Senior politicians flock to back Fair Game call to reboot football
‘Whether it’s on finance, fans or having a truly inclusive game of football, I support all that Fair Game is going to do to change football for the better’
Alison McGovern, Shadow Minister for Sport
JUST a few hours after football moved a step closer to coming home, senior politicians across England and Wales flocked to back a rallying cry from the 19 football clubs of Fair Game to reshape our national game.
Conservative MP Tracey Crouch is leading a review into the game and is expected to reveal her interim findings in the next two weeks.
In the wake of England’s dramatic 2-1 extra-time victory over Denmark, 11 MPs and two Lords backed Fair Game’s principles of sustainability, community, integrity and independent regulation.
Fair Game, which includes 10 EFL clubs, six from the national league and three from further down the pyramid, is working closely with the best minds in academia and has released a 66-page report Solutions for Our National Game examining the problems football faces.
These include:
Long-term protection for the heritage and tradition of clubs
Proper fan engagement
Equality standards that mean something
Stopping clubs spending more than they earn on player wages
Fairer redistribution of TV revenue
Financial sustainability and transparency
Conservative Damian Green, MP for Ashford and a member of the Select Committee for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, was among the first to answer Fair Game’s call. He said: “We need to use this period to move to a more sustainable system of governance. Fans deserve to know that their club’s owners have the long-term interests of the club at heart.”
Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South and the Shadow Minister for Sport and Culture, added: “Whether it’s on finance, fans or having a truly inclusive game of football, I support all that Fair Game is going to do to change football for the better.”
Ian Mearns, Labour MP for Gateshead and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on football, said: “Looking at everything Fair Game stands for, a vast majority of fans would want that for their football club. Who would not want sustainability? Who would not want decent equality standards? Who would not want a club rooted in their community? I fully support Fair Game.”
Niall Couper, Director of Fair Game and board member of the Dons Trust, owners of AFC Wimbledon, said: “Football might be coming home, but what will it be coming home to? Fair Game want a future that secures the future of our clubs and their history and traditions. And we are delighted that politicians from both sides of the Commons have backed us.”
The other politicians that have backed Fair Game in the last few hours are Stephen Hammond, MP for Wimbledon; Jessica Morden, MP for Newport East; Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge; Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden; Rachel Hopkins, MP for Luton South; Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East; Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby; Lord Clark of Windermere; and Lord O’Shaugnessy of Maidenhead.
Quotes from all 13 politicians can be found online here.
