Sporting Events Bill [HL]

Lord Hayward Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 3rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, before I comment on the Bill, I will first make one or two observations on earlier speeches. First, I welcome back the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, on behalf of the whole Chamber. We are all very pleased to see him delivering a speech in his normal style—I think that would be the best way to describe it. The noble Lord, Lord Wood, referred to the fact that nothing could make 80% of a nation taking one view or another. I think there are occasions when referees’ decisions could achieve far more than 80%—almost unanimity. I say that for those who are unaware that I was a rugby referee for many years. I also observe that the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, has probably introduced a new sport into the Olympic world, which is getting from one end of this Chamber to the other via a Division Lobby at a speed she said was nowhere near what she used to achieve. I can assure noble Lords that I was amazed: I watched her leave and, no sooner had she left than she returned almost immediately.

I welcome this Bill enormously because it is intended to enable organisations to come together to make bids for major sporting events. I do not intend to repeat the comments that many other people have made. We are proud of our sporting tradition. My noble friend Lord Young referred to a particular case. I am not in favour of woke policy and restricting people’s observations, but I merely observe that I am wearing this evening the tie of the world’s first gay rugby club. Atmospheres generated in crowds, in one form or another, reflect on a community. I find it completely unsurprising that there is not one professional footballer who is out and gay, because of much of what goes on in football stadiums, credited as general banter. I say that as somebody who is distinctly not woke.

Coming to the Bill in general, I said that I support it—as I think everybody does who has spoken—because it enables sporting organisations to be brought together. The noble Lord, Lord Barber, said that he was present at the England v Mexico match in 1966. I was also present at that game, along with two other young boys and my father. Sport is supposed to bring you together. We three boys persuaded my father to take us to the Mexico game. It achieved a great degree of unanimity among the four males who watched that match. The only problem was that, when we got home, we discovered that my father had forgotten that he was supposed to be hosting a dinner party with my mother. On that occasion, sport certainly did not bring certain parts of my family together.

Sport is an international operation. I recognise people’s loyalties in one form or another. The Bill is intended to clear certain barriers so that we can bid, but there is a serious risk, identified by speakers from different Benches, of overreach in this Bill. Fine, let us make it possible to have international events here, but international events are precisely that—they are international. Trying to set down terminology in this country’s legislation will achieve one thing, as the noble Lord, Lord Mann, forcefully said: it will frighten people away and they will host events elsewhere. Do not try to do something such as banning touting because it sounds nice, when, as the noble Lord so ably identified, much of the problem of ticket resale is outside our shores. In the other direction, as the noble Lord, Lord Fuller, identified, trying to have blanket bans around stadia is a very risky process, because it has impacts on all sorts of small businesses there that operate very effectively every time there is a major event.

As far as I am concerned, the original objective of the legislation is clear. I support the questions raised by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, and others as to why music events are not covered on the same basis as sporting ones; it would make sense, and if it is not done now, I envisage that we will be here debating a piece of legislation that will drag those areas into the same piece of regulation in one form or another. But, please, do not try to overreach the legislation because it sounds good. It will not achieve what people want, because sporting events are international. They cannot be regulated into existence in this country. We need to do what we can to achieve the best in sporting occasions for this country, but not go beyond that and frighten people off—or say, “We’ve done this”, when actually we have not done anything at all because it is outside our capacity to regulate.

One noble Baroness will have identified that I have not gone into a sphere that I have a feeling she is just about to: the bid by Bolton for the Ryder Cup, to which I think there has been no reference whatever during this debate. I welcome the Bill, but there are very grave risks associated with it if we try to overreach in one direction or another.