Open letter to the FA

[politico]

If you are in BROAD agreement please sign and post on other forums.

 

The Future direction of Football.

 

So we end the 2008/2009 season much as we have the last few, with the usual suspects occupying the top table, some others looking on with envy and sadly a few are locked outside eagerly looking in, close to starvation.

 

Most sports and businesses operate under the harsh but realistic Darwinism of survival of the fittest. So why should football be any different, let’s just leave it to the markets as it were, well surely the last few months must of taught us something about “the market”.

There is something unique about local sporting institutions that the red braces of the City finds impossible to quantify, they are a vital part of our collective national psychological make up. They still help people to get up in the morning and carry out the normal functions of society. But if many supporters feel that there is no longer a local team that they feel a part of then we as a society have lost an important institution, the consequences of which are not good.

 

The governing body in England, the FA seem to be constantly reacting to events in a totally dogmatic fashion, every time a league club finds it’s finances no longer hold up they simply slap on a ten point deduction. If individuals who run these clubs act like Arthur Daly and get caught, then rather than punishing the individual, the club is docked a further 10 or 20 points. We all realise that crimes need to be punished, but does it not make more sense to ensure that all owners and directors are properly scrutinised prior to their gaining a dominant position within a club.

 

Once an owner and his director’s are in place the governing body should operate a transparent policy of monitoring the day to day activities of the club, and where needed investigating any allegations of malpractice on an ongoing basis. In other words the FA should properly fullfill it’s remit of actively governing the sport from top to bottom.

A charter of corporate football governance needs to either be established or significantly strengthened if one already exists. Or else the long suffering fans will continue to feel alienated and cynical towards the power brokers of the game. If that link of trust is broken then it may never be repaired!

 

I’am sure the FA will argue that this is what takes place now, but most fans feel that the only criteria required to sieze control and then operate a football club in England-is cash, either the new owners own, or far more likely –borrowed.

Of course the favourite trick of the new breed of owners is to flip the debt from buying a club, back from the company that looked to buy it onto the club itself. This should be made illegal and shell parent companies must be liable to the same scrutiny as the football club itself.

 

There is a sickness within the game that must be confronted, and soon, if whole swathes of the population are not to be lost to the game due to cynicism or finances.

 

If football is to prosper then most or all of the following must happen very soon.

 

1. Club ownership-all football league clubs (steps1-4) to expand the supporters trust involvement leading to a 20% stake and board representation within 5 years. All owners to be assessed thoroughly by a new fit and proper panel at the FA that has the power to prosecute and fine improper owners personally.

 

2. Ticket prices to be regulated by the FA ensuring 40% are in one single lowest price category at all premiership grounds.

3. Significant increase in the trickle down of revenue from the premiership and European competitions to the lower leagues. To increase competition within the premiership and ensure the survival of the pyramid.

 

4. Maximum wage policy within each club, with a medium and lower band, ensuring squad wages never exceed 40% of turnover.

 

5. Establishment of singing/safestanding areas in all premiership grounds using existing seated areas with a light touch health and safety regime.

 

6. Implement the 6 and 5 policy so that every team has 6 players from the UK enhancing our national teams potential and encouraging purchase of players from lower leagues, as well as from other parts of the UK.

 

7 Further encouragement for 100% fan owned clubs that help to reposition clubs

at the heart of local communities and bring in a new generation of fans.

 

Politico

[Rex Banner]

Good luck with that.

[Lofts]

Good luck lad!!

[Benitaur]

Good luck with that. Unrealistic though.

 

The reason? Our club has always been a privately owned institution. As much as we want to believe that we the fans own the club, we don't. The owners are trustees and keep the club in trust for the supporters? They aren't. They're OWNERS.

 

Thats like saying a popular restaurant is owned by its regular clients. In reality, the clients may give suggestions for improvement, but ultimately the owner does whatever he/she wants.

 

Similarly, the FA seriously doesn't have that much power. If for example our club owners decide to pull our club out of the League, and go form a super league, they can.

 

As owners, they could strip the club for all its worth and bugger off, I think legally they can. But out of public interest, and possibly political intervention, they won't be able to.

 

Most of your ideas could be implemented on a fan owned club like AFC Liverpool, as it is started and owned by the fans. But Liverpool FC is a privately owned million dollar business. The ultimate responsibility of the club is to its owners. Its only responsible to the fans for success and the likes only because the fans are clients, and it effects the bottom line for the owners.