Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Ranger of Northwood Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 11th March 2025 Lords Chamber

I will speak very briefly to the other amendments in the group. Ticket pricing is a commercial matter for clubs; they have to work out the best way to ensure that they maximise the number of fans that come through the gates. As I understand it, it is already explicit in the Bill that clubs will consult their fans on ticket pricing as part of their fan engagement. Again, I do not think that it is something that should detain the House; it is something for the clubs to work out, to ensure that they adopt good practice on how they engage with fans in future.

[Lord Ranger of Northwood (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 27—not as a learned lawyer, like the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, who is in his place; not as a former Sports Minister with immense understanding, like the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan; and not as a senior and experienced administrator of a huge club, like the noble Baroness, Lady Brady—but as a humble fan. I have not spoken much on the Bill, but when I have, I have spoken as a lifelong football fan who pays regularly to watch my beloved club, Tottenham Hotspur, for better or worse. I very much sense, feel and hear the varied opinions of fans on the independent football regulator, reflecting a mix of hope, scepticism and concern.

I acknowledge that there is some enthusiasm on the terraces, but it is tempered by doubts about the regulator’s scope and power. Some fans are worried that it will not address their immediate concerns, such as the rising ticket prices, the loss of cup replays or clubs prioritising lucrative overseas pre-season tours over local engagement. Posts on X suggest scepticism about whether the independent football regulator can truly challenge the entrenched power of the Premier League’s wealthy owners. As one user noted:

“It can’t force clubs to lower ticket prices”.


Others fear that it may impose bureaucratic burdens without delivering meaningful change, potentially even threatening the competitiveness of English football. Fans can be quite astute in their analysis and hopes for what a regulator was intended to do, as they now meet the harsh reality of what a regulator might actually do.

This comes at a time when some clubs—dare I use the example of English football’s biggest commercial club, Manchester United—face demonstrations from their fans demanding change. Fans are themselves motivated by a myriad of reasons, and much of their ire has to do with the performance of their team on the pitch. However, one of the issues at the heart of the Manchester United fans’ fury is ticket prices. That was why a specific fan demonstration was organised—following the raising of ticket prices to £66 and the removal of some concessions in December last year—and the issue continues to rumble on. In February, the Fulham Supporters’ Trust described the decision to sell adult away tickets for the Old Trafford cup tie at between £51 and £61 as “callous”, with away tickets capped at £30 for Premier League matches.

I do not want to be accused of picking on Manchester United, especially as it is having as poor a season as my own club, where the natives are also extremely restless, as the noble Lord, Lord Maude, knows. Again, that is for many footballing reasons, but also because of the restriction on ticket concessions that was announced this season. The same can be said of a number of other Premier League clubs, where ticket prices are going only one way and potentially acting as a barrier to many fans experiencing the beautiful, great game at a ground.

It must be acknowledged that clubs, especially Premier League clubs, are facing challenges. Clubs generate huge revenues, but, equally, they have huge outgoings and are continually chasing footballing talent and investing to achieve success in a highly competitive international market. They also face national financial pressures, such as the impact of the Labour Government’s national insurance increases on their employee base; the Labour Government’s increase of the national minimum wage; the further compliance costs that will accompany the Labour Government’s new Employment Rights Bill; and then the independent football regulator’s levy. We can debate the impact of the IFR on the footballing pyramid, but a question I share with millions of football fans is: will all these additional costs and that of the IFR on EPL clubs, and every single club in the land, mean that ticket prices will go up?

Rather than meeting the aspiration of helping fans to reduce ticket prices, the cost of the independent financial regulator is likely to do the exact opposite. Therefore, I have sought to make a modest amendment to Clause 14: that the IFR’s annual report include

“a review of the impact of the activity of the IFR on ticket prices”,

to give us fans some comfort that the burden of the independent football regulator will not fall on us.

[Lord Gascoigne (Con)]

My Lords, I am conscious that the debates on this Bill have been somewhat lengthy, so I will be incredibly brief. I support, with absolute delight, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, on her Amendment 13. I do so for three reasons.

The first relates to the oft overused phrase “soft power”. No one can deny football’s huge following or the impression it has on so many—and that applies equally to fans in this country and abroad. As has been said already, the Premier League makes up the largest share of the UK’s television exports, and football is broadcast to over 1.5 billion people in just shy of 190 countries. As noble Lords have noted, throughout the ages football has pushed and campaigned on many important issues, so it is right that the many things that clubs promote at home and abroad should include the environment, nature and broader sustainability.

That leads me to my second point, which is, in effect, football’s hard power. Clubs can make a difference through not just all the sites they own but what they offer during matches to the fans.

My third point is broader: I wish to speak to those who cannot support this amendment, however well intentioned it is, because they do not support the idea of a regulator. The debate we are having now is about this amendment; it is not about the Bill in its entirety. Whether we agree with it or not, the Bill will end up passing. So the question to me now is not about the virtue of the regulator but about how we can improve it.

To conclude, this amendment does not have specific targets or rules on what exactly clubs should fund or what their boards should look like, or seeks to interfere needlessly in how they are run or how their games are played. The key is that this amendment calls for regard of what is already in other legislation. It is something that we are all expected to do ourselves and, as has been said, that so many clubs do already under their own steam: to play their part. If the noble Baroness presses her amendment to a vote, I respectfully urge all noble Lords to support her.