Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 2nd December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, before we start today’s Committee, I point out to the House that this is day two of five days on the Football Governance Bill. We need to make significant progress on the groups today.

Clause 1: Purpose and Overview

Amendment 7

Moved by

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 4th December 2024 Lords Chamber

Relevant document: 8th Report from the Delegated Powers Committee

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, before we commence Committee, I remind noble Lords that we need to make substantial progress on the Bill. This is now the third day in Committee, so there should be substantial progress today.

Clause 2: Key definitions

Amendment 19

Moved by

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 9th December 2024 Lords Chamber

Relevant document: 8th Report from the Delegated Powers Committee

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, as we begin day 4 of Committee on the Football Governance Bill, we have an ambitious target today and I urge all noble Lords to work together to achieve it. I particularly draw the Committee’s attention to the front page of today’s lists from the Government Whips’ Office and all the reminders about speaking times, which were agreed by the House last year. I remind the Committee of that and we expect noble Lords to work together to make progress to that ambitious target; we need to get to it today.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, before my noble friend sits down, the rubric states quite clearly the expectations that there are on Members of the House. Those are of course maximum time limits, not targets to be aimed for, but the document also says that Members

“should not summarise or repeat at length points made by others, and if speaking more than once a Member should not repeat points they have already made”.

I have already sat through a couple of hours of this Committee and heard that done repeatedly. Will the usual channels intervene if people deviate from the subject or are repetitious, and therefore ask them to sit down?

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I thank my noble friend for that. I hope that we will not need to intervene, but the Whips on the government Bench will certainly intervene if necessary. I ask all noble Lords to read the points on Committee stage, which were agreed by the House. We do not want repetition; we want proper scrutiny, with progress made today on the Bill. We have a number of groups to get through, but it is perfectly achievable in the time.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

My Lords, I suggest that we now begin.

Clause 6: The IFR’s objectives

Amendment 51

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Kennedy of Southwark Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 16th December 2024 Lords Chamber

For that reason, I very much support my noble friend Lord Mann’s Amendment 161, just as I support the amendment of my noble friends Lord Bassam and Lady Taylor.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

Addington.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

It is nice to have a little fan club.

My amendment may be making the ultimate pedant’s point, but the Bill says that a relevant thing that cannot be interfered with is the name of a team operated by a club. My amendment refers to the name of the club itself. Is my point covered by this? I do not know. If it is, tell me where and I will be terribly happy.

The main point is that we will be still talking about who a fan is this time next year unless the Government make a decision and come up with something solid. It affects how the regulator operates and who they exclude. The Government may well have to decide who they are going to offend, but please let us do it, because otherwise fan involvement will mean nothing.