Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Goddard of Stockport Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 15th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

I agree that it is about getting the right balance—there is no disagreement between me and the noble Lord—and obviously I acknowledge the size of the support that Brighton & Hove Albion get. One should also put on record that our fans—I am a great fan, a season ticket holder and a 1901 Club member, for that matter—are incredibly grateful to Tony Bloom for the investment that he has put in. I do not entirely buy the argument that it is because of parachute payments. Back when Brighton were pressing for promotion in 2016-17, that was not foremost in anyone’s thinking, and I doubt whether it was foremost in Tony Bloom’s. But obviously we have to look at where the resource is spent, and that is why it is for the IFR to make that determination and to treat this issue with great care when it comes to a conclusion, based on the “state of the game” report.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

My Lords, for the first hour of the debate today, I honestly thought I was in a different Committee. The thoughtful amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Birt, and the reasoning behind them were more favourably reflected on by the Minister than almost any other amendment I have heard over seven nights. The helpful intervention from the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, about some technical issues, and his offer—probably to be accepted—of redrafting for a further thing, emphasise that we are drawing to a place where I think we can begin to make progress. Even the noble Lord, Lord Markham, was concise in his comments on those amendments in the spirit of trying to move the evening on, while still making the political points that he needed to make.

I was going to comment on the speech by the noble Baroness, Lady Brady, but the points have been made by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, far better than I could: the Premier League does not have all the right answers, and it is about the pyramid and the lower clubs. This afternoon I met disability groups, women’s groups and other people concerned about the economics of football, and their real concern is whether they will ever see the benefits of whatever happens with this regulator, so that it does not just stay between the Premier League and the Championship. It is fine to say that the Championship is now one of the six best leagues in the world—that is to be supported—but below that are League One, League Two and the National League teams. We need to keep all those thoughts in our minds as we move forward.

Personally, I have absolutely no problem with the Premier League. It is a fantastic thing and I pay my money to watch it if I can—I wish I could have switched the fixtures around from last night to tonight, so that I would not have had to endure City throwing away a two-goal lead at Brentford. I could have missed that, listening to the enjoyment in here, but that is just the way the fixtures are thrown up, unfortunately.

What I am trying to say, clumsily, is that the regulator needs to be given responsibility. We can influence that responsibility by way of amendments in this and the other place, but it is very important that the Minister understands where those amendments are coming from, and for what reasons. I do not think that anybody in this Chamber does not believe that football deserves the very best governance and the very best people running it to keep its status as our national game. It is our national game, from Liverpool at the top right down to Southend and clubs at the bottom. Our group on these Benches just wants to ensure that we keep that focus, because you can lose it in the argument of the to and fro of the money, the percentages and how it is not fair. The fairness is not the point. The point is the 92 football clubs, which should be at the forefront of all our minds.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

My Lords, I did not intend to speak on this group of amendments but, as with all the best Committees, you are sometimes prompted to contribute by the ebb and flow of the debate.

Just to respond very briefly to the noble Lords, Lord Pannick and Lord Bassam, of course we all want to see the best possible legislation. This is a scrutiny and oversight House, and we want to make sure the Bill is improved as it goes between the two Houses of Parliament. But we also do not want to respond merely to anecdote, whether it is the financial difficulties of a small number of clubs or the issue of the super league evolving as it did in 2021. I have gone on record as saying that the Bill is suboptimal—and that is polite. I would have said the same under a Conservative Government, and it bears repetition tonight. It was terrible then, and it is even more terrible under this Government.

I want to try to explain to noble Lords why, specifically on the issue of whether Clauses 61 to 64 should stand part, some of us have a philosophical issue. At the moment, I believe that although it can be quite robust and in many ways brutal, there is a self-correcting mechanism for the way football clubs are operated. There is a predisposition not to take inordinate risk in the future of small community clubs supported by the local communities in towns and cities across the country.

What slightly worries me is the concept of moral hazard, as we have discussed before, which is obviously quite an arcane economic concept. Incidentally, with respect to the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, I do not see that it is necessarily axiomatic that the Premier League has some moral duty, as businesses and as private entities with shareholders, to necessarily be a pseudo-charitable outfit and to provide for those in other leagues. The noble Lord might want to elucidate why he feels that is the case. Whether we believe it is a good or practicable idea is another issue.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

I just make the point that the only reason we are pushing this so strongly is that if the regulation set by UEFA for European league and other competitions is at odds with what we are considering in this Committee with regard to the regulation that we are looking to put on the statute book, we will have a very real problem. We have the potential for English clubs not being able to participate in European competitions. That is why this is so important.

[Lord Goddard of Stockport (LD)]

Just to reply to that, let us be straight: is the noble Lord seriously alleging that the Government are holding back information that could exclude English football clubs from playing in Europe and the World Cup?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I just think that this is very easy; it could be cleared up a minute. If there is nothing to hide and no concerns, just release the letter. Then we can say, “That’s fine; there are no concerns. Fantastic”. No one will be happier than all of us. What has been clear through all the Committee days is that we are all here, up to whatever hour at night, because we care about football. We are all football fans here; we have all declared our interests and our various season tickets because we care about football. That is why we are going on about this.