A proposal to ban state-controlled clubs from English football has been submitted in an amendment to the Football Governance Bill that will introduce an independent regulator for the sport.
The move, which would have to be agreed by parliament, would mean that Manchester City and Newcastle United would be forced to change their ownership in order to be granted a licence by the regulator.
Lord Bassam of Brighton, a Labour peer, has put forward the amendment to the legislation going through the House of Lords which would prevent professional English clubs being owned or controlled by sovereign wealth funds or government ministers from any country.
Newcastle are owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) while Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour is the vice-president ofthe United Arab Emirates.
For the amendment to become law, it would also have to receive backing from MPs in the House of Commons, which in practice will only happen if the government agrees with it. Whitehall insiders insist the chance of the amendment being agreed is small, but some Premier League clubs have previously urged the government to introduce such a ban.
Bassam’s amendment states the legislation should read: “No state-controlled club may be granted an operating licence, and any affected club must satisfy the IFR [independent football regulator] that they have divested themselves of their state-control before applying for an operating licence.
Newcastle, who lost to West Ham on Monday, have been majority-owned by PIF for three years
“A state-controlled club is one which is wholly or majority-owned by individual(s), entities, or entities controlled by individual(s) who are deemed by the IFR or the secretary of state to be under the influence of any state actor, including but not limited to: members of any government or their immediate family, a head of state or their immediate family, diplomats, lobbyists, or other state representatives, or their immediate family, and sovereign wealth funds.”
The bill was debated in the House of Lords on Wednesday but peers have yet to discuss Bassam’s amendment.
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Baroness Karren Brady, the West Ham United vice-chairman, told the House of Lords on Wednesday that the government had ignored warnings from Uefa and handed even more power to the regulator over parachute payments to clubs relegated from the Premier League.
“Despite those warnings from Uefa, the government have made the backstop even wider and broader in scope, to now include parachute payments, which are fundamental to competitive balance,” she said.
“They have removed the incentives for a football-led deal, which goes specifically against the advice of Uefa. So it appears that the government have ignored that letter and its warnings. Uefa spells out that the ultimate sanction would be excluding the federation from Uefa and teams from competition.”
Brady said she supported another amendment which says nothing in the operation of the regulator should “compromise the ability of football clubs, competition organisers or national teams to comply with their obligations to, or participate in competitions of, international governing bodies including Uefa and Fifa”.
West Ham vice-chairman Brady warned of some proposed changes making the league less exciting
Brady said she was concerned that the regulator could damage the Premier League. She added: “This is a risky business. It is a risk trying to get promoted; it is a risk trying not to get relegated; it is a risk trying to get into the Champions League; and it is a risk trying to get into Europe and stay there. All football owners know these risks, and each one has a different way of managing, calculating and understanding them.
“Some take on debt; some put in equity; some sell assets — their footballers — if the risk does not pay off, but they go again.
“The problem with the idea of sustainability, which is undefined in this Bill, being the purpose of the regulator is that it can get in the way of ambition and aspiration, of calculated risk taking, and all the things that make the Premier League such an exciting and competitive league.”
