Should The British Government Get Involved In The Running Of Football?

“The coalition government has a clear commitment, laid down in the DCMS business plan, to make progress on the reform of football governance by May next year. We intend to carry out that commitment.” 

England’s abject performance in Zurich two months ago was a humbling experience for the whole country. Football isn’t coming home...not for several decades at least.

2030 is the earliest that we can hope to stage the World Cup: once Russia, Qatar and in all probability China have had a go. 

But some good has come out of the whole experience. The defeat appears to have focused some minds about the urgent need for reform within English football.

This statement from the British Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson, suggests that the new Coalition Government has decided, at long last, to take a proper interest in the governance of the game.  

This will be music to the ears of the vast majority of football fans. They have been begging Ministers to intervene for years, having long ago given up on the ability of the Football Association to oversee the game properly.

If the Government is serious about changing things for the better, though, it needs to resist the temptation to just tinker around the edges. Wholesale change is required.

It should start with the two most pressing issues affecting the game: ownership and debt.

To say that English football has been living beyond its means would be an understatement. It has been truly hemorrhaging money over the past decade or so.

Domestic teams now owe more than £3.65 billion between them: a little over half of the total debt built up by European clubs.

Fourteen of the 20 clubs in the top division operate at a loss and over half of all professional teams have been in administration at some point over the past 18 years. 

Manchester United have spent an estimated £325 million on debt interest alone since being bought by the Glazer family in 2005, whilst Liverpool were spending £25 million a year on interest payments before being bought last year by the owner of the Boston Red Sox.

Controversially, would-be owners have also been taking advantage of lax rules which allow them to buy clubs by borrowing against their assets.

A recent investigation by the BBC found that the Glazers funded their takeover of Utd by borrowing £388 million against the family’s shopping mall business and £66 million against their American football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tom Hicks and George Gillette funded their 2007 takeover of Liverpool in a similar way.

Ministers now have an opportunity to step in and sort all this out. This does not involve bailing out irresponsible owners or using taxpayers’ money to prop up indebted teams.

It means giving football supporters a far greater say in how their clubs are run and allowing them the opportunity to own a stake in their teams.

Fan ownership has been seen to work in other European countries. The German Bundesliga, for example, has its 50+1 rule. This stipulates that at least 51% of a club must be owned by the supporters, to prevent any one person or business from gaining a majority stake.

German supporters, as a result, wield far more power than their English counterparts and are better able to use their position to keep the cost of the game to a minimum.

The league might not be the most fashionable in the world, but it has the highest average attendances in Europe and some of the lowest ticket prices, whilst the number of season passes allocated each year is kept to a minimum, so as to increase the number of people able to attend the games.

It is also in great financial health, posting a profit of €30 million last year on a turnover of €1.7 billion. 

Barcelona and Real Madrid are also run on similar grounds. Barcelona have 175,000 registered members, or socios as they are known. They effectively govern the club, electing a president of the board of governors every four years.

The last election took place in June of last year, when Sandro Rosell was elected with over 60 percent of the vote on a record turnout of over 45 percent of eligible members. The majority of supporters in England could only dream of this kind of power.

Moreover, because of the way the club is run, season ticket prices are kept as low as possible (£75 for the cheapest adult season pass at the Camp Nou), and profits are reinvested back into the club.

There is absolutely no reason why the English game cannot go down this road. The majority of supporters are in favour: a YouGov poll published in April found that 56 percent of fans would support being able to take control of their clubs.

For Manchester United supporters, this figure rose to more than 80 percent. The average supporter would also be prepared to invest an average of £600 each to seize control of their club, according to the same poll.

All they’re waiting for is the Government to take the lead. They should do so as soon as possible.