CROUCH-ING TIGER

Published in the National League South game v Tonbridge Angels Saturday 4th December 2021  We won 2-1 in front of 526

A new independent regulator for football is one of the key recommendations in a far reaching report on the future of football. But before people even had time to turn the pages, the Premier League attack dogs were out. Already frothing at the mouth, they’ve so far compared having to share some of their millions to Maoism and the Great Chinese Famine.

Former sports minister and Conservative MP Tracey Crouch talked to 130 supporter groups representing 100,000s of members giving more than 100 hours of evidence. A survey was completed by 20,000 individual fans.

The failed Super League and the collapse of Bury and Macclesfield were the straw that broke the camels back. With cross party support and MPs realising that football clubs are the beating hearts of their communities, could real change be around the corner?

The review makes 47 recommendations including

10 per cent levy on top-flight transfers, to enable an administrator to redistribute £160 million a year down the football pyramid.

New owners and directors tests

Supporters properly consulted by their clubs when making key decisions.

Provide improved mental health support to players released from the game, particularly at academy level, and for a similar review to be conducted for women’s football.

At our level the more relevant points include

Clubs promoted to the football league should be given a three-year grace period to lay a grass pitch, after Harrogate and Sutton had to rip theirs up following promotion. Sutton estimated they have lost £200,000 a year from community use of their 3G pitch as well as having to fork out £½ million to reinstall grass.

Pilot scheme to allow the sale of alcohol in sight of the pitch at matches in the National League and League Two. Supporters owned Dulwich Hamlet have said that a quarter of their income comes from alcohol sales (rumours that is close to 80% when Slough visit have not been confirmed) and promotion would have a catastrophic affect on budgets.

Investigative football journalist David Conn said: “The Premier League opposes the proposal but the single top division has largely brought this recommendation on itself. Since the new Labour government held a “football task force”, to examine the fault lines of the game’s commercial makeover, the Premier League has habitually argued and lobbied against regulatory changes.”

So while the Crouch review acknowledges the game’s accomplishments since 1992, it recognising its calamities. “This success story of English football is a credit to the hard work and vision of countless people over many years,” the report says, “but it is possible to simultaneously celebrate this achievement at the same time as having serious concerns about the future viability of football in this country.”

David Conn continues “Throughout all the years of inquiries the top clubs have succeeded with a core aim: to keep as much of football’s money as possible for themselves. The resulting fierce inequality is laid out on page 28 of Crouch’s report with a very simple colour graph illustrating clubs’ 2019-20 revenues. Towering over all other clubs are the four that played in the Champions League, averaging £444m revenues each. That was £424m more than the £20m average made by Championship clubs with no parachute payments. Those with parachute payments – which, as the report recognises, impossibly distort the football leagues finances – still make only little stumps on the graph, averaging £52m. The review calls for more equal sharing, to be imposed by the regulator if the clubs cannot reach agreement.

“The near 30-year concentration of football’s money so heavily at the top has turned the venerable clubs originally founded as Victorian community institutions into investments, for owners likely to “exit” some day and sell for a vast personal profit.”

As Crouch’s report notes, professional clubs have collapsed into insolvency 62 times since the Premier League breakaway.

Anyone can see the current model is broken but already some premier league chairman have complained it will damage competitiveness as if the football wild west benefits more than just a few clubs. As football writer Rob Draper put it so well “The Premier League is basically 20 cats in a bag fighting. Left to themselves, they’ll destroy each other.”

Kevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters Association, said: “This is potentially a huge step forward for football governance – the Government committed to a fan-led review which has listened to the voice of fans. It’s now up to the Government to deliver upon the recommendations. The review’s proposals to strengthen the voice of supporters in the game, protect football’s heritage and the pyramid, and provide genuine independent regulation, lay the basis for a prosperous and sustainable future for football at all levels.”

Tracey Crouch added : “Our national game is at a crossroads with the proposed European Super League just one of many illustrations of deep seated problems. The commitment and passion of the fans who have contributed to the review has been genuinely humbling to see. Where this passion had been betrayed by owners it has been heartbreaking – and testimony from those who had lost their club in Bury particularly so.

“The sophistication of thought about the problems of the game and solutions presented by those fans was also remarkable. It is often said that football would be nothing without the fans. The same can be said for this review and I want to thank each and every one who has contributed.”

You can read the full report here