Member

One reason is that, in this amendment which the noble Lord, Lord Jackson, so ably opened, in terms of the Secretary of State being able to say, “Well, here’s some more money”, it is not the taxpayer but the football clubs that will pay this, as I identified earlier. The other element associated with these costs, to which there has been no reference up until now other than in briefings meetings, is the cost of set-up. Not only are we talking about an annual charge, but the Government’s abridged version of the impact assessment says that these levies are then expected to recover these costs. In other words, not only do we have an individual figure for each club per annum, including the small clubs about which I am most concerned, but there are also costs being incurred now, in substantial ways, which will have to be recovered at a later stage. I will continue to press until I get an answer on the costs for the small clubs.