Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)

I thank the noble Lord for that, but I do not thank him for mentioning MK Dons, which, as a supporter of AFC Wimbledon, strikes a bit of a raw nerve with me. But I understand the point he was making. I come back to the noble Lord’s argument about making sure that the whole structure is “successful”—yes, I want that. As a supporter of a club in League Two, I want to make sure that more of the money available in the game filters downwards. I do not even want it to be contained within the Championship; I believe that the Championship has a disproportionate amount of the revenues that come from the Premier League. I do not believe in parachute payments. All the money, including the parachute payments, should be spread throughout the three divisions below the Premier League—I have argued that before in your Lordships’ Committee in earlier debates. We are told that clubs are disincentivised to get promoted to the Premier League if they cannot have some guarantee. But, from memory, I can think of some clubs who are in the Premier League for the first time and have established themselves after several years—Brentford and Brighton are obvious examples—without having parachute payments to get there. Bournemouth have been in for some time; although they dropped out for a season, they came back again. For this season, somebody mentioned Nottingham Forest, who are second place; they have been in the Premier League for 25 years or so. Ipswich have made it after a similar gap. I do not think that the parachute payments are anywhere near as essential as has been suggested. However, the money used for parachute payments, if it is spread more equitably, particularly down to League One and League Two to a greater degree, would enable the structure of English football to be successful in the way that the noble Lord, Lord Markham, suggested.