The motion reads to the next meeting of xxxxx Council (xx xxxxx 2023):

Motion – Time for a fairer future for football. Time for Fair Game

Council believes that football, the national game in the UK, is currently in crisis.

Frequently bad management has gone unnoticed or ignored and clubs are run unsustainably, putting at risk all the history, heritage, and economic benefit they bring to an area – often in pursuit of short-term gain. The financial flow in football is also deeply flawed and encourages clubs to overspend to compete.

Council believes that football clubs are not ordinary businesses; they are historic sporting institutions that are both a civic and community asset, and a source of pride and unity, in their hometown or city.

Council therefore supports Fair Game’s national campaign to reform the way football is managed and run, specifically its call for: 

  • A truly independent regulator for the sport free of vested interests;

  • Football clubs to be recognised as key parts of local communities;

  • The regulator to ensure fans are given the final say on any proposed change to a club’s ‘crown jewels’, including the club’s name, nickname, colours, badge and the geographical location from where the club plays;

  • The regulator to ensure a fairer financial flow in football that closes the divides between divisions, rewards well-run clubs, and encourages investment in local infrastructure and community programmes; and

  • To ensure the regulator provides adequate support for our clubs to adjust to a new regulatory regime.

Council also notes parliamentary activity to legislate the game and the incoming football regulator represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to resolve these issues.

Council therefore resolves to:

  • Declare its support for Fair Game, and call on other councils to join us in our support.

  • Ask the Council’s representatives to encourage other like-minded councils to support Fair Game

  • Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Minister for Sport, our local Members of Parliament, and the Chair of the Local Government Association Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, to lobby for the following to be included in the new remit of the Independent Regulator:

Football’s financial flow (particularly over: proportion of broadcast revenues given by the Premier League, the abolition of parachute payments, and the allocation of funds from the Premier League);

Fans to be given the right to veto any change in name, nickname, home club colours, badge and geographical location of the club;

Owners’ and Directors’ Test to include an ‘ethics’ dimension, particularly around human rights;

To have stronger powers to implement and enforce governance; and

Measurement of equality standards and environmental standards.

Proposed by:

Seconded by: