Football Clubs (Insolvency)

Justin Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2014 Westminster Hall

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

I apologise for arriving late, but I had to serve on a Delegated Legislation Committee. It is a great pleasure to support both this debate and the private Member’s Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins).

I am an unabashedly huge football fan, and I have two brief points that are slightly too long for an intervention. My first point is on the Insolvency Act 1986. I represent North Swindon, and we have Swindon Town football club, which has entered administration twice and avoided it on many other occasions. We have had a number of owners, some good and some less good. The hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) mentioned St John Ambulance, and his point applies to Swindon, too. We had a number of good local businesses—genuine suppliers—that were left high and dry each time the club’s ownership changed. Various wealthy people managed to get away completely unscathed while those who were working hard to support our vital community football club were left with their fingers burned, which made it a lot harder for the town to continue trusting the new owners.

My second point is on transparency. We have heard about the situations in Portsmouth and Coventry, and the same applies to many football clubs across the country. As supporters, we simply do not know who is responsible for the football club and who is ultimately making the decision to spend more money than the club can viably sustain. I have previously called for every football club to have an elected fans representative on the board. Ultimately, we need business people who are good enough to raise sufficient money, but stupid enough to go and waste it chasing domestic success when running the club, and an elected fans representative would at least always ensure transparency.

My hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt) described people trying to work out who the administrator was, but the fans representative would provide a link inside the football club. The football clubs would benefit, because at the end of the day, we long-suffering supporters are the customers. We buy the season tickets, the replica shirts, the Christmas presents, the programmes and the pies at half time. Having that rep on the board would offer a link to those customers. The rep could suggest where things are going right and where there are further opportunities to grow, as well as perhaps being the front that liaises with the local community, building trust in and support for the club.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I also apologise for not arriving on time for the debate. I was also on a Delegated Legislation Committee and I took a little bit of time to get down here. I am pleased to have the chance to support this debate. I support Leicester City, and have done since I was a wee boy. We are looking forward to going back to the premier league, but we have had difficulties in the past. The loyalty of supporters and their contribution to their club, whether socially, physically, monetarily or in time—they might attend all the matches—are important. I totally support the hon. Gentleman’s point that the clubs should have within their administration some method whereby supporters clubs, or individuals on behalf of supporters clubs, can have an input into what happens.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, which I agree with. I see that representative being elected through the supporters trust network. We have had a number of Supporters Direct events in Parliament, and we have all seen at first hand the fantastic work that it does.

[Damian Collins]

My hon. Friend raised an interesting idea. Does he agree that there is a necessity for the public declaration of the ownership to be clear? That was not clear with Leeds United and when the chief executive gave evidence to the Select Committee, he said that he did not know who owned the club. That kind of situation cannot be allowed to continue.

[Justin Tomlinson]

That is the absolute minimum we need. Supporters and suppliers should have a right to know who the custodian of their community football club is. The fans representative could then give a day-to-day commentary where appropriate and link the supporters and the club. That would be a win-win, particularly for the Football League, in ensuring that fans are engaged with the football club. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we need that public declaration.

[Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that there should be more transparency within the Football League? I and many of my constituents support Coventry City, and the Football League has been completely not transparent in allowing the club’s owners to move it to Northampton, without any proper plan to get it back where it belongs in Coventry.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I know that my hon. Friend has worked tirelessly to support the long-suffering fans of Coventry City. Long gone are the days of the 1987 FA cup final, when Coventry had a 3-2 win over Tottenham. Watching that on the television is one of my earlier memories. My brother went to Coventry university, and it was the only time he was interested in football. He was pleased by the result on the day.

We keep coming back to the point on transparency. My hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North made the point that there would be alternatives if a supermarket was closing, but that people generally have only one community club to support. Yes, there will be good times and there will be bad times—in Swindon’s case, there have been a few more bad times than good times of late, but that adds to the excitement—but it should always be about transparency for the fans and for suppliers, who work hard to do their bit to support their community clubs and often give generous deals. We cannot simply abandon them and create this unique rule that protects wealthy people within football. I say that as a huge football fan myself. We have to do right by the community, the fans and the suppliers.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I agree with the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones): whoever owns the club, they have been playing ducks and drakes with the fans in Coventry. The fans are vitally important, but they are playing a guessing game on whether they will go back to the stadium or whether there will be a new stadium and, if so, where it will be located. It is 20 questions all the time, and that is how contemptuous they are of the people and fans of Coventry, quite frankly.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I agree wholeheartedly with that. What frustrates me, whether it is the Premier League or the Football League, is that it is in their interest that football clubs remain viable and continue to grow. It is a brand, and by and large it does work. The frustration was highlighted in the example given by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North. She said that at the eleventh hour—a huge amount of work had been done, the community had raised money and different people had pledged money—the goalposts seemed to be moved.

The Football League and the Premier League should have all the information registered and available, so that those seeking to step in to rescue, protect and save those valuable community assets are armed with the information that they need. In some cases, football clubs will disappear because it is just not meant to be, and some clubs will do better than they should, but that is just the nature of competitive sport. Where a set of owners have been reckless and the community wants to step up, whether that is through a new business owner or a community, fan-owned club, they should be able to have that information. The Football League and the Premier League should have it at their fingertips.

[Damian Collins]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is why it is important to have a proper fit and proper person test, administered by the Football Association, that can be done quickly. It can assess whether a new bid is worth pursuing or worth looking at, saying, “Is it from a fit and proper organisation or is it spurious?” If it is spurious, it should be set aside. It should not be down to the administrator to get the most money regardless of where it is coming from.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I agree with my hon. Friend. A whole review of the fit and proper test is needed, because my understanding is that while one of the tests is that a person must have a certain amount of money deposited in a bank account, they do not necessarily have to put that money into the club. I have seen that with Swindon Town. Wealthy people take over a club and have the potential to cover its liabilities, which would cover the suppliers, but that money is not necessarily used.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

The hon. Gentleman is making a very important point. If we go back 15 to 20 years—I cannot remember the exact date—an individual wanted to buy Manchester United. Everyone was led to believe that he was going to buy the club, but at the end of the day he could not put the deal together. He totally misled people for some months.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I believe the individual ended up at Carlisle, and the club had a chequered time under his stewardship. Time and again, we are seeing people coming in for various different reasons without the interests of those football clubs at heart. I understand the world of business, but these clubs are valuable community assets. The Government need to apply pressure to the Football League and the Premier League, because it is in their interest to get their houses in order.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Gentleman is being gracious and kind in giving way again. We are referring to the English Football League. Will there be an opportunity for the Minister to look at what is happening in Scotland and the other leagues? I think of Rangers FC, which is an institution. I have supported the team since I was a young boy. The club has dipped in and out of administration and still has difficulties in the board room. The club is important: at its past three matches, 115,000 fans have come to support it. Does the hon. Gentleman feel that we have to look beyond the English league to the leagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales?

[Justin Tomlinson]

I absolutely agree. The issue affects football clubs across the country. In Scotland, there is the worrying experience with Hearts. As with Portsmouth, people are trying to do deals, but even the club cannot identify the owner.

[Damian Collins]

I just make the helpful point that many aspects of football are devolved. I originally wanted the debate to encompass Scotland, too, but I was advised that it could not.

[Justin Tomlinson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that.

In conclusion, there are huge amounts of good will towards sport and football, whether that comes from supporters or suppliers. We need to do whatever we can to ensure that they are equipped with knowledge, so that things can be remedied as quickly and swiftly as possible when they go wrong. That is absolutely vital for our local communities.

[Mr Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

An injury-time strike by Marcus Jones.