A short, simple, ten-point plan for football reform

Editor F365

Sometimes it takes an abomination like the European Super League to focus minds on what football is about and who it is for. That void between a child’s notion of fun and fair play in playground football and the top-level corporate game where executives try and squeeze every last drop of revenue has created an unhappy sport, bad for business and for football’s true stakeholders, its grassroots players and club supporters.

Here we lay out 10 ways that English football can heal itself and perhaps provide a blueprint for the international game. It’s time we asked ourselves who is resisting blindingly obvious change and for what reasons?

 

1) A 50+1 revolution
The German model works. It works for fans by giving them the whip hand with voting powers, for clubs by producing heavy revenues and for governments with a hefty tax take.

Bringing it here is a no-brainer, whether in the ‘pure’ form of German voting rights or by helping fans achieve a controlling stake in clubs. 

A windfall tax on the Premier League TV deal can fund organised fans’ groups who want to be partners in the running of clubs; supporters’ trusts should be given first dibs to acquire shareholdings when clubs are put up for sale.

In the interim, placing fans’ reps on the board of all professional clubs and the boards of the EFL and Premier League is a win-win in terms of transparency and halting brain-farts like the Super League in their tracks.

 

2) An independent regulator
Look up Bury FC for all you need to know on why English football needs an independent regulator. Something as brilliant as the English football pyramid can’t be left to the unbridled free market.

 

3) Bringing the FA into the 21st Century
In many ways, the FA started this mess by creating, then losing control of the Premier League in 1992. The least they can do is bring fans’ reps onto their board and reform their archaic council into a football parliament that looks and feels like something fit for 2021. 

 

4) Safe Standing: Nurture fan culture
The coronavirus lockout has proved that football without fans is a sterile, soulless sham. Roll out safe standing and help clubs that want to achieve it by using the aforementioned Premier League tax. Kids might actually want to go to football if you make tickets cheaper and let them have a terrace culture to engage in, Señor Pérez. Leave fans to enjoy football how they want as long as they are not hurting anyone. Oh and let them have a beer too.

 

5) A living ticket price
Fans that live in and contribute to the communities that clubs are situated shouldn’t have to get a mortgage to go to games. Ring-fence a % of living ticket price tickets and subsidise them by charging tourists a simple tax on tickets they buy. Add funds from a betting levy to roll affordable ticketing down the leagues.

 

6) Betting levy
Bookies can cut down on shirt sponsorship and contribute to football in a formal way, as they do with the horse racing betting levy. That’s set at 10% and a similar figure is a good start for English football. 

A full listing of companies which operate offshore so punters can make informed choices of where their money goes also wouldn’t go amiss.

 

7) Less TV- the 4/3 model
Gil Scott-Heron said the revolution will not be televised and his dad played for Celtic so he knew what he was talking about. Everyone can see the effects of too much TV football – fans priced out of both stadia and TV packages and one nondescript televisual noise as tournaments merge into one another.

Let’s have more days without televised football in the week, on a four days off, three days on model and respect the stuff that fans really look forward to like the FA Cup and World Cup. No matches on TV that fans can’t attend on public transport either.

 

8) Protect grounds
While we mither about the Euro Super League, we’ve ignored the actual grounds the game is played on. 

Too many speculators are as interested in the real estate value of historic homes of football as they are the clubs themselves. Football grounds and public pitches need protection by law from government; we’ve seen at Coventry and West Ham the hurt caused by clubs torn from communities. No more.

 

9) EPPP and talent farms
Less than 0.5% of Premier League academy youngsters ever make a living from the game so why are top-tier clubs allowed to have 250 kids in their systems? Why is there a capped fee for young players taken from poorer clubs when those clubs rely on transfer revenue to keep going? A rethink on compensation, simple limits on academy numbers and distance rules to prevent raids across counties is sensible. Less academy football and more street and school sport can create players with a freedom of expression and tournament-winning technique.

 

10) Grassroots crisis and the Premier League
English grassroots football was considered to be in crisis before Covid and the situation has worsened with lockdown.

The 1999 Football Task Force report recommended that the Premier League should invest 5% of their income primarily in grassroots sport. David Conn of the Guardian reported that the grassroots contribution of the Premier League in recent years was actually more like 3.4%.

Just do the right thing and pay the 5%, Premier League. If the government matches it, watch the mutual benefits on health, wellbeing and interest in football.

Job done, now back to our microwaved leftovers.

Tom Reed – he’s on Twitter

 

F365 Features