English Football: Financial Sustainability and Governance

13:30:00

I beg to move, That this House has considered the financial sustainability and governance of English football. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. Clubs across the country face unsustainable finances and poor governance, which is why so many MPs have gathered here to represent their local clubs. We have a range of clubs from up and down the football pyramid and up and down the country: from Brighton to Basingstoke, from Bolton to Luton, from Wolves to Aylesbury. We have MPs from various parties, and we even have Reading fans in the same room as Oxford United fans, showing the unity and strength of feeling across Parliament that football must have a sustainable future. Before I go into the concerns that we all share, and the remedies we would like to see, I will give a brief history of how we got here. Since the premier league was formed over three decades ago, over 50 clubs in the top six tiers of the English men’s football pyramid have gone into administration. One of those clubs is Bury. After being sold for £1 in 2019, Bury went out of business and was expelled from the league. The following year, 2020, saw the demise of Macclesfield Town and Wigan Athletic going into administration. In the following year, 2021, while England’s top six clubs briefly broke away to try to form a European league, Derby County slipped into administration. These clubs and this chaos is just the tip of the iceberg. According to research by the non-governmental organisation Fair Game, the majority of the top 92 clubs in the game are technically insolvent, meaning their liabilities exceed their assets. That is a precarious situation for any business to be in, but football clubs are not just any business; they are the foundation of many of our communities, and they bring many of us pride in the areas that we live in. One of the clubs that might be technically insolvent is Reading football club, which has its home stadium in my constituency of Earley and Woodley. Reading is one of the oldest clubs in England, and had previously been known for its good management. Now, after four winding-up petitions, five points deductions and persistent late tax payments, Reading sits on the brink. I started getting involved with the campaign to rescue Reading football club when I bumped into some fans at a local fair in Woodley a few years ago, who had read my reporting in the Financial Times. They knew I had an interest in scrutinising companies with complex structures and distant owners, and they asked whether I had an interest in scrutinising a local company with a complex structure and distant owners. But fans should not have to do that kind of scrutiny. Life needs to be a lot simpler for fans just to be able to follow the game, and not worry about whether the game is up for their local club. So many fans have experienced what Reading has gone through, and we owe it to them to voice the problems that we see across the football pyramid. I will pick out three particular problems, which I am sure will feel familiar for many of those listening: first, how clubs receive income; secondly, how they spend their money; and thirdly, irresponsible ownership.

Chesterfield football club wanted me to put on the record its support for the work of football governance. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is extraordinary that, on the one hand, we have a monstrous success story in the level of money in football, but on the other, we have almost the entire English football league running effectively bankrupt and relying on the owners for bail-outs year after year? That simply cannot make sense as a model, can it?

I agree with my hon. Friend, who is an advocate for his local club, that too many clubs across the country are suffering from the unfair distribution through the football pyramid. In fact, that is the first issue I will describe: the problem with the money going in. The last four decades have seen a complete transformation in English football, which has been characterised by a widening gap between the clubs at the very top and the rest of the football pyramid. Ticket sales over that time have become less important as a source of revenue. Instead, the biggest source has become the multibillion-pound broadcast deals agreed by the Premier League. We all celebrate the success of the Premier League’s dealmaking, generating the most revenue out of the big five European leagues. That dealmaking is notable for many reasons, not just the large amount of money involved. The 20 premier league clubs get together to sell a deal collectively. However, economists and competition lawyers have raised concerns about the impact that collective selling has on fans and smaller clubs, and they have argued that collective selling is justified only when there is a public benefit. However, most clubs do not currently benefit from these broadcast revenues. The vast majority stay in the premier league and, as a result, the gap between the top and the rest grows wider every season. This season, premier league clubs and the four recently relegated clubs held on to 94% of the league’s broadcast revenues. That means that the remainder of the 68 clubs in the EFL received just 6%. In comparison, the German Bundesliga ensures an 80:20 split between the top two divisions. Meanwhile, the Union of European Football Associations—better known as UEFA—allocates 75% to the champions league and 25% to the two competitions below it. Those leagues have chosen those ratios because they find that it creates a sustainable pyramid for them. The EFL has long sought a similar distribution ratio with the premier league. We want all clubs to work together to protect the pyramid as a whole because, without its base, the top of the game would crumble. As we all know, the pyramid serves as a platform for player development and talent spotting. Reading’s Michael Olise broke through locally and moved on to Crystal Palace, and I am sure that we can think of many such examples. The national popularity of the premier league rests on our strong local football cultures, which are spread by clubs in their communities and the sports charities attached to them, working with people aged six to 60-plus. However, last year, the premier league and the EFL failed to agree a deal for a more equitable distribution of funding between clubs, underscoring just how sticky the first problem of income is. The second problem is the money going out—the expenditure. Costs have been driven up to unsustainable levels. The concentration of riches in the premier league creates an overwhelming incentive to spend big and chase the dream. According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, on average, for every £100 a championship club brings in through revenue, it spends £101 in wages. That is clearly unsustainable. Reading’s current owners, Dai Yongge and Dai Xiu Li, took over in 2017 when Reading was near the top of the championship. They also chased the dream. By 2021, Reading football club was spending over 200% of its annual revenue on player wages. Overall, Reading’s owners have invested over £200 million in the club. It is no surprise that they would spend at that level. The NGO Fair Game has shown a clear correlation between how high a club is in the league and how high its spending is on wages. This competition is made more intense because of parachute payments, which I will not go into at length. However, overall, the pressure to compete means that clubs often spend beyond their means. This is unsustainable. We have spending rules such as financial fair play, but breaches continue to happen.

My hon. Friend is making an important point about costs. One of the brilliant football clubs in my constituency, the Aylesbury Vale Dynamos, really struggles with the cost of keeping its ground maintained. It is at real risk of flooding, and the cost of dealing with that is huge. The other club in my constituency, Aylesbury United, has not had a ground in Aylesbury since 2006. Does my hon. Friend agree that, given the costs that they incur, having access to a secure and financially sustainable ground to play on is an essential part of the sustainability of vital grassroots football clubs?

I agree with my hon. Friend, who has a deep interest in her local clubs. Fans need to be able to see their clubs perform in their local area. Many MPs who are in this debate have concerns about the relocation of their grounds or lack of appropriate grounds. The final problem is ownership. The first two problems have shown how little incentive there is to be a well-run club that spends responsibly. Most clubs rely on a generous owner to stay afloat. When the good will or cash flow of that owner starts to run dry, clubs often have nowhere else to turn. Reading fans know the perils of this dependence. The current owners, the Dai siblings, put the club up for sale almost two years ago, but they have not been seen at the club in well over a year. Fans have mostly been kept in the dark. Credible bidders for the club—some of whom I have had the fortune to speak to—have made offers, and they have been turned down and dragged through lengthy negotiations. Bidders have faced difficulties in navigating the ownership structure of the club in which the stadium, the training grounds and the club itself have been separated into different corporate entities, and in which club assets have been used as collateral for other loans.

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I can forgive her for being from Reading—at least she is not from Swindon. Oxford United, which I was grateful that she mentioned, must be able to move out of the Kassam stadium for which it is charged unviable rent, despite lacking a fourth stand and many other problems. Does she agree that the club’s exciting proposals for a new stadium in Kidlington must go forward, but that future governance models need to stop previous owners from entrapping clubs in unviable and unsustainable stadiums?

I very much agree. Stadiums are also vital community assets. I look forward to one day seeing Reading beat Oxford at the new Kidlington stadium. What the EFL has at present is the use of fines. The owners of Reading have been fined on numerous occasions for failing to fund their monthly wage bill, but that has not changed behaviour. The most frustrating thing for Reading fans, as I am sure it has been for Portsmouth, Leeds, Bury and Charlton fans before them, is a feeling that the whole chaos could have been avoided if the EFL had had sufficient powers to implement a more robust owners test when the current owners, the Dai siblings, first took over.

I never thought I would say this, but I have a lot of sympathy with Reading fans at the moment. When I was a kid growing up, my team, Brighton and Hove Albion, experienced a lot of what my hon. Friend’s team is experiencing now. When Reading was well run by the Madejski family, Brighton were at the bottom of the league in very much the opposite scenario, and Brighton are now enjoying the other side of the pendulum. We have probably the best type of ownership. It is a fantastic model that everyone should try to emulate. Does my hon. Friend not agree that the lottery of ownership—the pendulum that went from, when I was young, Brighton having to sell their ground and play in Gillingham, to Reading now experiencing the problems that they are experiencing—is what we need to change with the regulator?

That is absolutely the case. My hon. Friend highlights the history of his club in Brighton. In the ’80s and ’90s when the future was unclear, it was down to the owners. Too much, unfortunately, is down to, as he mentioned, the lottery of ownership. Brighton and Hove is now a well-managed club. I think we can have many such positive stories across the country, including a positive story, and a positive outcome, for Reading, but the question about football governance and sustainability affects all of us in this room today.

The hon. Lady is making a passionate speech and has done a great job of bringing us all to this Chamber. I lived through Reading’s trials through my stepson who is a season ticket holder— obviously, my first love is for the Whites in Salisbury. Does she not recognise the fundamental challenges of disturbing a market that contains one of our greatest national assets, which is the premier league? I feel quite torn and anxious about the scope creep of any regulatory intervention, although I accept that the core of what she says has a lot of merit.

I always appreciate my fellow Treasury Committee member’s comments on the correct regulation of markets, but I would argue that football clubs are not simply a commodity and football competition is not simply a market. If we were to accept that view and for the sake of argument say, “Let’s treat the competitions as a market”, I would argue that we have severe market failure when over 50 clubs have gone into administration in the last four decades. The externalities of that market failure are borne too much by the fans sitting in the room with us today.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. We do not have competition right now. In the premier league, the three promoted clubs are almost certainly likely to go back down to the championship. The disparity of money and funding means we are losing what is the best part of English football: competition. If we really want competition, we have to make the money go down the pyramid more fairly.

I agree with my hon. Friend. Parachute payments skew the financial incentives in the game. I also agree that we do not have the full competition that would allow clubs to play their best game, which is what we fans want to see. Why does all of this matter? It is about the community at the end of the day. Some might say it is only a game, but for many of my constituents the importance of our football club stretches beyond the game and into the community. Reading football club’s community trust is run by volunteers. It supports young people and promotes social inclusion and participation in sport. In many of our most deprived communities across the country, it is the local club that sets a model for aspiration. Constituents always tell me how important Reading FC is to them and how important it has been to their families going back generations. Just the other day I received an email from a fifth generation Reading fan. One constituent wrote to me: “Reading was and is a family club”— a club in previous years awarded family excellence status. Yet it is at risk of not being around for the families of tomorrow. Working with fan groups—some are here with us today—since my election last year, I have seen at first hand how motivated those volunteers are by this common cause. Fans want to see a competition for points; they do not want a competition to the death. While Reading is in exclusive talks with a new potential buyer, we need to ensure that the same story is not repeated anywhere else, so I am delighted that the Government are bringing the Football Governance Bill through Parliament to create an independent football regulator. I will be meeting the shadow regulator in a few weeks to ensure that they have a full picture of what has happened at Reading, and what can happen when absent owners neglect their clubs. I encourage all Members to do the same. We need a right-touch regulator that helps us to build a football pyramid with strong foundations, and we need a football regulator that can pass the Reading test, so that fans elsewhere do not have to go through the problems that Reading went through. Football has a problem around governance and financial sustainability, but fans and Parliament working together can fix it. I am glad the House is considering this motion.

Order. I remind hon. Members that they should bob if they wish to be called to speak. There are 29 Back Benchers wishing to catch my eye, so the speech limit will be a minute and a half. If you have to make an intervention, I respectfully request that it be very short. Remember that making an intervention may mean that you are not called in the debate, so please be considerate to colleagues. I will call the first Front Bencher at 2.28 pm.

13:46:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this important debate and for eloquently setting out many of the governance and sustainability issues in English football. English football is central to the social fabric of Britain and is one of our greatest exports. It is more than a sport; it is the beating heart of our local communities. I agree with Bill Shankly: some people think football is a matter of life and death, but I assure you it’s much more serious than that. Each week, fans come together to back their club and create a shared sense of identity. The social impact of local clubs goes far beyond the pitch. In my totally unbiased opinion, there is no better proof of that than Luton. Luton Town FC is at the heart of our town and has worked for years in partnership with local charities. The Luton Town Community Trust, which was founded in 2008, is a charity dedicated to delivering community service to people across Luton and Bedfordshire, using the power of football to make a positive impact in sports, education, health and social cohesion. The club is at the heart of the town, and the fans are the heart of the club. Throughout the ups and downs of Luton Town FC’s journey, it has been the fans who stepped up to fight fiercely to protect our proud Hatters heritage when reckless ownership threatened to tear it down. The fan-led 2020 consortium bought out the club from further mismanagement after it went into administration in 2007. We all know that Luton’s promotion in 2023 was historic, but that promotion was a springboard for further exciting prospects for our town. There are detailed plans for the Power Court site, which will be the new home of Luton Town FC. It will transform Luton’s economy by directly contributing between £100 million and £250 million per year and supporting between 900 and more than 1,100 jobs. Despite the consensus that there is much to celebrate about the success of English football, the underlying governance structure and its financial sustainability are highly fragile. I am therefore delighted that our Labour Government have reintroduced a strengthened Football Governance Bill, delivering on our manifesto commitment to establish the independent football regulator and a new set of rules to protect clubs, empower fans and keep clubs at the heart of our communities. Crucially, the Bill will ensure that fans are prioritised at the heart of the game, which is what our football clubs should be about. I am proud that Luton is already a great example of putting fans first.

13:48:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing this important and timely debate. For places like Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, football is more than a game; it is the beating heart of our town, a source of identity, pride and belonging. Grimsby Town FC is an institution. It was formed in 1878 in the Wellington Arms on Freeman Street, and Blundell Park was built in 1899; one of the original stands is still in operation. Through the Grimsby Town Foundation, the club has generated more than £4 million in social value, supporting education, mental health and opportunities for young people. For too long, the football pyramid has meant that clubs up and down the country have faced uncertainty through bad ownership, financial mismanagement and an unfair distribution of wealth. It has left many on the brink. I welcome the Football Governance Bill’s intent to address those long-standing issues. Introducing an independent regulator to protect clubs ensures financial sustainability and puts the focus back on the heart of decision making. I commend David Artell and his team for their fantastic recent form—they have had seven games unbeaten and are pushing for the play-offs. We must ensure that our clubs and community assets are protected for future generations. I will end by saying: up the Mariners!

13:50:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing this important debate. I echo her remarks about the betrayal of Reading FC by its owners and the importance of the club to families across Reading and Berkshire. Although the home of the Royals now sits in my hon. Friend’s constituency, for more than 100 years of Reading FC’s long and proud history it was at Elm Park, just outside the boundary of Reading West and Mid Berkshire. It had a large open terrace at the western edge of the ground called the Tilehurst end, named after Tilehurst in my constituency. The passion and loyalty that supporters of the club show in my constituency are illustrated by the long queues of fans waiting to catch a bus to the stadium on a match day. The only rivals Reading FC players and fans should be battling against are our friends in Oxford and Swindon. Unfortunately, the club has had to battle against the very person who should be its greatest supporter: its owner. I will not repeat what my hon. Friend said, as she explained the situation clearly, but I will say that she is a wonderful champion of Reading FC, along with other colleagues. I thank the supporters’ groups, STAR—Supporters Trust at Reading—and Sell Before We Dai, who have been tireless campaigners, alongside all other loyal fans who have stood alongside their club. None of that had to happen. It could have been prevented if Dai Yongge had acted in the interests of his club and if we had had proper regulation of the football industry and proper protection for clubs such as Reading. That is why I echo my hon. Friend’s call for a comprehensive inquiry and why I am so supportive of the Government’s Football Governance Bill, which will establish an independent football regulator.

13:51:00

I congratulate the hon. Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing the debate. I declare an interest: I am a Norwich City fan and a King’s Lynn Town supporter. The premier league is the most viewed league in the world and supports 90,000 jobs across the country, and league one is also very popular, so football is a success. I want to focus on the governance proposals, particularly in the Football Governance Bill. All fans would sign up to the key objectives of ensuring financial sustainability, preventing breakaway competitions and protecting heritage, but my concerns are about possible over-regulation and overreach. I welcome the amendments that have been tabled in the other place to introduce a growth duty into the Bill, which the Government previously resisted. Of course, the provisions on revenues attract the most attention. Let us be clear that the proposal is for the Government to take the power to mandate how to divide the proceeds of football. Currently, there is a voluntary distribution of the revenues through the football pyramid, and that is essential to the health of the game. We are seeing the impact of the proposals: the EFL is refusing to negotiate with the Premier League and has said that it is waiting for the backstop powers to come into force. The Government have made the proposals even worse by including parachute payments in the backstop. That is a complete mistake, because clubs such as Norwich need the certainty of parachute payments to invest so that they can compete in the league. That would ensure we have a competitive league that generates income. The EFL will not engage with the 3UP national league campaign, because it is waiting for the backstop before making a view on whether to get one more promotion from the national league.

13:53:00

As I said in my brief intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang), I have been contacted by Chesterfield football club, which is very keen that its support for the Football Governance Bill be known. I would like to start by expressing the sadness that everyone in Chesterfield feels at the news that the club’s owner, Phil Kirk, has inoperable cancer and is receiving end-of-life care. He is the absolute epitome of a great owner and has absolutely transformed Chesterfield’s fortunes. Chesterfield has also had the opposite: Darren Brown almost took the club into insolvency at the same time that he was going to jail, so we know that there have been many owners who have let clubs down. There have also been lots of owners who did everything they could, but were simply not wealthy enough to operate within a business model according to which the better a club does, and the further along the way it gets towards the premier league, the greater its losses are on every step of the way. It loses money by being promoted from league one to the championship. There is a perverse incentive where the financial success of the company gets worse the better it does, until it reaches the promised land of the premier league. That all needs changing. It is madness. We have a very wealthy game. A slightly better distribution would still allow the premier league to be the golden goose, but it would also support the pyramid.

13:55:00

Wherever people go in the world, whichever bar they walk into, the one thing we can guarantee is that they will see a premier league game being played. That is the strength of the United Kingdom’s export and the stranglehold that we have on football across the world. Any other country would want to topple us from that position, so we must be very careful when we look to regulate in this space. That does not mean that I do not have sympathy; just down the road from me is Coventry City, which to say the least has had a turbulent time in its dealings with the premier league and now with its rebuild. I want to concentrate on one area that I think is really important. When sentence is passed on a criminal, there is a mechanism through which the Government can ask the Parole Board to have another look. That would work really well in this situation. We need an independent regulator to satisfy FIFA and UEFA, but Parliament also needs to be able to hold people to account. To find an example, we need only look at when FA cup replays were taken away last year. The public were upset, the clubs were upset, but the decision was taken. I argue that a parole board mechanism would allow the Government to say to the regulator, “Have another look.” If it still decides to do it, fantastic, but at least we will have had our say.

13:56:00

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing this debate. I will focus on one area of the proposed legislation: the distribution of wealth around the game. It is not true that anyone wants to destroy the premier league or kill the golden goose. What people want is a fair distribution of resources. Over the past seven years, two of the clubs that have been promoted have been in receipt of parachute payments. It is small wonder that that happens when the average club in receipt of parachute payments receives £49 million, while a non-parachute-payment club gets £5.4 million. That promotes risk-taking and distortion. No other organisation would accept, as the English Football League does, an outside organisation like the Premier League providing resources that distort the competition. That is why we need a regulator. We have to stop that risk-taking. Another point that our legislation must address is the separation of clubs from their assets. The previous owner of Charlton Athletic, my local side, now owns the ground and the training ground. We have to find a mechanism that could bring them back to the clubs.

13:58:00

As is seemingly my usual opening line in many of these debates, I am one of very few people elected in this place who has any actual experience of the industry that we are discussing. As a former premier league football chairman, I can honestly say that the premier league works. Britian does not have many success stories left, but our domestic football is one of them. My message to all of you is “Leave it alone.” I mean this as a genuine question: do any of you understand the consequences of what you are looking to do? Regulating these industries does not work. London as a financial centre has withered and died on the vine since the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Why would football be any different? The premier league projects unrivalled soft power, rakes in a fortune for HM Revenue and Customs and is actually good fun, usually offering competitive football, despite Southampton’s woeful record this season. What is the Government’s plan? It was first proposed by the Conservatives, of course: regulate, strangulate, suffocate. Who wants that to happen the most? La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and even the Saudis. A regulator would deter foreign investment and add bureaucracy to an already heavily governed industry. It is ludicrous and does nothing to protect clubs in the lower leagues. It should be revoked. Let us encourage and campaign, not regulate. The private sector built this success without regulation. My overriding message to all of you is “Leave football alone.”

13:59:00

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing the debate. Football is more than just a sport in this country; it is a cornerstone of local pride and community identity. I say that as a proud Boro fan, and now as a fan of Thornaby FC. Since the premier league’s formation in 1992, its revenue gap with the EFL has grown from 33% to a simply staggering 1,600%. Two seasons ago, just 25 clubs received 92% of English football’s distributable revenues—around £3.3 billion—leaving the remaining 67 clubs to share only 8%, or £245 million. Parachute payments originally designed to assist relegated clubs now act as trampoline payments, giving some clubs an unfair financial advantage and limiting promotion opportunities. There is enough money in English football for sustainability throughout the pyramid to be a realistic aspiration. That can be achieved without harming the premier league’s status as the primary league in the world. I welcome the Football Governance Bill and the establishment of an independent football regulator with enforcement powers to ensure financial security. Football is often called the beautiful game—we must ensure that it also remains the people’s game.

14:01:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this important debate. I am so lucky to have Port Vale Football Club, based in the mother town of Burslem in my constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove. A day out watching footy brings communities together, whether it is a home game at Vale Park with our team mascot, Boomer, or a community-run lads and dads club. I pay tribute to Carol and Kevin Shanahan for all the work they do at Port Vale both on and off the pitch. Last season, the Port Vale Foundation supported more than 5,000 people in my constituency. The Shanahans have surrounded themselves with people who truly care for our community. From Matt Hancock to Darren Moore, and from the staff to the players, they make a real contribution to the lives of people in Burslem and beyond. As Darren Moore said only two weeks ago, “The club is right at the heart of the community”. I could not agree more. In 2021, Port Vale was named the EFL community club of the year, and for good reason: it has upskilled our young people, it provides community meals at Vale Park, it delivered over 2,000 presents last Christmas, its Golden Valiants group tackles social isolation among our older community and its community cupboard at Tommy Cheadle’s keeps our local families fed. Communities such as ours need additional support. Our EFL clubs, positioned in the heart of our communities, are perfectly located to offer that. Securing a sustainable football pyramid is key to cementing the future of our valued clubs and the communities they empower.

14:02:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this important and timely debate. So many things make me proud to be an MP from Derby, and Derby County football club is one of them. We have some of the most dedicated and passionate fans in the country. However, as anyone who has followed the fortunes of Derby County will know, we have had our fair share of financial difficulty. In 2021, our beloved club entered administration. I know at first hand how the lack of transparency made the subsequent negotiations and the administrators’ job difficult, and I was involved in a number of those discussions. We were thankfully saved by a local man and fan, David Clowes, who stepped up to preserve Derby County for generations of fans to come, but the dire financial situation he faced in 2021 showed just how important securing financial stability is for clubs in the EFL. EFL clubs will lose around £450 million this season. The financial instability jeopardises the clubs that sit at the heart of our communities. That is why I welcome the Government’s plans to introduce an independent football regulator through the strengthened Football Governance Bill. It is right that clubs are required to stick to stringent financial regulations.

14:04:00

Thank you for your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang). It was John Madejski who said that the best way to be a millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy a football club. As well as being a supporter of Harlow Town football club who saw the effect on the mental health of fans when we had to withdraw from the league due to ongoing pitch issues, because they were not able to go and see their wonderful football team, I support another football team who, not too long ago, would have put fear in the hearts of the opposition players. They say that every team has one hard man, but Leeds United had 11. Unfortunately, due to financial mismanagement, I saw Leeds on the edge of self-destruction. As we are celebrating International Women’s Day at the weekend, we should be aware that when a club suffers the financial issues that Leeds United did, the women’s and youth teams and the community aspect of the club are cut to finance the first team. I am running out of time but let me say that, sadly, the days of Bremner, Lorimer and Jack Charlton seem a long way away, even with the offer of Bielsa-ball. To those who think that we should not intervene in football governance I say that, as elected representatives, it is our job to represent the community.

14:06:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. Football is the UK’s most watched and played sport. Some 35 million fans have been watching the top four leagues this season, and there are 40,000 football clubs in this country—more than in any other country. As a season ticket holder of Wolverhampton Wanderers, I hope that our club will stay in the premier league. The Premier League has a lot to offer. It contributes £8 billion to the UK economy and makes a direct tax contribution of £4.2 billion to the Exchequer—and, out of that contribution, £5 billion comes from outside London. In my constituency I also have a lower league football club, AFC Wulfrunians, soon to become Wolverhampton City football club. I know the contribution that the club makes to the community, just as my club Wolverhampton Wanderers does through its foundation. I very much support the Football Governance Bill because an independent football regulator will make improvements. I hope that the Bill will create a proper process for distributing revenue throughout the football pyramid, with proper deals between the Premier League and the English Football League.

14:07:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this excellent debate. Last year I met representatives of Hampden bowling club and Football’s Square Mile who are working to preserve football heritage in my seat, which includes the birthplace of Alexander Watson Hutton, the founder of Argentinian football. Glasgow East is the start of the story that leads to Messi, Maradona and River Plate and Boca Juniors, which are the Oxford United and Reading of Buenos Aires. Their project points to something profound. Football is our history and culture. It is part of our families’ history, and is a tie that brings us together. All that draws us to football and more, in particular the emotion of hope. We all feel that hope at the beginning of a season that we might win something: the hope in the bleak midwinter that a team can win a derby—not my team Newcastle—or win a cup game. We lose this at our peril. I wonder whether football has lost sight of it. For example, in my lifetime, Rangers, Aberdeen and Celtic have won the European cup winners’ cup and the European cup. Dundee United remains unbeaten against Barcelona. We heard mention of Leeds; we could also mention Forest and so on. Could that happen now? Not at all. The chance of success is concentrated on a small number of clubs. Many fans say that they have less interest in football as a result. This poses a profound challenge to our game. As Sir Bobby Robson said, football is about “the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.”

14:09:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. In Morecambe, the Shrimps are an integral part of our community. They bring together people from all backgrounds who share in our love of the Shrimps. The Morecambe FC Community Foundation runs a range of programmes that support education, health, social inclusion and sports participation. I am not the only parent from Morecambe who has had a child come back chattering about the professional footballers who came to help out that day.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way, not least because our respective teams are currently propping up the bottom of league two. She mentions the important community work that the Shrimps do, and that is vital. We are fortunate at Carlisle United to have very generous owners who have invested huge amounts of money over the last 18 months, but even I can see that community work can best be guaranteed by having a fairer distribution of revenues.

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. In Morecambe, the football club is a community hub that we cannot afford to lose. We have the Shrimps Trust, which is a democratic and representative voice for the fans. The board of Morecambe really want us to survive and thrive and is doing everything it can to make that happen. It is passionate about our success. The Shrimps have been under a lot of pressure in recent years due to a combination of ownership issues, financial instability and the threat of relegation. My hon. Friends have laid out coherently the challenges with financial flow, ownership and governance, so I will not go through them again. In my first speech in Parliament, I reiterated my promise to the Shrimps to deliver an independent football regulator, a stronger owners and directors test, better fan representation and much better measures on financial sustainability. I only hope that it does not come too late for Morecambe FC.

14:11:00

For too long, the governance and financial model of our game has left clubs vulnerable to mismanagement, unscrupulous ownership and, ultimately, financial ruin. I am fantastically proud of my local club Basingstoke Town FC, with its much-loved Camrose ground, but it is one such example. For over 70 years, the Camrose was the heart of our town’s club. It was a vital community hub where generations of fans came together to support their team, but the covenant on the ground that should have guaranteed a sports facility for the town for another three decades at least was, and continues to be, blatantly and disgracefully disregarded. In 2016 the then chairman of the club sold the freehold of the Camrose to a company he owned, following years of underinvestment in the stadium. He eventually evicted the newly formed community club from the Camrose in April 2019. That stadium now stands in ruins. A once iconic stadium that brought pride and opportunities to our town has been reduced to a distant memory. In that time, it is the fans of the club, including those in the Gallery today, who have fought the injustice that went on and continue to power the club now. One such example is Jack Miller, the chairman, as well as all the volunteers who keep the club going. Basingstoke Town is a non-league club. Those clubs also need protection. Could I ask the Minister to put on record what the Government plan to do about that?

14:12:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I commend and thank my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for bringing forward this very important debate. I thank other colleagues for taking part today, including even my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds). Most of all, I thank the fans of Reading and other clubs who have come here today for their incredible patience and tolerance at this very difficult time. I wholeheartedly support the Football Governance Bill. I want to reiterate in the brief time available the importance of the Bill based on what has happened to Reading. Put simply, Reading is in a terrible position because of poor ownership. As we heard eloquently from my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley and other colleagues, this is due to mismanagement by owners. Reading faced relegation from the championship, which it had been in for a number of years—previously it was in the premiership. That was because of its owner, and not because of anything that happened on the pitch. The owner did not pay wages on time and the club was taken to court by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs a number of times, which led to points deductions and relegation. That is an outrageous position for any club to be in; it simply should not happen. There needs to be a much better test of what makes for a fit and proper owner. I look forward to that coming forward in the Bill. I wholeheartedly support the Bill. I finish by urging Mr Dai Yongge to speed up the sale of Reading to a new owner who will invest in our wonderful club and take it forward.

14:14:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. Bolton Wanderers has been based in my constituency for over 25 years. It is no exaggeration to say that the stadium in Horwich, once known as the Reebok, now the Toughsheet community stadium, is the most important building in our borough. Bolton has long been a community club with international recognition. That is why it is not uncommon to see former Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt enjoying dinner in Westhoughton with one-time Wanderers player and long-time friend Ricardo Gardner. In 2018, our historic club nearly went out of business. Bolton Wanderers entered 2019 subject to winding-up petitions from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; players were not paid and the club could not fulfil fixtures. I am pleased to say that the club has since recovered, thanks to the work of the new owners, Football Ventures, which is led by the formidable Sharon Brittan. Bolton now has a successful local business as its sponsor, with the incomparable Doug Mercer of Westhoughton firm Toughsheet stepping up to help the club. I pay tribute to Sharon, Doug, Phil Mason and Michael James, all of whom have done remarkable work to restore fans’ trust and put the club back at the heart of the community. In Bolton’s darkest time, it was the fans who rallied together; the supporters’ trust was set up to give fans an organised voice through which to vent their anger and frustration. As MPs, we all know how important it to recognise the fundamental role that our clubs play in our communities. Their traditions, their history, their failures and their triumphs are all sown into the social fabric.

14:15:00

Reading football club is a community club. I have fond memories of going to Madejski stadium as a kid as part of a project with local schools—just one example of the fantastic work that clubs across this country do in their communities. Unfortunately, Reading also offers a stark warning of what the bad management of football clubs can do to communities, and the effect it can have on the beautiful game, as was so eloquently touched on by my hon. Friends the Members for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang), for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey) and for Reading Central (Matt Rodda). I thank the Sell Before We Dai campaign and the Supporters Trust at Reading, whose chair is my constituent. The Football Governance Bill will come too late for Reading, but I am determined that it will be there to protect clubs that find themselves in that invidious position in future. It is a good Bill. It was supported by the Tories in the previous Parliament, and that is why we have picked it up now, yet the Leader of the Opposition insists on opposing it. In her opinion, giving fans a say on how their own clubs are run would be a “waste of money”. Well, in the Tory game of political point scoring, it is fans who stand to lose out. I ask the Minister to speak a little about support for clubs below the national league. Bracknell Town football club has been moved out of Bracknell by its owners, and it would be great to see—

Order. I call Steve Yemm.

14:17:00

In my constituency we are lucky enough to have Mansfield Town, founded in 1897, as our local club. We are currently in English football league one. The Stags, as they are known, have had their ups and downs, but I am pleased to say that the current owners have clearly indicated to me their commitment to our approach to financial sustainability and good governance. The chairman and members of the board have done a great deal of work to secure the future of the club, but I want to take this opportunity, just a few days prior to International Women’s Day, to recognise the work of Carolyn Radford, who has been the chief executive officer since 2011. I am sure that hon. Members will agree that football clubs are often a focal point for communities, and that it is important that we nurture and support grassroots football in our constituencies. I am pleased to say that Mansfield Town does just that through the Radford and Hymas Academy and the Mansfield Town community trust. As the local MP, I wholeheartedly support that work, and I will do whatever I can to support those civic-minded aspirations; I hope they go from strength to strength in the coming years.

14:18:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing the debate. Of course, this is a debate on English football governance, but for the benefit of Hansard I put on record the undebatable fact that Scottish football is the best in the world, because it has the highest per capita live attendance at matches and because of the existence of Falkirk FC. The Football Governance Bill goes a long way to redressing the competition issues that have stained the beautiful game down south. The independent review and the licensing powers to prevent corporate mismanagement will hopefully prevent situations like the one currently facing Reading from happening again, and resolve the runaway inequality in the game. That runaway inequality is something that the Scottish game is definitely not immune to. Failures in corporate governance and financial mismanagement stem from that inequality, as well as from an over-reliance on single owners and, uniquely, the lack of diversification in sources of income in Scotland. More recently, we have seen anti-competitive decisions, such as the Scottish professional football league banning artificial surfaces from only the top flight in Scotland in 2024. Artificial surfaces are far more common in Scotland. The ban will force clubs such as Falkirk, Hamilton or Livi, which is currently in the championship, to fork out £1.5 million extra simply for getting promoted. It will prevent community use and provide barriers for women’s teams and shared ground arrangements. On artificial surfaces, the SPFL must think again.

14:20:00

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. Football in England is not just a sport; it is a way of life. It binds communities together, gives local communities pride and provides opportunities both on and off the pitch, not least to my amazing nephews and my niece. In my constituency, Weston-super-Mare AFC—the Seagulls to its fans—is more than just a football club. It is a social hub, a youth development centre and a lifeline for many. The club charity, Seagulls in the Community, led by trustees Andrew Kynaston, Bridget Bolland and Oli Bliss, leads a wide range of projects that have a direct impact on the lives of people in the town, including a youth club, a disability football team, a dementia café, and a veterans breakfast to name a few. It also opened the doors to the FUCHSIA cancer support group after its previous venue closed. Julie Crowther has been running this group for over 14 years, but without the football club’s willingness to offer up its facilities free of charge, that much-needed community resource might have been forced to close. Football is for everyone, not just the elite. If we want our communities to thrive, we must act now to safeguard the entire football pyramid, so that clubs such as Weston-super-Mare AFC and thousands of others can continue to serve their communities for generations to come.

14:21:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. No one in Ipswich is yet tired of reminding the world that we are now a premier league town. As I like to remind my colleagues in Essex and Norfolk in particular, we are the only premier league town in the east of England too. One of the biggest issues that gets raised with me on the doorstep is the regeneration of our town. Having a financially secure and sustainable football club goes a long way to advancing that agenda. The economic benefits to our town include thousands of people travelling into our town centre and filling up the pubs, restaurants and shops. It has been estimated that premier league status has brought a huge £200 million to our town this season alone. More than that, it speaks to our civic pride and the sense of community that has been brought to our town under the leadership of Mark Ashton off the field and Kieran McKenna on it. That has not always been the case. We, too, have seen our fair share of dark days and what poor leadership does when its rips out the sense of community and the links to businesses, academy players and so on. We have heard many examples today from Coventry, Portsmouth, Derby, Wigan, Reading—the list goes on and on. It is no exaggeration to say that when football clubs run into financial or other off-the-field issues, that impact is not just felt on the economy of the town; it has the potential to rip the heart and soul out of a place too. These clubs are not just commodities; they are our community’s crown jewels. Labour’s Football Governance Bill is a landmark moment for safeguarding a financially sustainable and well-governed football pyramid. If we get it right, the prizes on offer for Ipswich and towns across the country are immense.

14:22:00

I want to briefly tell the story of my local club, Brighton and Hove Albion, which is very much the story of the recent highs and lows of English football. In summary, I have been a Brighton fan for 30 years. The first 15 of those were pretty terrible, but the second 15 have been fantastic. In that time we have played in all four leagues. We were one game away from going out of the football league; now we have spent nearly a decade in the premier league, and we have enjoyed European nights against teams such as Marseille and Ajax. In the dark days we experienced the very worst of ownership: our ground was sold and we ended up playing in Gillingham or in a rented athletics stadium. Despite the gloom, we always had two things on our side. First, we had the strength of our fans who stuck together through thick and thin, raised money, went on marches and did everything we could to keep the club going. Secondly, we found a saviour in new ownership—a Brighton fan and a genius; everything you would want in an owner—in the shape of Tony Bloom. Because of those two things, we have gone through the lottery from the worst to the best of ownership. We heard in the opening speech about the test of the Football Governance Bill being the Reading test, but I want to impose a Brighton test. Could the Bill have stopped the first 15 years of my life, where we experienced the worst of ownership? A second test: will it encourage more owners to come forward who, in the shape of Tony Bloom, are rooted in the community, serve the community and deliver a fantastic football team? I hope very much that the Bill can do both.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

14:24:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this debate and for her diligence in campaigning, along with many others, as she highlighted in her speech, for the future of Reading football club. In the Reading area, including Wokingham, Bracknell and Newbury, the cross-party approach that has united fans and politicians of all political persuasions is to be applauded. I look forward to continuing to work with the hon. Member and others and Reading FC fans on this important issue. Reading football club is a recent story of tragedy for its fans, for its community and for English football. Gone are the glory days of Sir John Madejski, former chairman, who embodied the very definition of what ownership of a football club should look like. I am young enough to remember seeing Roger Smee and Frank Waller in the stands at Elm Park as chairmen of the club. Back then, Reading football club was an institution driven by its owners for the good of the club and for the fans. It promoted close links to the community and with its fans, built a great relationship with schools and was able to deliver premier football quality as well. That makes it more frustrating that it is now a stark contrast to what it was a decade ago and synonymous with the very worst of football club ownership. Dai Yongge is not accessible to fans; nobody knows where he is. He has attempted to asset strip the club and is one of the clearest reasons why Reading football club is being held back from greater success. For example, alleged cash-flow issues under his ownership have caused the late payment of wages, resulting in points deductions. People are just fed up with the way that the club is being run. Take, for example, the saga over Bearwood Park, Reading football club’s training ground in my constituency of Wokingham. This is a state-of-the-art facility that Dai Yongge attempted to sell in early 2024, with no consultation with fans on the decision. All he wanted to do was to get some cash for his business—for himself. Sue Symes of Sell Before We Dai contacted me on a Thursday evening to ask what a clause in the training ground’s planning permission meant. At the time, I was a local councillor for Wokingham borough council. By lunch time the following day, I had a clear answer from council planners: the training ground development had been approved several years before, provided it belonged to Reading football club. Dai Yongge wanted to sell the training ground to Wycombe and further devalue the club. If the training ground was lost, the club was at a significant risk of having no alternative sites to train its squad. I arranged for Reading FC and Wycombe to be reminded of the existence of that all-important clause, and within hours Wycombe had pulled out of the deal. That is just one battle that was won in a war that is hopefully close to concluding. I am pleased to acknowledge Sue Symes’s role in that. Sue can rightly be proud of making sure that the sale of the club’s training ground did not happen, so that the club, the training ground and the stadium could all be sold as a viable concern. The club has been up for sale for more than 500 days, and it may have been close to selling several times. It will hopefully not be long before a sale actually happens, because Dai Yongge has bled the club dry and no one will deny that he must go. The issue does not, unfortunately, end with Reading. Football clubs are not just luxury goods for millionaires to buy and sell like yachts; they are important to fans and are part of the DNA of their local communities. It is therefore good to see successive Governments bringing forward important legislation to establish an independent football regulator, which will provide a vital bulwark to protect our national game. I seriously hope that the new regulator will consider the case of Reading FC and other teams, such as Bury and Macclesfield Town, and take the time to speak to fans and learn the lived lessons of fans faced with an agonising process to retain their club’s assets and identity. The Football Governance Bill is currently making its way through the other place. I want to record my support for the rules in the Bill requiring an assessment of the honesty and integrity of owners and officers. Importantly, the Bill also includes provisions to monitor owners and hold them accountable during their time in office, rather than just before they make their purchase. That will hopefully prevent any future Dai Yongge from taking root in a football club. I do, however, hope that the Bill will go further to protect assets beyond just stadiums. Protections should be extended to other club-owned assets, particularly training grounds but also car parks, hotels and other land owned by the club. I would greatly appreciate it if the Minister answered a few questions. Will the independent football regulator, once set up, have any formal duty to engage with clubs that have faced hardships? What steps are the Government taking to strengthen the protection of club assets? Will the Minister reflect on whether the new Football Governance Bill, in its current form, would have prevented the takeover of Reading by Dai Yongge? In conclusion, football is not just any other sport; it is an integral part of the fabric of our cities, towns and villages in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. That is what drives passion and desire among so many people. Quite simply, they want the five tiers of professional football to function because, from their perspective, if football cannot function, then how can society? Finally, I pay tribute to all those fans who have tirelessly campaigned on this issue, including the groups Sell Before We Dai and Supporters Trust at Reading, and people such as Sue Symes, Adam Jones and Ian Morton. They have all taken time from their personal lives to save a team about which they care deeply, and they are a wonderful example to our community.

I call the Opposition spokesperson.

14:32:00

It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) for securing this important debate. As we all know, football is more than just a game. It is a passion that unites millions across the country, from all backgrounds and communities. It is woven into the fabric of many communities, from grassroots clubs such as Foots Cray Lions and Welling United in my constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup, to the premier league giants and those seeking to rival them. Football and rugby were key to my own development as a teenager and although I do not get to play as often as I would like any more, sport taught me key life skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership, and taught me the positivity that comes from healthy competition. When I talk about football, it is personal to me. I want our beautiful game enjoyed for generations to come in the spirit of healthy competition. Football is nothing without its fans and the people who make football work throughout the year. Although there are many debates to be had about the independent regulator in the months ahead, when the governance Bill finally returns to the Commons it is imperative that Members across the House do not lose sight of what a success story the evolution of English football is, in both the men’s and the women’s games. The premier league, for example, is the most watched competition in the world, attracting the best players and managers, and generating significant economic and cultural benefits to the United Kingdom. The EFL is also thriving, with attendances in the championship, league one and league two surpassing many European peers. But with the immense popularity and influence of this great British success story comes a responsibility for both the clubs and the governing bodies to ensure that the game remains viable, fair and open for future generations. In recent years, some clubs have suffered financial distress or, in the case of one of my local clubs, Charlton Athletic, they have been owned by someone who clearly did not have the club’s interests at heart. Although we must be realistic about the global economics of football and the fierce competition from rival leagues, including the Saudi league, we cannot ignore the consequences on fans, communities and the wider football pyramid when clubs are run badly. I have great sympathy for Reading football club and the fans in the Public Gallery, because I see many similarities with the challenges that Charlton has faced in recent years. That is why the previous Government introduced a more measured, balanced and proportionate Football Governance Bill, which sought to ensure that English football was more financially sustainable for the future and more accountable to fans. It also sought to stop the breakaway European super league. However, football clubs must live within their means. Clear and responsible financial frameworks are already in place within the premier league and the EFL, and are supposed to be overseen by the FA and the leagues. However, the FA is often overlooked in debates in this House—it has hardly been mentioned today—and in the other place, as many seem to forget that there are already many football regulations in place and that the FA and the leagues are the regulators. That is even before we consider the role of the likes of UEFA and FIFA, and we understand that UEFA has raised concerns with the Government about interference in our national sport.

The hon. Gentleman said that the previous Bill introduced by the Conservative Government was measured, and the Conservative party now opposes this version of the Bill. Could he state, really clearly for everyone here, what measures have changed that his party does not agree with?

I am happy to answer that question. The Bill is still changing in the other place. The hon. Gentleman may not be aware, but amendments from the Conservative party have been accepted by the Government; I will come on to one of those amendments on growth of the game. I appreciate the enthusiasm of new Government Members as they try to please their Whips and the Government, but amendments are still being made to this Bill in the other place. I understand their eagerness, but we have not seen the final Bill. There are challenges in football, but we must not lose sight of the importance of the independence of the sport. We must prevent Government interference, which will assuredly diminish the unique nature of the game and its ability to adapt to changing circumstances. A careful balance must be struck: regulation must not address just short-term issues; it should serve the sport’s long-term interests and it should not deter vital investment. We should also acknowledge the progress in football governance over recent years. The Football Association, the Premier League and other key stakeholders have worked tirelessly to address issues such as financial fair play and racism and to improve safety standards at grounds. If we as legislators impose a blanket, top-down regulatory framework, we risk stifling the innovation and flexibility that has helped football to evolve. It was this innovation that allowed the premier league to come into existence in 1992, and that has provided world-class football in United Kingdom for more than three decades. It begs the question: would the premier league now be banned by this new Bill coming from the Labour party? We cannot risk a return to the football of the 1980s, when English clubs were banned from Europe. Members may not be familiar with a letter from 2 September 2024 from the UEFA general secretary to the new Secretary of State raising concerns about the Bill. When we have requested sight of these concerns, the Government have denied us access. What are the Government hiding from football fans? Are there risks that our clubs, and even our national teams, may not be able to compete? Please can we have sight of this letter from UEFA raising these concerns? We have written to request it, and we have requested it in the other place. Members of Parliament must have complete transparency on what they are being asked to vote on and the risks of the Bill. But it is not all own goals from the Labour party. It is welcome that this Government have now accepted some of the Conservative amendments in the other place. The hon. Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) asked a question about that, and I have an example for him: the Government’s regulator must now avoid any adverse effects on the financial growth of English football; we will closely monitor how it does that as the Bill develops. Equally, we have to be mindful of unintended consequences on clubs, fans and ticket prices. The Bill will increase the regulatory burden on all clubs. One football chief executive has already said: “We’ve two choices with those costs. We either stop doing some of the things we’re already doing, whether that’s academy, women’s, girls’ football or whatever, or we pass those costs on to fans.” Members must acknowledge that football is a delicate international ecosystem that is at huge risk if the Government get this wrong. As we look around at the various challenges facing football today, from financial stability to governance issues and from player welfare to fan engagement, one thing becomes clear: football is at a crossroads. The time has come for us to empower the sport’s governing bodies to use their expertise to lead the way and chart a course that puts the game and fans first. As the official Opposition, we will continue to closely scrutinise what the Government’s expanded new Bill does, and try to limit the number of own goals they score.

14:40:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) on securing this important debate. I begin by acknowledging that English football is world-leading. As well as sitting at the heart of communities up and down the country, English clubs have fans in every continent, and attract the best players from across the world. The premier league is one of our country’s best exports. Along with the EFL and the national league, it contributes billions of pounds to our economy and supports thousands of jobs, as has been outlined across the House in this debate. Its success and infrastructure support and inspire the next generation of footballing talent in English towns, villages and cities. It is because of this success that the Government want the sport to thrive for generations to come, securing the financial sustainability of the football pyramid. My hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley, who represents Reading football club, has been a vocal supporter and campaigner on the governance and sustainability of football. She is right to raise those concerns. Reading, like so many of the other clubs that have been spoken about today, is an example of why this debate and the legislation are so important. Calls for change to secure the sustainability of football in this place date back to the cross-party Select Committee report of 2011. We then saw the ill fated super league attempt that resulted in the fan-led review. The review, led by former Conservative Sports Minister Dame Tracey Crouch, identified the need for an independent football regulator. I thank and pay tribute to her for her commitment and work. I have been pleased to be part of the women’s parliamentary football team with her, alongside so many other amazing women. The previous Conservative Government published their Football Governance Bill—their legislation on this matter—on 18 March 2024, just less than a year ago. How time flies! That continued the cross-party consensus that existed until very recently. Members on the Government Benches and Conservative Benches were elected on manifestos that committed to bringing forward an independent football regulator. We on the Government side of the House are following through on that commitment and are on the side of football fans. I will take this opportunity to address some of the specific questions put to me in this debate; if I cannot go into much detail, I will be happy to meet hon. Members. The hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) has taken a great interest in this subject. He asked about a second look. A new Government Lords amendment would require the Secretary of State to review the whole regime after five years. More specifically, if an owner were found to be unsuitable by the regulator, they would have the right to request a review of that decision. That review would be taken by the board. There is also a right to appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

The decision to take FA cup replays away, for example, was taken by the FA itself without any consultation; that is the difficulty. That is a prime example of the heritage of the game being taken away, and that mechanism would not quite address that. I will be happy to meet the Minister to talk through an idea that may well fit.

Great; I will be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and I am really sympathetic to his points, but the Government cannot and do not want to be involved in all issues, and the regulator will not be able to cover them all. However, let us meet after the debate to discuss his ideas. My hon. Friends the Members for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) and Bracknell (Peter Swallow) mentioned non-league football. I visited Basingstoke during the general election. Non-league governance is for the FA, as I set out in the Adjournment debate secured last week by my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore). I appreciate all the challenges that have been outlined as I have seen them first hand in my own constituency. The Liberal Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones), posed a number of specific questions. I will not comment on individual cases, but I was pleased to meet him before Christmas and will address some of his points later in my speech. To answer the shadow Minister’s specific question, I have met UEFA, we have a good relationship and it has not raised any issues. We do not publish private correspondence, just as his Government did not. Growth is central to this Government’s aims.

I have to say that it is very curious that we know that this letter exists—it has been confirmed in the other place that it exists—and yet the Government repeatedly refuse to publish it, despite the potential impact that political interference with the governance of sport could have. Why does the Minister not just ask UEFA for permission to publish the letter and give it to Members?

The hon. Gentleman is an experienced Member of this House who I know spoke on Second Reading of the Bill. His Government, like this one, did not publish private correspondence, but I can absolutely assure the House that I have met UEFA and it does not have any issues. As the Member of Parliament for Barnsley South, I know how important a club is to the community. Barnsley FC is a huge part of my town, and the community trust does amazing work, but Barnsley football club narrowly avoided administration 20 years ago. Football clubs mean everything to local people, with family, friends and neighbours coming together to watch games, win or lose. In turn, football would be nothing without its fans. Hon. Members have spoken so well today about what clubs mean to their communities. We have heard from so many: Reading, Aylesbury United, Oxford United, Brighton and Hove, Luton Town, Grimsby Town, Norwich City, Chesterfield, Coventry City, Port Vale FC, Derby County FC, Morecambe FC, Carlisle United FC, Basingstoke Town, Bolton Wanderers, Bracknell Town, Mansfield Town and Weston-super-Mare. That really shows the strength of debate up and down this country and across this House. Despite bigger revenues than ever coming into the game, too many loyal fans have had their attention forced away from the pitch and into the troubles of malicious ownership, mishandled finances and ultimately the worry that their cherished clubs might be lost.

While the Tories and Reform might be happy to see rogue owners running roughshod over fans and players across the country, does the Minister agree that this Labour Government will not allow fans to be taken for fools any longer?

My hon. Friend is right: the Government are on the side of football fans. That is why we have introduced the Football Governance Bill: to put fans back at the heart of the game.

Given the last intervention and the ongoing auditions for Parliamentary Private Secretary roles among Labour Members, I must push the Minister: at what point will introducing a regulator and the measures that she is discussing lower ticket prices for football fans?

The hon. Gentleman should know that that is a commercial decision, but we have made a change so that fans will be consulted. We think that it is the right change. Our Football Governance Bill will put fans back at the heart of the game. It will protect club heritage, take on rogue owners and secure the financial sustainability of English football.

Will the Minister give way?

I have been very generous with my time and have already taken one intervention from the hon. Gentleman, so I will make progress. Too many clubs have faced the precipice. There have been more than 60 instances of administration since 1992. That is simply unacceptable, so in the short time that I have left today I will turn to the detail of our legislation. The Bill will introduce a new regulator for the game. It is intended to cover the top five levels of the men’s game. There will be strengthened tests for owners and directors. It will make clubs more financially resilient and will put fans back at the heart of their clubs. This is designed to be a light-touch regulator. At a very basic level, owners need to do three things: be an appropriate owner, have a sensible business plan and have proper engagement with fans on key issues. I will take each in turn. Being an appropriate owner means that club custodians must be suitable; we are protecting fans from irresponsible owners. Having a sensible business plan means that clubs will need clear financial plans, with detail on risk management and resource plans for owners. Having proper engagement with fans on key issues means setting a minimum standard for fan engagement. We are ensuring protections on changes to club crests, home kit and club names and giving fans a voice in the day-to-day running of their club. Clubs will need a licence to play. They will not be able to join closed-shop breakaway leagues or move around without proper consultation. A football-led solution is always the preferred outcome to financial distribution. In the Bill Committee on the previous Bill, Dame Tracey Crouch rightly said that “distributions are an issue for football” but that if no solution is found, it is “important for backstop powers to be there to intervene”––[Official Report, Football Governance Public Bill Committee, 21 May 2024; c. 234.] If a football-led solution is not reached, the regulator will be ready to step up, if asked, to facilitate a solution as a last resort. The state of the game report will underpin that, informing the regulator’s work through a broad review of the financial health and economic issues in football at any given time. As I have stated more than once, the Bill is very similar to its previous iteration, but we have made some moderate changes. Fans will have a greater voice and will be consulted on changes to ticket prices. We have brought more clarity and certainty to the backstop, so all issues relevant to redistribution can be considered. By removing the provision on following Government foreign policy, we are making the regime more independent. The Bill is a historic piece of legislation that has been developed over several years, including by the previous Government, who recognised the need to regulate. Indeed, the Conservative manifesto said: “We will introduce laws to ensure our fans never again face the threat of clubs in England joining breakaway closed-shop competitions and giving them more of a voice through the Independent Football Regulator.”

I am about to conclude, so I will not give way. I believe that the Bill will protect and promote the sustainability of English football in the interests of fans and the local communities it serves. Given the urgent issues that I and other hon. Members have highlighted today, we are determined to make sure that the regulator is up and running as soon as possible. I thank hon. Members for contributing to this huge debate, which has shown how much the House wants to see the regulator introduced.

14:51:00

I thank all hon. Members who have made speeches or interventions today. I also thank the Minister for her response and reassurance that she and this Government will continue to take seriously the real and pressing need for better football governance in this country. I am glad that she mentioned this Government’s amendments and additions to the Bill, particularly concerning fan consultation. I think we can all agree that we are here today in this Chamber because of the fans we represent. Many hon. Members have brought up the social value of clubs and the community value that they bring to us. As my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (Dan Aldridge) pointed out, it is rare in any other walk of life to find a club that spans youth clubs and elderly people’s clubs and does work across the spectrum of ages and backgrounds. My hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) described how much of a presence her local club has in her town. My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) spoke about how his local club, Port Vale, received an award for its community value, and he described the value of the cohesion that a football club can bring as a focal point for the community. My hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge), who has worked at length with her local club the Shrimps, described how clubs can bring people together. I recognise that Morecambe football club faces a severely urgent need for an independent regulator. Because of that urgency, I was actually quite disappointed to hear the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French), describe the history of the Bill, but then sidestep that history and seem to oppose the current Bill. I also note that he did not respond to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) about why he had changed his mind. For many clubs across the country, we need regulation sooner rather than later, as my hon. Friends the Members for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson), for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) and for Harlow (Chris Vince) pointed out. Every day we wait means another day that the staff of Reading football club forgo their wages and fans forgo certainty. My neighbour the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones), who described this as a cross-party issue. I urge Opposition Members to maintain the cross-party consensus that was built over the last Parliament, when we all identified the need for independent football regulation. I recognise the concerns voiced by the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) and the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Luke Evans) about the effects of a new regulator. I see where they are coming from, but I would argue that regulation can only increase international business confidence in the integrity of our football pyramid. There have been legal challenges already in the past few decades about the collective selling in the premier league, and I believe that better governance would reassure all those looking on that the public benefit argument has been sufficiently thought through. More regulation would mean more stability across the pyramid and would prevent the situation we are in today, under which so many Members in this room have seen their local clubs go into administration, and which the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) experienced when he was the chair of Southampton and it went into administration. For those clubs that have experienced administration, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) described, the impact on fans and on staff is immense. My hon. Friend the Member for Luton South and South Bedfordshire (Rachel Hopkins) described how fans can rescue a club from administration, but so few manage to go down that route and emerge successfully. My 90 minutes is drawing to a close, and there is no extra time for us in this match.

Will the hon. Lady give way?

Order. Interventions are not taken in wind-ups.

The referee is very clear that I cannot give way. I pay tribute to those hon. Members who mentioned the importance of non-league clubs and of Scottish clubs, which are not covered by English football regulation. However, given that this is a Backbench Business debate, as I remind the shadow Minister, we can cover all topics that we deem fit. Football is not just a business, yet it has to endure as a business. Clubs are not just commodities; they are central to our community. I thank all fans watching this debate, in Parliament and beyond, and our local fan groups in Reading, Sell Before We Dai and the Supporters Trust at Reading. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the financial sustainability and governance of English football.

14:56:00