Member

This Bill, I regret to say, is riddled with contradictory comments, huge regulation and a requirement to come back all the time with secondary legislation. I agree with the noble Lords, Lord Mann and Lord Watson, who have said many times, “Let’s have clarity”. We need clarity; football needs clarity; this Committee needs clarity. The wide potential interpretation of influence, rather than control, should really be a worry if we want to encourage owners to come in at all levels of football and make sure that they enhance the national game and increase the value of the Premier League, through which flows all the benefits down through the rest of the professional leagues. We do not even know which leagues we are talking about in the Bill. It is a huge pity—and I say that with a heavy heart, because I am in favour of many of the issues that come up later, not least some of those that come forward in amendments from the Labour Benches, because I think that they focus on the fans—and the fan side of this I do not have a problem with.