Cod Almighty | Diary

Strange times when a CA writer praises a Tory

9 June 2020

Casual Diary spent yesterday evening listening to the podcast on football finance by the excellent @D3D4Football. If you have neither read the proposals put forward by Damien Collins, the Tory MP for Folkestone, and Charlie Methven, co-owner of Sunderland, or listened to the podcast you should.

The report itself got me onside when it described the owners of football clubs as "custodians of a treasured and often totemic part of a community's history and values." This should be written into the memorandum and articles of every football club in the UK. There is no phrase which better encapsulates what a football club is in relation to the community it represents. It also sets out the role of anyone in the privileged position of being on the board of any club.

The abdication of the Football League and FA in their duties to properly run football in general are laid bare. They stand accused of not being fit for purpose, a fact that many fans have known since the mid-1980s when they first began to appease the monied few. The report shows how the management of football is flawed. It highlights how, in effect, the rules require club chairs to vote to censure themselves. It shows how the so-called "fit and proper person" rule and the rules of financial fair play are routinely ignored, with devastating effects for many clubs: most spectacularly Bury FC.

We knew all this, but the report's proposals break new ground. With COVID-19 placing the majority, if not all, clubs in need of a government bailout, the money should come with strings attached. The regulation of clubs' adherence to its own rules is taken away from club owners and placed in the hands of an independent finance authority. Any funds provided would be in the form of a shareholding and come with the right to place independent directors on the board. These directors would have the task of ensuring that the club stayed within the terms of the financial fair play rules. If they have concerns, they would be required to act the whistleblower to the finance authority who would have the power to impose penalties on the guilty. The authority would also vet potential club owners, ensuring that never again could the likes of the former Bury or Bolton owners be allowed anywhere near a football club.

The cherry on the cake of the proposals however is what should happen to the shareholdings taken by the finance authority. The writers advocate that they are sold back to supporters trusts or similar organisations at a below-market rate. The goal is that eventually these shareholdings rise to 51 per cent in line with the German model of Club ownership. In doing so they return clubs to their communities and safeguard against carpetbaggers and fantasists. The money generated from the sales of the initial shareholdings are returned to finance authority and remains in football to help clubs who fall into difficulty in the future.

I have long been an advocate of fan-owned clubs: most vociferously our own. These proposals offer a chance to fans across the leagues to play a fuller role in their clubs. There will obviously be those who point to the risks of fans being just as reckless as some owners. Should the independent directors remain this risk is greatly reduced as to do so would result in punishment. Currently ignoring the rules has no sanction.

There will also be those who say that the financial fair play rules merely cement the already affluent in their positions; this is an obvious flaw in the current distribution of football finance. But with even those at the top of the pyramid now facing financial ruin, there is a chance for reform. Those in charge and those lower down the pyramid should insist that the riches splashed on the Premier League and, to a lesser extent, the second flight become a thing of the past. The more equitable distribution of TV and sponsorship money would not only have the effect of better securing the strength in depth of the league and the clubs in the third and fourth divisions, it would also at least reduce the impetus for clubs to over reach in pursuit of promotion.

At a time when there is talk of great changes as the world emerges from COVID, let's hope that includes football. Given our chair Phil Day's comments, perhaps Grimsby Town could be at the forefront as advocates of reform.

UTM.