Chairman Steve Parish speaks to Newsnight on Government White Paper - News

A press release issued by the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport on Wednesday (22nd February, 2023) reads: “For the first time, a new independent regulator for the men’s elite game will be established in law to oversee the financial sustainability of the game and put fans back at the heart of how football is run.

“The regulator will implement a new licensing system from the top flight down to the National League, requiring clubs to demonstrate sound financial business models and good corporate governance as part of an application process before being allowed to compete.

“It will guarantee fans a greater say in the strategic running of their clubs and help protect clubs’ heritage to stop owners changing names, badges and home shirt colours without consulting fans. It will require clubs to seek regulator approval for any sale or relocation of the stadium, with fan engagement a major part of that process.

“There will be new tests for owners and directors, ensuring good custodians of clubs, stronger due diligence on sources of wealth and a requirement for robust financial planning.”

Speaking to BBC Newsnight host Mark Urban, the Chairman discussed the proposals and their expected impact, with his answers published below.

What is your headline reaction to these proposals?

“It’s unprecedented. We’ll be the only sporting industry to be regulated by Government.

“Of course, there are a lot of fantastic, broad brushstrokes in the press release and I’m sure in the White Paper – but the devil will be in the detail, and I think there’s a lot of very intense detail to work out how these things will work.

“The owners’ and directors’ test was mentioned, for example. Exactly what is it we want to change? Who currently would, or wouldn’t, be an owner under these rules?

“Of course, this is fascinating, because the Government will be owning this now. They’ll be owning the industry, good and bad, and I don’t think they really understand how many gravitational pulls there are and how many different stakeholders there often are to satisfy.

“Generally, we all want a better game, and we have to think of this constructively and try and work with the Government to make it the best we can.”

What about contentious issues, like rich foreign interests trying to buy Premier League clubs? Is that going to be a flashpoint, do you think?

"I think so. I don’t think you can please everybody with the answer to those things.

“Most fans of an individual club would like their club to be run by somebody with unlimited funds. A lot of other clubs, and supporters from other clubs, might not want that, and might find humans rights issues and other things to be an issue.

“That’s why these things have been dealt with very much on the basis of: we’ve got an owners’ and directors’ test. It’s actually quite stringent already – for example, if you have committed a criminal offence in your own country, or done something which would be a criminal offence here, you’re barred – so there are lots of broad brushstrokes we can use at the moment.

“Obviously, the Government have got greater powers and can use any power that they want, but they will have fans who will want that owner, and they [the Government] might not want to have them, so it will be difficult.”

People have an image of Premier League clubs not having these kinds of [financial] concerns. What are your worries now, money-wise… and might additional pressures to redistribute call into question the solvency of clubs?

“It isn’t just a question of more money. We see throughout the leagues that the more money owners get generally, it just goes to the players, and doesn’t lead to the greater solvency of the clubs.

“I think there’s a package that’s been offered by the Premier League to the English Football League which will see both sustainability and increased funds and, very importantly, hopefully investment in infrastructure.

“One of the things that I’m very passionate about is that clubs don’t improve necessarily from owner to owner, because the infrastructure stays the same and all the money is spent on chasing glory and trying to get better players, but not improve the infrastructure of the clubs.”

On that point, if you say ‘I want a new stand’, a sponsor comes forward, and one of these new fan boards comes forward and says ‘no, we don’t want that person’s money or name on the new stand’, is that a problem?

“I think fans very much have that power [right] now. I think if you don’t listen to your fans at a football club, as we’ve seen with other owners, you probably won’t be there very long.

“I think formalising that, we’ve got many different factions and groups of fans, [so] formalising that into one panel would probably be beneficial for most clubs, and the Premier League have already started to put that in place as well.

“Tracey [Crouch MP] has started a very positive debate in football. Whether the Government and politicising that, and a Government regulator, is the right answer in the long run… we’ve got it now so we’ll see, but certainly I think there’ll be things that will improve because of Tracey’s initiative, and that’s positive.”

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