THE Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights, Alison McGovern, has called on the Government to ensure that any new legislation honours the sport’s history, traditions and supporters – and makes life difficult for bad owners.
Her comments came in an exclusive wide-ranging interview with Fair Game broadcaster Matt Roberts.
The MP for Wirral South said: “Football has extra responsibility because we all belong to a football club, they are our identity, where you come from, where our history is – the people who love us and care for us.
“We need to make football a bad environment for those who don’t want to live up to that responsibility.”
McGovern, who was Shadow Sports Minister from April 2020 to December 2021, added: “We all know football is broken.
“[Having] financial sustainability at the heart of the regulator is really crucial. Everyone in the game should be operating on the same sustainability principles.
“[We need] a system of licensing, so you only can be a football club if you stick to certain rules. What are those rules?
“First is financial sustainability. Apply tests to what kind of person can own a football club. Are they a responsible person? Do their behaviours show they are responsible? And then we monitor that over time so that it is not just a tick when you buy a club which allows you do what you want afterwards. It has to be a constant thing.
“The second set of tests is how you operate as a club. You need a regulator than can lift up the bonnet of a football club look at what is going on in the engine, see what the financial flows look like and say yes that is a sustainable model or no that isn’t a sustainable model. And the regulator is the arbitrator saying yes you can operate or no you can’t.”
