Ambition (not what you think).

[Svlad Cjelli]

The “House of Commons
Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Football Governance
Seventh Report of Session 2010–12”

has been published today.

I would draw nobbers' attention to paragraph 180-181, about Club Ownership. This appears just after a discussion on the beneficial aspects of local, responsible ownership.

180. The problem is that this is by no means the whole story. There are also too many examples of domestic owners acting against the long-term interests of their club either out of naivety or duplicity. While this has always been a part of the game, the financial stakes are much higher now: the temptations and opportunities greater; and the falls more precipitous. There is, for instance, much evidence critical of owners overreaching in order to “live the dream”. The complaint is that such over-reaching serves further to inflate wages and push up spending levels, issues that lie at the heart of English football’s financial problems. Leeds United under Peter Ridsdale and Bradford City under Geoffrey Richmond are perhaps the most infamous examples. Sean Hamil warned that such behaviour threatened to push good owners out of the game, as they could not compete themselves without taking excessive risk:
"If you have a scenario where someone of the quality of Delia Smith, a successful entrepreneur, or Sir John Madejski, successful entrepreneur and local boy who tried to build a sort of major sporting institution in his hometown, decide it is not worth it and that they would like to get out, I think that is a problem."

181. Lord Triesman was equally critical of clubs who had sought to achieve success:
"by spending money, as I think was described in the last session, related to their ambition rather than to their business model. They want to beat other clubs; they spend what they believe is necessary to do that. The model falls apart—Leeds is a very strong example of that—and they are left with a huge financial crisis on their hands. People in other clubs reflect not only on the amounts that were spent but on the unfairness to the competitive regime that it creates.
I know people think that “financial doping” is a rather dramatic term but it is a pretty accurate term for what is described."

Greg Clarke alluded to the level of frustration among more prudent owners:
"We had a lively debate at our last chairman’s conference. […] there was a motion from the floor from a very respected chairman of a Football League club. He has been a long time, high quality owner who said, ‘I’m sick of bad owners going out of business and besmirching the game""

The below is also relevant :

78. In similar vein, Burnley Chairman Barry Kilby spoke of the pressure to over-spend in order to remain in the Premier League during his club’s recent season in the top tier: “The word ‘ambition’ always crops up—lack of ambition is one of the usual ones you get in the phone-in programmes”. He noted too that fans’ expectations were likely to increase during a second season in the Premier League:
"When we got up it was a bit easier at first. We were new, we hadn’t been in the Premier League for 30-odd years, so perhaps it was easier to keep the fans’ expectations; we are being sensible, we’re clearing our debts, if we do go back down we’ll be able to handle it. I think they did understand, but I’ve got a feeling if we had been in another year or so the pressures would have built to spend more."
The earlier experience of Bradford City, whose owner went on a spending spree subsequently dubbed “six weeks of madness” in a failed attempt to survive a second season in the Premier League, rather bears out Barry Kilby’s comments.

[PieEater]

Lots of well worded statements about the problems, what about proposed solutions?

[Svlad Cjelli]

There's a 100 page report, with 34 specific recommendations, which I'm not going to list here :

Key ones, though. are :

Reform of the FA Board & FA Council (to reduce PL involvement)
Scrap Football Creditor's Rule
Club Licensing Scheme and enhancements to F&PPT
Complete transparency of ownership
Changes to the law to assist supporter ownership
Much more money spent on youth development and youth coaching

It closes with the below :

The way forward
34. Almost all our recommendations for the reform of football governance can be achieved through agreement between the football authorities and without legislation. We therefore urge the football authorities to consider our Report carefully, and to respond positively with an agreed strategy and timetable for change. As a last resort, in the absence of substantive progress, we recommend that the Government consider introducing legislation to require the FA to implement the necessary governance reforms in line with its duties as a governing body.

I take this to be a message of "Do this - or we'll legislate to make you do it."

[floyd__streete]

Does this mean we are or are not getting another centre half?

[PieEater]

The original scope for the report was:

1) Should football clubs in the United Kingdom be treated differently from other commercial organisations?

2) Are football governance rules in England and Wales - and the governing bodies that set and apply them - fit for purpose?

3) Is there too much debt in the professional game?

4) What are pros and cons of the supporter trust shareholding model?

5) Is government intervention justified? If so, what form should it take?

Pretty easy questions to answer, the main one is to be doing something about the financial arms race and spiraling debt.

[Bandini]

The original scope for the report was:

1) Should football clubs in the United Kingdom be treated differently from other commercial organisations?

2) Are football governance rules in England and Wales - and the governing bodies that set and apply them - fit for purpose?

3) Is there too much debt in the professional game?

4) What are pros and cons of owning a water buffalo?

5) Is government intervention justified? If so, what form should it take?

Pretty easy questions to answer, the main one is to be doing something about the financial arms race and spiraling debt.

Not sure they're that easy to answer!

The deb8 over the licensing model is quite interesting.

[Svlad Cjelli]

The full report is here : http://tinyurl.com/3gr2n9l

[brendywendy]

excellent stuff svlad.

is this the first time weve been mentioned(sort of)in the commons?


and lol @

a sort of major sporting institution

id take that, but people would criticise my ambition

[Svlad Cjelli]

excellent stuff svlad.

is this the first time weve been mentioned(sort of)in the commons?

No, I';m sure there was an EDM congratulating us when we were promoted, and Martin Salter definitely mentioned us a few times.

and lol @

a sort of major sporting institution


id take that, but people would criticise my ambition

That was said by an academic, rather than someone specifically working in football.

[Tutti Frutti]

Scrap Football Creditor's Rule

That, alone, would solve a decent chunk of the problem, by inserting more care into who clubs did business with, and on what terms. Once clubs can actually lose money from dealing with the Portsmouth's of this world, they will actually start behaving normally. It's also morally indefensible to screw local businesses/St. Johns/the taxpayer in insolvencies to prop other bloated football clubs.

Overnight, many transfers would be money up front, too, cooling and levelling the market.

[Friday's Legacy]

The full report is here : http://tinyurl.com/3gr2n9l

a great read (op). i'll have a more indepth read of this tomorrow. thanks.

[Big Foot]

General Football

[Jerry St Clair]

It's also morally indefensible to screw local businesses/St. Johns/the taxpayer in insolvencies to prop other bloated football clubs.

The single most sickening thing about Bradford's fall into the abyss was that they defaulted on thousands owed to the St John's Ambulance whilst continuing to pay Benito Carbone £40k a week.

Why's that particularly galling? Because St John's were first responders at Valley Parade in 1985 and undoubtedly saved many lives in the immediate aftermath of the fire.

Awful, just awful.

[Svlad Cjelli]

:arrow: General Football

See the references to Reading & Madejski in the OP.

[Big Foot]

:arrow: General Football

See the references to Reading & Madejski in the OP.

Club Policies

[brendywendy]

big foot for mod.the boy is on the ball.in fact shouldnt all discussion of financial matters be put in there?

[Big Foot]

big foot for mod.the boy is on the ball.in fact shouldnt all discussion of financial matters be put in there?

This is my point

Tactics and match previews/reviews = Team
Where's the money gone etc = Club Policies

[Svlad Cjelli]

In theory you're right, but in practice you're swimming against the tide.

It sems that between May and July every single thread in "The Team" has to evolve into a where's the money gone/lack of ambition/football finance one.

[jonboy29red]

if the goverment was to get "involved" with the fa would we not be under risk of sanctions from fifa as some other countries have found in the past?

[Svlad Cjelli]

if the goverment was to get "involved" with the fa would we not be under risk of sanctions from fifa as some other countries have found in the past?

No - there's a clear difference between a government setting regulatory recommendations under which The FA should run, and of governments directly running FAs or directly appointing people to those FAs.