Welcome to Fair Game week
Fair Game Blogs Editor Adam Harwood introduces the inaugural Fair Game week. Let’s change football for ever…
It’s been a time of both strong progress and continued challenges in the year since the thankfully fabled ‘European Super League’ was swiftly put in its place by fan power.
Since then, there’s been hints – at least – that football may yet be able to put its troubles of poor governance and short-termism behind it once and for all.
The much-maligned Owners and Directors Test, while not especially amended in itself, has at least been put back in the spotlight given the necessary ownership changes at Chelsea and Everton, demanded by the brutal actions of Putin’s Russia in the Ukraine.
The return of fans in numbers after a season-long hiatus has given clubs the opportunity to work closer than ever with supporters, supplying initiatives for the benefit of the wider community.
Best of all, the Tracey Crouch-led review of football governance, published in November, acknowledged that football was at a crossroads, with the ESL just one of many illustrations of the game’s ‘deep-seated problems’, and set out a clear commitment to deliver a fairer system.
But it’s not exactly all been plain sailing.
Just ask fans at Derby County, who have endured season-long wranglings over their ownership and financial stability, which is (at the time of writing) highly likely to cost them their place in the Championship, despite the best efforts of Wayne Rooney’s team.
Bradford City and Crawley Town have also been subject to proposed takeovers by unknown parties, the latter now owned by a cryptocurrency firm – a move that has caused unease among the Sussex club’s fanbase.
Meanwhile, the chasm between rich and poor grows ever wider. A near record £295 million was splashed out by Premier League clubs in the January transfer window, suggesting that the challenges caused by Covid-19 have not especially scratched their finances. And 52% of clubs in our top four divisions were found to be ‘technically insolvent’ in a new study we commissioned.
The Crouch report, on the other hand, reminded us that clubs have fallen into administration on 62 occasions since the formation of the Premier League; and yet only once (Portsmouth in 2009/10) has a top-level club been affected.
So the campaign very much continues. 13-20 April saw the first ever Fair Game Week – central to which has been securing Government commitment to reforming football as part of the Queen’s Speech, to be delivered on Tuesday 10 May.
We’re close to seeing significant reform that could revolutionise the national game and help secure the long-term future of ‘smaller’ clubs throughout the country.
The Crouch report supported Fair Game’s own calls for the creation of an independent regulator to oversee a licencing system for clubs; resolving the iniquity and unfairness of parachute payments; and ensuring more equitable distribution of football-generated revenue across the pyramid.
Now it’s time for these ideas to become reality. Should they do so, then we will be treated to fair play off the field as much as on it, with integrity, sustainability, and community right at the heart.
To deliver lasting change we need legislation. Reach out to your MP now