Labor regulator will destroy English football

Another week, another new regulator. Last week, it was the Fair Work quango created by Angela Rayners who planned to clog our labor market. This week we learn about the new and improved football regulator, a bad idea from the Tories made worse by the new Labor Party. Football Governance Bill which landed in Parliament today.

I know, dear reader, you may think that football should stay on the sports pages. But bear with me. It is a parable for our times. Government is the solution to all problems.

Calls for government regulation began with the financial collapse of Bury FC in 2019. But the idea was boosted by half a dozen major English clubs attempting to set up a new European Super League in 2021. That project also failed, but not before Boris Johnson asked a Conservative MP, Tracey Crouch, to conduct a fan-led study into English football.

There isn't a word in Boris's memoir, which shows how much he really cared about it. But the train was now moving. Under the leadership of Ms Crouch, a self-described compassionate conservative whose main achievement appears to have been her resignation in protest against inadequate controls on gambling, the destination was always clear: more state regulation and control. And so it turned out. His proposals for a new football regulator finally reached Parliament in the final days of Rishi Sunak's government and expired with it.

They are now resurrected. Under the new bill, the regulator gains the power to intervene on stadium relocation proposals, on the distribution of funds between leagues and clubs, on ticket prices, and as it comes to a Labor Diversity and Inclusion Bill. All of this will result in additional cost, complexity, bureaucracy and intrusion. This mission drift shows how dangerous it is for the Conservatives to constantly drift left and cede ground to Labor. The train that the conservatives started running has gone well beyond its intended destination; it would have been better not to put it on track at all.

Why do so many people want a football regulator? This clearly builds on what many fans feel, that their club is special, rooted in community, but perpetually vulnerable. As Lisa Nandy says, financial instability left loyal fans and entire communities at risk of losing their favorite clubs due to poor management and reckless spending. She wants to put supporters return to the heart of the gameand help put clubs across the country on a sound financial footing.

I'm not convinced. You would think, according to Lisa Nandy, that English football clubs would crash and burn as quickly as Iranian drones over Israel. In fact, most English football clubs have been around for a very long time, often well over a century, and few go permanently bankrupt. This makes football very unusual as an industry, but not in the way Nandy suggests.

Additionally, a regulator was not needed to resolve the initial issues that sparked the fan-led scrutiny. Bury FC have been bought and resurrected, albeit now in the lower regions of the leagues. The club I follow, Derby County, had its own near-death experience but survived and is thriving. The European Super League never took place. All of these things happened in a normal way, under normal rules, with governments exercising reasonable influence, but without a quango intervening.

The problem with a permanent regulator is that over time it substitutes its own judgment for that of those who run the industry itself. We have seen it in other areas, notably in finance. Satisfying the regulator becomes a top priority, and companies are reluctant to cross it because there are many different ways to make their lives difficult. The same thing will happen to football clubs.

There will also be more mission drift. It is difficult, in practice, for ministers to distance themselves from a so-called independent regulator, after all, they created it and they can always change the rules. The government therefore becomes responsible for everything that goes wrong and expects to have the powers necessary to fix it. And gradually everyone starts to focus on lobbying the regulator rather than managing the industry. I now predict that over time this will weaken the English game, particularly the Premier League.

Satisfying government officials will become more important than making money or satisfying fans. I know many advocates will say this isn't happening now. Maybe. But be careful what you wish for. When managers have the final say, their preferences usually prevail. And if you think football clubs are rigid and secretive, wait until you've spent some time dealing with the government.

This is all so unnecessary. The Premier League is a true British national asset and a real source of soft power. It will no longer be the same when he is under the control of the DCMS Football Directorate.

Yes, football clubs are wrong. So do governments, and it's much harder to correct them when they do. English football clubs, players and supporters will rue the day the state took control of the beautiful game.