A proposed independent football regulator risks suffocating clubs and stifling their ambition, Apprentice star Baroness Karren Brady has warned.
The West Ham United vice chair said the watchdog would damage the Premier League’s status as one of the best football divisions in the world, and lead to a “closed shop” of top sides which would be impenetrable to those outside it.
The debate also heard that women’s football’s exclusion from the regulator could hinder its growth, as the Football Governance Bill came before the Lords for the first time.
Lady Brady, who has held executive positions in football for 30 years, said the regulator’s powers would limit financial investment and ultimately affect a club’s ambition.
Aspects of this legislation risks suffocating the very thing that makes English football so unique, the aspiration that allows clubs to rise and succeed in our pyramid system. The ambition that means fans can dream
The Conservative peer said: “When I speak about the dangers lurking in this Bill, I do so from not from ideology or theory, but from practical, real, lived experience. I also speak out of a love of and real passion for the game.
“The Bill’s intentions came from a good place. Who wouldn’t want to protect clubs’ historic heritage assets or prevent breakaway leagues or to strengthen fan engagement?
“But, my Lords, aspects of this legislation risks suffocating the very thing that makes English football so unique, the aspiration that allows clubs to rise and succeed in our pyramid system. The ambition that means fans can dream.”
The Football Governance Bill aims to protect the financial sustainability of English football and the identity and heritage of clubs, while giving fans a stronger voice.
It will establish an independent football regulator for the top five tiers of the men’s game to “improve the resilience of club finances, tackle rogue owners and directors and strengthen fan engagement”.
(The Bill) would replace our brilliant but brutal meritocracy with the likelihood of a closed shop where survival not aspiration becomes a ceiling
Lady Brady told peers that the measures on finances would risk creating an unreachable tier of top sides, putting them out of reach compared to their rivals.
Sat next to former prime minister Lord Cameron, an Aston Villa fan, she said the regulator would make it harder for clubs like his to beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League, or for Leicester City to win the Premier League.
She said: “This would involve extreme redistribution from the bottom-half clubs in the Premier League to the competitive clubs in the Championship; large reductions in parachute payments and levelling down of the Premier League to bring the Championship much closer to it.
“Some advocates for this, on a frankly comical basis, think it can be done without any impact on the Premier League’s world-leading status.
“The vision, I think, is for a German-style system where most clubs in the top two divisions can become essentially interchangeable, just going around and around in a washing machine while a small, few privileged clubs are allowed to float away and entrench their financial dominance.
“It would replace our brilliant but brutal meritocracy with the likelihood of a closed shop where survival not aspiration becomes a ceiling.”
The exclusion of the women’s game from this Bill could actually hinder its growth, so that it will continue to be an afterthought when it should be at the forefront of football’s innovation
She added: “A less exciting and unpredictable league would disappoint or turn off fans.”
It came as Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson raised concerns about the omission of women’s football from the Bill.
The independent crossbench peer said: “There is an obvious exclusion and that is the women’s game …
“If the aim of this Bill is to ensure financial sustainability for the future of football, should this not be for the whole game?
“The women’s game is still connected to men’s football in many cases and sadly there are very few examples of independent women’s football clubs like the London City Lionesses and we are slowly seeing more investment into women’s football.
“There will be many who will say that no regulator is required, but I believe that the exclusion of the women’s game from this Bill could actually hinder its growth, so that it will continue to be an afterthought when it should be at the forefront of football’s innovation.”
Under the Bill, clubs will be prevented from joining breakaway leagues such as the doomed European Super League, meaning fans will “no longer face the prospect of seeing clubs trying to join unfair, closed-shop leagues which undermine the fundamental principles of English football”.
Irresponsible owners, unsuitable financial models and inadequate regulation have cast a shadow over too many of our clubs and too often it is fans who have had to fight to protect their club’s identity, heritage, and even its very existence
The Bill also places restrictions on changing aspects of a club’s heritage without fan approval, such as its name, badge and home-shirt colours.
Clubs will also need to seek the regulator’s approval to sell or relocate from their home ground to prevent a repeat of a 2003 incident when Wimbledon FC was moved from its home in south London to Milton Keynes.
The Bill, initially put forward by the previous government and then strengthened by Labour, came off the back of an independent fan-led review spearheaded by former Tory minister Dame Tracey Crouch after fan backlash to the European Super League.
Labour frontbencher Baroness Fiona Twycross said: “Irresponsible owners, unsuitable financial models and inadequate regulation have cast a shadow over too many of our clubs and too often it is fans who have had to fight to protect their club’s identity, heritage, and even its very existence …
“The football industry has not gone far enough in tackling these issues, despite many opportunities to do so. That is why we are bringing forward this Bill.”
