Hosted by Penny Mordaunt MP (Conservative, Portsmouth North), the event will also feature speeches from Damian Collins MP (Conservative, Folkestone and Hythe), who will discuss his Financial Transparency in Football Bill; John Leech MP (Liberal Democrat, Manchester Withington); Clive Efford (Labour, Eltham); and Dr Adam Brown (Substance), who will focus on the research underpinning the publications that SD will launch at the event.
This past Tuesday, the Committee issued a follow-up report, which issued an ultimatum to football: to deliver necessary reforms to the game within 12 months or be forced into action by legislation. Here are just five quotes that reiterate the Committee’s backing for the Supporters’ Trust movement:
“Supporters’ Trusts have become an increasingly significant and successful model for club ownership and can have a beneficial influence on, particularly, financial governance.
“The football authorities must produce more detailed proposals for the involvement and consultation of supporters and supporters’ groups through its committees and working groups.
“The current situation, which denies fans the right to know who owns their club, is highly unsatisfactory.
“The Football Association should require that, as part of a new licensing model, clubs have the responsibility to engage constructively with supporters, and the FA should draw up a set of best practices for clubs to ensure proper consultation and involvement of supporters. The new licence should also include a requirement for clubs to provide supporters’ trusts with the club’s financial reports.
“We consider that the Professional Game Board is still very unrepresentative of the diversity of interests within the game. We recommend that the Board should contain wider representation, especially of supporters.”
SD welcomed the issue of the report, and Tuesday’s event promises to be a major opportunity for the Trust movement to push the importance of our collective issues to Members of Parliament, over 60 of whom have already confirmed their attendance. To find out more about the event, contact Kevin Rye.
Bees United are supporters of Supporters Direct, whose chairman is Brian Burgess, former director of Bees United and now leading the Lionel Road project.