Member

Moving on to Amendment 242 in the name of my noble friend Lady Taylor of Bolton, the Bill requires clubs to consult their fans on any proposed relocation of their home ground. This guarantees that fans can have their views heard prior to the regulator making a decision. The regulator is also required to determine the impact of a relocation on club heritage. In the majority of cases, we would expect that the regulator would consider the views of fans of the club as the main stakeholders when it comes to club heritage. The amendment also references the duty on clubs to not change the crest, home shirt colours or name without approval. As the Bill stands, for the crest and home shirt colours, it is required that the majority of the club’s fans in England and Wales must support any change. Although the Government understand that the intention of this amendment is to further entrench these duties, this legislation has been designed so that these duties apply across the clubs and can be strongly enforced by the regulator if necessary. Amending articles of association can be resource intensive and requires shareholder agreement. Therefore, the Government do not see this as a necessary step to require all clubs to take.