Three ex-Sports Ministers back Fair Game and call for an independent regulator
“We are now beyond what Tracey Crouch called the ‘last chance saloon’… That’s why we welcome her Review”
Helen Grant, Gerry Sutcliffe and Richard Caborn
THREE former sports ministers have thrown their weight behind Fair Game and backed our calls for an independent regulator, fixing football’s financial flow and protecting the heritage and traditions of clubs.
The call comes in an open letter coordinated by Fair Game just days before the expected publication of Tracey Crouch’s long-awaited fan-led review into the governance of football.
The three - Helen Grant, Gerry Sutcliffe and Richard Caborn - served as sports minister for a combined total of 11 years between 2001 and 2015. Crouch herself is also a former sports minister having held that position 2015 to 2017. Grant, Sutcliffe and Caborn all expressed their support for her efforts with the review in the letter.
In the joint letter, the three wrote: “In the decades we have spent in office, we have seen these problems arise again and again. We are now beyond what Tracey Crouch called the ‘last chance saloon’… That’s why we welcome the Review by Tracey Crouch MP”
Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game, said: “It’s time to draw a line under the sand with the past.
“Let’s end the spectre of a closed European Super League. Let’s make sure there are no repeats of the sad demise of Bury or Macclesfield. And let’s ensure the financial futures of all of our clubs.
“The football authorities have failed to deliver for decades and that’s why we need an independent regulator.
“Fair Game wants to see a clear legislative timeline put in place as soon as possible. The Fan-Led Review must not end up gathering dust in some dark cellar buried underneath the Houses of Parliament. And that’s why we offer our full support to Tracey Crouch.
“Fair Game wants to see an introduction of the Sustainability Index. An index that incentivise clubs to run well. An index that reallocates football’s wealth to clubs on four criteria: financial sustainability, good governance, equality standards and fan engagement.
“If our politicians can do that then this review will go down in history as being truly transformational.”
The letter in full:
Football is in crisis. Without a new independent regulator, we will continue to see fiascos like the failed European Super League, the seriously flawed owners and directors test and the demise of historic clubs like Bury and Macclesfield Town.
That’s why we welcome the Review by Tracey Crouch MP, which will call on the government to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to change the way football is run.
Our current system encourages those who gamble with clubs’ futures: putting at risk the heritage and traditions of our national game, which is so important to towns, clubs, and fans across the country. We need a new system that rewards clubs that are well-governed, financially sustainable, and strongly linked to their fanbase.
A new regulator would help balance the interests of the top 1% in football with the other 99%. A club relegated from the Premier League receives £55m that is more money than all 144 clubs in Leagues One and Two, the Women’s Super League and the National League combined. This encourages completely unsustainable spending in the Championship, endangering clubs like Derby County, while denying most clubs in the UK their fair share.
In the decades we have spent in office, we have seen these problems arise again and again. We are now beyond what Tracey Crouch called the ‘last chance saloon’. We need to seize this opportunity to create a body with teeth, which has the power to hold these powerful interests to account.
But like Tracey Crouch said in her letter to the Secretary of State “…..it may also be that at some point in the future a substantially reformed FA could absorb the functions of an independent regulator, though evidence received indicates this possibility is some way off.”
Fair Game represents 31 clubs, and hundreds of thousands of fans across the UK and we join their calls for the government to implement the measures in this report to help save football for the fans, now and in the future.
Signed by
Richard Caborn, Sports Minister, 2001-2007
Gerry Sutcliffe, Sports Minister, 2007-2010
Helen Grant, Sports Minister, 2013-2015
