fans should have the right to buy up to 10% of the shares on offer until they own up to a limit of 10% of the club. That cannot be used as a means to take over a club, but it is a means of taking a stake in it. In our consultation, fans were quite clear that they wanted to be able to do that. We would welcome such a right.

We welcome the fact—I am sure that the hon. Gentleman, a former member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, does so too—that the Government have finally set up the expert working group. They said they would do so in their response to the Select Committee’s report in 2011, but it took three years to the month for them to do it. We have all been very patient, and it has finally been set up.

In their response, the Government said that they would investigate and deal with the issue of fan ownership. Just before the announcement about the expert working group, the Minister said that it would also look at ticketing and ticket prices, seating, the naming of grounds and so on, but those consumer issues were not part of the original proposal. Will he shed some light on the scope of the expert working group, and about whether it will consider the issues raised by the hon. Gentleman in his Bill? I am sure we would all like to know whether the Government intend to deal with those issues.

On the detail of the Bill, the hon. Gentleman is right to call for a declaration of ownership of football clubs, because there is widespread concern about people who are completely anonymous—as he pointed out, at one stage the chief executive of Leeds United did not know who owned the club he was running. That is a ridiculous situation, and it is a surprise that football associations have not tried to sort it out before. The hon. Gentleman is right to try to move clubs down that road with this Bill, and he has Labour’s full backing.

I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the fit and proper person test. Mr Cellino was able to enter into a financial arrangement with Leeds before it had been determined whether he was acceptable to the Football League. I am sympathetic to the view that we should have some sort of pre-test. We should be able to determine whether somebody is acceptable as an owner of a football club before they enter into any financial transaction, because football authorities have to make a decision about whether they plunge the club back into more financial turmoil, or accept the person who has already put money into the club, as seems to have been the situation with Leeds at that time. I am sympathetic to the idea of having some sort of pre-examination of whether someone is a fit and proper person, and I look forward to considering that in detail in Committee—I sincerely hope that the Bill makes it that far.

On the football creditors rule, the hon. Gentleman makes the powerful point that extraordinarily wealthy footballers can be further ahead in the queue than some local small business person. That cannot be right or fair. There are always unintended consequences to changing rules such as this, but the hon. Gentleman has raised an important point that is worthy of further examination and discussion with the leagues and football authorities, while we deliberate on the matter in Committee. Current arrangements frequently fall into disrepute when clubs go into administration, and there is clearly a strong moral case for changes to the rules. We can examine in detail what those changes may be in Committee, and the hon. Gentleman is right to raise the issue. It has been Labour policy to encourage more fan ownership of clubs through co-operatives or provident societies, and we are sympathetic to and welcome clause 4 on the community trust aspect of that.

I commend the hon. Gentleman for introducing this important private Member’s Bill. He raises a number of issues that are worthy of detailed discussion, and I look forward to having those debates in Committee should the Bill make it that far.