Should Labour go further on football reform?

“As a party, Labour should take great pride in the fact that we initiated Supporters Direct, but now is the time to go further.” These sentiments, expressed in a recent article for Progress by Steve Rotheram MP, hark back to a time where the landscape was somewhat different for the Labour party, but similar in many ways to that faced by football supporters in 2012.

The Football Taskforce was established soon after Labour came to power in 1997, with the task of producing three reports on how football could be improved. Then, as now, the levels of unsustainable debt swilling around the game were of great concern to many, as was the often-marginalised status of supporters.

It was from this second point that Supporters Direct (SD) emerged. Announced at the 1999 Labour conference and officially launched in January 2000, SD began working to a business plan that envisaged the establishment of 50 Supporters’ Trusts (constituted as fully democratic Community Benefit Societies and regulated by the Financial Services Authority) over three years.

It soon became clear that the initial estimate was conservative at best, and that many football supporters across the UK wished to come together under simple, democratic principles, and push for increased influence at their club. Since then, over 170 have been established, with 25 fully owning or controlling their local club, over 100 in possession of shareholding, and over 60 sitting on the board of directors at their club, representing the views of their members and the local community. Over 300,000 people in the UK are a member of a Supporters’ Trust, and collectively the Trust movement has raised over £30 million of new finance for the game since 2000. SD’s funding over the same period has been £5 million.

Meanwhile, football has continued to struggle with unsustainable spending, and long-standing governance issues. In January 2011, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson described the game as “the worst-governed sport in the country, without a doubt”; and a July report from the Select Committee for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport reinforced this notion, delivering a number of long-overdue recommendations for reform.

Endorsed by the Government in October, it outlined the need to reform the Football Association board “to carry out its responsibilities effectively and meet the future challenges of the game”; the introduction of “a formal licensing model imposed rigorously and consistently throughout professional English football”; and “means of giving properly constituted supporters trusts, or consortia which include supporters trusts, an opportunity to make a successful matching bid for a club that has gone into administration.”

The report was widely welcomed by the Supporters’ Trust movement, which has had to overcome significant legal and bureaucratic hurdles in order to achieve its current success. David Wright MP summed up the feelings of many on March 22^nd, when he put the following question to Mr Robertson in the House: “the key issue is supporter ownership of clubs, which is absolutely crucial. At AFC Telford United, we have a superb model of club ownership by supporters. What more is the Minister’s Department going to do to model, with clubs and owners, new structures for supporter ownership of clubs?”

It was also a question directed at the football authorities. In February of this year, Supporters Direct launched their Key Principles for Club Licensing in England at the House of Commons, in an event attended by over 40 Members and featuring a speech from Tom Greatrex MP (himself a founder member of the Fulham Supporters’ Trust). The proposals call for the introduction of a model influenced by that followed in Germany, where the Bundesliga has had the highest average attendance per match in Europe for the past nine seasons, and an average ticket price of under €20.

Unfortunately, to date the Football Association, Premier League and Football League have shown little appetite for initiating the changes that are so crucial to the long-term health of the game. Mr Robertson has sent their response (published on March 9th) back to the Committee for consideration, and it is vital that the issue of football governance reform remains on the agenda; lest another opportunity to improve the health of our national game slips away.

Ben Shave is a Development Officer at Supporters Direct.