Dulwich Hamlet Football Club

Ellie Reeves Excerpts

Friday 16th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes]

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point about the role that football can play. I shall address some of those issues a little later in my speech.

There are stories similar to Dulwich Hamlet’s from the football community throughout the country: from Skelmersdale to Merthyr, Torquay, Hereford and Coventry. Communities are fragile and the spaces and institutions that bring people from a diverse range of backgrounds together can be rare. Local football clubs provide this focus and an opportunity for friendships to be developed and bonds strengthened through the sharing of the passion that football inspires.

[Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Many of my constituents have contacted me about Dulwich Hamlet and they have all spoken about their love and affinity for the club. As my hon. Friend says, football clubs are often the linchpin of communities, but they are increasingly threatened by buy-outs, as we have seen in Dulwich. Does she agree that the Government should look into strengthening protections for these community assets?

[Helen Hayes]

I do indeed agree that more can be done to protect these powerful institutions. When such institutions are lost they may be gone forever, so we must do all that we can to keep them alive. The Government may argue that they cannot intervene in the commercial or legal affairs of any individual club, but the situation at Dulwich is not individual; it is representative of a much wider problem, in which short-term financial gain seeks to assert itself over an institution valued not just in pounds and pence, but in people, friendship, aspiration and history.