A picture of Carson Yeung, for no reason
Today could, possibly, maybe, mark the beginning of something better for English football. A report released by the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee expressed deep concerns about the future of English football, focusing particularly on financial stability and transparency.
The Committee’s main points revolved around the fit and proper persons test, arguing that the Football Association needed a “strong test consistently applied,”, and also argued that there should always be the “presumption against selling the ground unless it is in the club’s interest.”
The report blasted the lack of transparency in some club ownerships, commenting that “there is no more blatant an example of lack of transparency than the recent ownership history of Leeds United”, and urging that the Football Association must in some cases join forces with HMRC to better establish whether a proposed takeover will be good for the club in question.
The Committee also recommended the abolition of the Football Creditors rule (the regulation which dictates that football creditors must be paid in full in the event of administration, meaning other creditors may leave with next to nothing), describing it as epitomising “the extent to which financial priorities are being distorted [in football]“. The Committee suggested that if the Football Association fails to comply with this recommendation, the Government may have to take action by scrapping it through legislation.
The report suggested an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, in order to recognise the special nature of supporters trusts, and to aid them in their battles against the significant legal and bureaucratic hurdles they face when raising funding.
Encouragingly, the Committee recognised that expenditure at grass roots level is necessary, emphasising the importance on coaching education (we have moaned several times before about the pathetic number of qualified coaches in this country in comparison to the technically superior Germany, Italy and Spain; to the extent that one of the PLBers is taking matters into his own hands and earning his qualifications!)
The advised reform to the Football Association board involves changing the number on the board to ten (the FA board currently numbers twelve), consisting of Chairman and General Secretary, two further FA executive staff, two non-executives, two professional game representatives, and two national game representatives.
Chair of the Committee, John Whittingdale MP, said: “No one doubts the success of the Premier League in revitalising English football. But it has been accompanied by serious financial problems throughout the football league pyramid. Significant changes need to be made to the way the game is run to secure the future of England’s unique football heritage, and the economic and community benefits it provides.
“The FA is the organisation for the job, but it has some way to go getting its own house in order before it can tackle the problems in the English game, and address the future. We need a reformed FA to oversee and underpin a rigorous and consistent club licensing system and robust rules on club ownership, which should be transparent to supporters.
“Almost all our recommendations could be achieved without legislation, through co-operation and agreement between the football authorities, and we urge them to respond positively with an agreed strategy and timetable for change. Legislation should considered only as a last resort in the absence of substantive progress.”
The final sentence there is essentially a threat; Whittingdale is essentially saying “we can do this the easy way or the hard way”. The Football Association is as stubborn and antiquated an organisation as they come, but we’ll have to hope they can see the good they can do here. The ‘fit and proper persons test’ has been exposed as a ridiculous joke over the past few seasons, and lower down the football pyramid than the Premier League, unscrupulous businessmen have been getting away for years with totally shameless profiteering in the absence of ownership checks that actually stand up.
I’m most encouraged by the part about investment in coaching education. There simply must be an increase in the number of qualified coaches in this country if we can ever hope to produce the same kind of footballers as our European neighbours in our lifetimes. Professional football clubs can’t do much; kids need to be helped to maximise their technical skills before they’re picked up by clubs, otherwise youth teams will continue to field the biggest and fastest players they can in order to win at that level. Only good, intelligent coaching can do that. This is something for the Football Association must act on or we will continue to be left behind.
