[Football] The Football Governance Bill

[vegster]

I think that the government should start " regulating" its self before starting on football. Plenty of other things for them to sort out if only they had the brains.....thinking about it, wouldn't Johnson make an apt front man for a football club buy out.. ? " We will build a new 100,000 seat stadium for the club, free pies on match day, Champions League football in 18 months.. "

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

i dont understand why anyone thinks redistribution would solve anything. financial mismanagement causes collapse, more money just means more spending before that point.

I tend to agree with this.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I think that the government should start " regulating" its self before starting on football.

This

 

[Pevenseagull]

Being a cynic here, are the government looking for a slice of the pie ?

looks like a job for Nadine Dorries.

 

[BBassic]

That bit about blocking clubs from joining closed competitions "which are judged to harm the domestic game" is pretty clever wording.

It's not outright saying it'll never be allowed to happen. Which is what the stance should be. Easy to imagine something similar to when the PL was formed where the regulator is placated by a trickle down of funds handily sidestepping the 'harm' bit.

Reserving judgement though. Could just be the cynic in me.

 

[aolstudios]

Kay Burley ripped the minister a new one on this earlier on Sky News.
He didn't sound any better than that tosser from FIFA tbh

 

[Hotchilidog]

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Sadly as far as ownership is concerned the horse has already bolted, the dirty money is already here. Given the ownership at Newcastle & City human rights can not be used as something to be considered when applying the fit and proper persons test.

I do think it could aid clubs further down the pyramid being taken over by charlatan's though.

In principle I think this is a positive development, but in practice I remain sceptical as to its effectiveness. Let's hope the regulator is a force for good.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

For many reasons this is a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time. Does any one actually think this will come to anything?

 

[attila]

Great news if football is going to have a regulator - as long as it has the teeth of a killer whale and a determination to redistribute the disgusting wealth of the PL around the game as a whole. No-one needs £200,000 a week or an £80 million transfer fee. Feed the grass roots!

And if any clampdown meant that many of the players sitting on the bench at places like Chelsea go and play the game they are supposed to love somewhere else in the world, great. There is no reason for most of the top players to be in the PL, nor for money to trump brilliant stewardship and creativity in recruitment as a reason for a club’s success.

Modern football is sick. Regulation to ensue fairness is the cure - in football as in life.

But - a huge but - I don’t think this government, of all governments, will do this, and it’s just another focus group suggested clueless sop to the ‘Red Wall’ idea along with 30p Lee’s promotion. The ideas come from the FSA, not the Sports Minister, of course.

 

[Brovion]

i dont understand why anyone thinks redistribution would solve anything. financial mismanagement causes collapse, more money just means more spending before that point.

Sadly I think that's a valid point. Increasing the income stream for a badly-run club just means it'll go bust owing millions rather than thousands - it's like giving an alcoholic more beer. What is needed more is a mechanism to stop clubs from spending money they haven't got in order to reach league positions they can't sustain.

And in case anyone's thinking "yeah you would say that now Brighton have their snouts in the PL trough" it's something I've banged on about many times in the past on here, ever since we were in League Two at Withdean.

 

[um bongo molongo]

I think this Government are absolutely horrific in so many ways. However, I have to applaud them on this even if they do sell the ‘anti-super league’ bit as ‘anti-EU’. Well done Tracey Crouch.

That’s pretty much how I feel about it. There are good and bad people in both Government and opposition and I’d put Tracey Crouch in the ‘good camp’. I have no doubt all their good intentions will be ruined by some expensive lawyers re: the Super League, but at least they’re trying.

 

[super-seagulls]

Great news if football is going to have a regulator - as long as it has the teeth of a killer whale and a determination to redistribute the disgusting wealth of the PL around the game as a whole. No-one needs £200,000 a week or an £80 million transfer fee. Feed the grass roots!

And if any clampdown meant that many of the players sitting on the bench at places like Chelsea go and play the game they are supposed to love somewhere else in the world, great. There is no reason for most of the top players to be in the PL, nor for money to trump brilliant stewardship and creativity in recruitment as a reason for a club’s success.

Modern football is sick. Regulation to ensue fairness is the cure - in football as in life.

But - a huge but - I don’t think this government, of all governments, will do this, and it’s just another focus group suggested clueless sop to the ‘Red Wall’ idea along with 30p Lee’s promotion. The ideas come from the FSA, not the Sports Minister, of course.

But they won’t introduce a salary cap or transfer fee limits.
They also will not regulate agents!
Shame.

 

[GT49er]

Here’s the BBC story (Athletic is paywalled / subscription, no idea why the OP picked that to share).

Football regulator: UK government confirms new independent body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64536218

Here are the bullet points from that article.

View attachment 157498
Every single one of those is a very good thing and what many on here have called for. Perhaps this much maligned government have finally got something right?

Come on, you know you can't say that on NSC! Is there a facility for Mods to give themselves a short ban?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

you wont like it once it happens.

energy and water are heavily regulated, doesn't stop problems occuring, just means someone imposing a fine on some organisation after the fact.

Yes but they were also privatized by Maggi Thatch. That's what buggered up energy and water. The analogy doesn't hold.

Just been listening to Tracy Crouch. She responded to a Newcastle fan complaining about the state ownership of Newcastle. She responded by saying that Disney, Uber and goodness knows what else have part ownership by states, and China is all over everything. Newcastle man replied, correctly in my view, that having some shares is different from having total control. He might have added that HMG eventually vetoed the Chinese state taking over one of our major companies (something to do with telecoms - I forget the details), so there ought to be some scope for preventing the more challenging take overs.

So, bottom line, the fit and proper ownership test may be strengthened so that a spiv with no money can't buy a near-bankrupt club for a pound, only to make it properly bankrupt months later (Bury), but it won't stop sports washing.

But if it nips in the but the break away super leagues, as @Guinness Boy pointed out, I'm in.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I’d be 100% in favour of the big six buggering off and forming a European Super League, what a shame

Did you have the same view when we were in fifth place?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Fans power to stop clubs changing badges and colours…is this really an issue? I know there’s a few isolated cases from time to time but

It was a massive issue in Hull. It was also a massive issue at Carduff.

I am not bothered by small beer when here is also some big beer.

 

[Javeaseagull]

I heard Sky reporting that David Sullivan was against it because the Government can’t run anything properly and it will cost a fortune. I thought, fair enough, doesn’t sound like a good idea to me just the Government looking for votes. Then later I heard Paul Barber say that it was necessary because football had not regulated itself properly. If it’s good enough for PBOBE it’s good enough for me!

 

[Easy 10]

Personally I wouldn't trust this complete and utter weapons-grade clusterfuck of a government to regulate a whelk stall.

 

[SAC]

I love the idea of the government having an input into football, they are doing such a good job with everything else. Perhaps we could get Colin Moynihan back?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

i dont understand why anyone thinks redistribution would solve anything. financial mismanagement causes collapse, more money just means more spending before that point.

The single biggest driver of stupid salaries and transfer fees beyond the means of the club paying them is the difference in prize money between divisions. It works up and down the leagues and with getting into Europe but the best example is the clubs trying top get into the PL from the Championship.

Think about 50 years ago (or 30 or 60 or whatever). Clubs still wanted to be promoted to be in a division higher, but there was no incentive to spend 100%+ of turnover to get up a division and so clubs didn’t do it. (clubs still went bankrupt of course, but that was more down to general mismanagement than the chairman betting the whole farm on one promotion season).

My view is that greater redistribution will reduce the massive financial disparities between divisions and thus the likelihood of clubs going under. I’m not sure this regulator will achieve it, but it’s the outcome we should be looking at.

There’s also some real, there but for the grace of god stuff with us as well. We spent way more than we could afford to get up 6 years ago. We gambled and were one of the winners, but had Knocky done his cruciate at the start of the promotion season or some other misfortune befell us, we could have ended in a very deep financial hole, as some of the other clubs who couldn’t get up have done.

I'm not really comfortable with us as PL fans, when we were division 4 fans, looking down the leagues saying, no point in giving them any money, they will just waste it.