Independent English football regulator given green light by MPs

New York Times

3 days ago

The bill to introduce English football's first independent regulator was approved in the House of Commons on Tuesday by a majority of 415 votes in favour to 98 against, making its passage into law this summer a formality.
In a lively third reading of the bill, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy and sports minister Stephanie Peacock said football fans had waited long enough for a government to protect clubs from rogue owners. They also poked fun at the opposition benches for the Conservative Party's U-turn on independent regulation, despite their active support for the idea when they were in government, and pointed out that politicians from all parties had been talking about this for more than a decade.
Advertisement
'We are doing this for you, the best fans in the world,' Nandy told a well-attended debate.
'For too long you've been treated as an afterthought, at best, and a nuisance, at worst, in a game that's only great because of you.'
She then said the bill was for the supporters of clubs that have either gone bust, such as Bury and Macclesfield, or have got very close to the precipice, such as Wigan, Bolton, Derby, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe, the National League side that faces a very uncertain future as a proposed takeover is being held up by their current owner.
While the vote was another resounding victory for the government on this bill's passage through parliament, the shadow sports minister Louie French did not go down without swinging.
The Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup repeatedly accused the government of risking English football's financial health by 'replacing the risk of irresponsible owners with reckless political interference', saying the regulator would tie clubs up in red tape and had too much power.
French also clashed with Nandy over his claim that the government's choice to chair the independent regulatory, veteran media executive and Labour Party donor David Kogan, was a 'government crony'.
Nandy hit back hard at this line of attack, noting that Kogan's name was on a long list of candidates she inherited from the last Conservative government, which included a Conservative Party donor, and that Kogan had been appointed to chair public broadcaster Channel 4 by the Conservatives. But she was warned by the speaker of the house for suggesting that French was displaying 'staggering hypocrisy', as that would be 'unparliamentary language'.
French, however, did attempt to add an amendment to the bill that would have ended the ban on fans being allowed to drink alcohol within sight of the pitch in the top five tiers of men's football in England. The amendment was defeated by 178 votes in support to 338 against.
Advertisement
The government's stance on this idea is more nuanced than the vote would suggest, however. In fact, the last government approved a pilot scheme to test if alcohol could be made as available at football games as it is at cricket, rugby and all other sports, as well music events held at football stadiums. Those pilots did not happen, though, and the Labour government is keen to push on with them.
The Liberal Democrats also proposed an amendment to the bill that would have seen 10 Premier League games a season ring-fenced for broadcast on free-to-air channels, plus the League Cup final and all of the EFL's play-off finals.
While this idea would undoubtedly be a crowd-pleaser, it would also almost certainly scupper English football's business model, which is highly dependent on the large fees it receives from the likes of Sky Sports and TNT Sports in return for exclusive live rights. It is also hard to think of a better example of the type of government interference that the bill's critics, most notably the Premier League, have been warning against.
As a result, the government did not support the Liberal Democrat idea and it was defeated by 340 votes to 86.
The bill, without these two defeated amendments, now goes back to the House of Lords for its consent to the small number of changes the House of Commons did make to the original draft, which should be quickly nodded through, leaving only the final formality of royal assent before it becomes law. After such a smooth passage through parliament, the government is confident this will happen before Westminster's summer recess, which starts 22 July.