This from Fair Game:
At Fair Game, we proud ourselves on being
club-led. So with the supposed "imminent" arrival of a White Paper on
Football Governance (the final consultative barrier before a Bill can be
introduced), we wanted to check in with our clubs about their current opinions
on the original 10 recommendations made by Tracey Crouch's Fan-Led Review. We
added in two more "distribution based on Sustainability Index" and
"Real-time financial reporting".
Responses came back from owners, CEOs, chairs and board members and the results
were clear - support for all the
recommendations is as strong as ever across all the recommendations.
Top was obvious: football needs an independent regulator and it needs one now.
Then there were issues about the financial flow in football.
Fair Game clubs want to see it in the hands of the regulator and based on an
Index that scores clubs on how well they perform on five measures (financial
sustainability, good governance, equality standards, community engagement and
fan engagement).
Our hope now is to make sure our politicians and the authorities listen. Fair
Game represents 34 clubs across the football pyramid in towns such as
Accrington, Bury, Cambridge, Darlington, Eastbourne, Grimsby, Lincoln, Luton,
Newport and Wimbledon - all marginal seats.
Here are the results in full:
- Creation of an Independent Regulator 9.12 (out of 10: 10 being very important)
- Premier League to make additional, proportionate contributions to further support football 9.06
- Regulator to oversee financial flow in football 8.82
- Distribution of football's finances based on Fair Game's Sustainability Index 8.53
- Regulator to oversee and manage a new Owners and Directors Test 8.47
- Protection of key items of club heritage (colours, name, badge and town the club plays in) 8.41
- Women's football to be treated with parity 8.29
- Real-time financial reporting managed by a regulator 8.18
- New approach to corporate governance 8.00
- Every club to have a committed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy, which is assessed by a regulator 7.41
- Welfare of players exiting the game to be better protected 7.35
- Supporter Shadow Boards 6.29
If you haven't already please do write to your local MP or local council asking them to support Fair Game and advocate for the changes football needs, click either.