Contribution
My Lords, it has been over four months since the Bill had its Second Reading in your Lordships’ House. I have resisted football puns throughout, but we are now reaching full-time in your Lordships’ House, so I decided to make an exception today. I hope to get through this debate without any own goals or penalty shoot-outs. This is historic legislation that will ensure that fans are placed at the heart of our national game.
I pay tribute to the work of Dame Tracey Crouch. Her fan-led review highlighted how too many football fans have been left with nowhere to turn when faced with reckless owners, financial mismanagement and threats to their clubs’ very existence. It was this work that led to all three main political parties committing to introducing an independent football regulator in their manifestos.
We supported the previous Government’s Bill, though I strongly believe that the Bill that we presented was better and has been improved further throughout its passage in your Lordships’ House. We have made changes to refine and strengthen the legislation to ensure that the regulator successfully delivers for fans and communities while protecting the strength of English football. We are taking a proportionate and flexible approach to regulation to provide the certainty and sustainability required to drive future investment and growth so that English football continues to be a global success.
I thank my noble friends Lord Bassam of Brighton and Lady Taylor of Bolton for their invaluable contributions and for promoting greater transparency of the regulator and its work. As a result, we have added a requirement for the regulator to establish a system for all board members and expert panel members to declare relevant interests and to keep a register of those interests. I also thank my noble friends Lord Watson of Invergowrie and Lady O’Grady, who, along with other noble Lords, have championed the inclusion of players and fans. We have amended the regulatory principles to explicitly add players, fans and others who may be affected by the regulator’s decisions to the list of persons whom the regulator should proactively and constructively engage with.
I particularly thank my noble friend Lady Blake of Leeds for her continuous support and for stepping into the breach to offer me some respite on those extremely long Committee nights. Across the House, I want to give special thanks to the noble Lords, Lord Addington and Lord Goddard of Stockport, for their constructive and at times humorous engagement and for advocating for a social responsibility duty. Our addition to the definition of corporate governance for football clubs to include a club’s contribution to the economic and social well-being of its local community will help to shine a light on the good work that clubs do for their local areas.
I thank the noble Lords, Lord Birt and Lord Pannick, for their considered engagement and for the time they spent considering ways in which we could improve the Bill, not least the backstop process, for the good of football. I want particularly to mention the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, who raised issues about women’s football. While not envisaged as part of the initial regulatory regime, we fully support women’s football and the aims of the Carney review.
While we may not have agreed on every issue throughout the Bill’s passage, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay and Lord Markham, for their scrutiny and for ensuring that the niche but highly important issue of heraldic terminology is appropriately reflected in the Bill. I am also grateful for all noble Lords who have participated with a range of knowledge and expertise—not always on football—including but not limited to the noble Lord, Lord Norton, on post-legislative scrutiny and, clearly with expertise in football, the noble Baroness, Lady Brady, and the noble Lords, Lord Moynihan and Lord Hayward, for their unique perspectives and expertise, and for occasionally missing matches to take part in proceedings.
The discussions and changes that we have made in this House will guarantee that English football remains the best place to be a football fan now and in the future. The Bill’s passage through this House has been long and, at times, slow, so please excuse me for taking a moment briefly to thank the many civil servants who have worked so diligently and patiently. In particular, I am very grateful to the Bill manager, Bill team and policy team. My thanks also go to the numerous lawyers and my private office, who have been very patient—mainly with me, to be honest.
I am proud to stand here today being the one to pass this Bill over to the other House—so arguably it is half-time, not full-time, in parliamentary terms. This is important and much-needed legislation which will protect and promote the sustainability of English football in the interests of fans and the local communities that football clubs serve. Football fans up and down the country deserve and want this regulator. I beg to move.