Written evidence submitted by Callum Brooks
Written Evidence Submission to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee: Sport in Our Communities submitted by Callum Brooks https://committees.parliament.uk/work/647/sport-in-our-communities/
1. Introduction
1.1 I am entering this submission as a student of politics at the University of Exeter. Although the scope of this enquiry is very broad, with many sports suffering hugely as a result of the pandemic, I will focus my submission on English football and in particular the English Football League (EFL). I believe that the current crisis of inequality in English football, exasperated by COVID 19 is likely to have a huge and lasting impact on the game itself as well as the communities who love the game. I have been compelled to write this submission having seen the effects that the pandemic has had on so many lower league football teams, including my local team, Southend United (Whitehouse, 2020). However, I believe COVID did not create these problems, it simply exasperated the underlying problems that are caused by a governance structure, that is inherently based to favor the teams in the Premier League (Reade, 2020). While a system based on rewarding the best teams could be argued to be fair, the current system does not look after the clubs in the football league which is the skeleton of football in England, to the extent that a huge number of clubs are facing financial difficulty (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sport in our communities, 2020, HC 869, 2019- 21, Q2, p.3.). These clubs are huge parts of local communities and losing them from the league would not only be a disaster for these communities, but for the structure of the football league itself (EFL Trust , 2020 ). 1.2 Hence the submission will focus on how the EFL can be reformed to be more equitable and look after the clubs that are the spine of both English football, and the communities in which they are situated. It will also look into how better support for the grassroots system could fit into this new governance structure and make it more sustainable. I will address the questions, ‘Are the current sports governance models fit for purpose?’ and ‘To what extent should elite professional sports support the lower leagues and grassroots’, hence also addressing at what level of sport the government should spend public money and how the government can increase investment by professional clubs into grassroots.
Executive Summary
The current governance model is not fit for purpose, especially financially. Moving English football back to a system of matchday revenue sharing (as explained by Reade) while allowing Premier League Clubs to keep their broadcasting revenue would be a more sustainable system (Reade, 2020). The government should invest more public money into grassroots level football, potentially freeing up funds within the FA to help struggling clubs The government should make Premier League Clubs should invest more heavily in grassroots football and it would be in their interest to do so as it would widen the talent pool, helping them fill their homegrown quotas and lead to an abundance of talented young English players so clubs wouldn’t have to spend huge transfer fees on European talent.
2. Are the current sports governance models fit for purpose?
2.1 In 2000 Katwala argued that international sport was one of the worse governed areas (Katwala, 2000). Donnelly explained in 2015 that these governance issues are now very prevalent in national level sports governance (Donnelly, 2015). In the case of football in England the governance structures, in particular relating to finance are not fit for purpose. In the oral evidence session on 10th November, Julian Knight revealed that there were currently 10 EFL clubs who won’t make payroll this month (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sport in our communities, 2020, HC 869, 2019-21, Q2, p.3.). Richard Masters explained that the Premier League has suffered losses of £700 million this year, losing on average £100 million a month (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sport in our communities, 2020, HC 869, 2019-21, Q1, p.2.). A system where even the richest clubs are losing this huge amount of money cannot be sustainable and gives an indication as to how dire the situation is in the smaller clubs further down the football league. These lower leagues clubs will arguably be suffering more than the Premier League clubs while fans are not allowed into stadiums as they rely on ticket sales and matchday revenue for as much 46% of their income in the case of Bolton Wanderers (Reade, 2020). Meanwhile for Premier League teams just 14% of revenue comes from matchdays with the largest amount of revenue coming from sponsorship and broadcasting deals (Reade, 2020). Hence, for the Premier League clubs, life without fans in the stadium is difficult, but I believe is manageable, for teams in the EFL it is crippling and I believe is only going to get worse over the coming years (Reade, 2020). Hence a reform of the governance structure is needed in order to save the football league from this crisis, which ultimately affects the whole of UK football, as the football league is a feeder to the EPL of new teams and talent, a notable story being the rise of Dele Alli, transferring from MK Dons to Tottenham for £5 million and becoming an England International a few years later (Reade, 2020; Guest, 2020). 2.2 The role of the EFL clubs is greater than this though. Despite the fact that some, such as Burnley manager Sean Dyche believe that football should be run like any other business with clubs who aren’t successful going out of busines, and that the richer clubs should not help out poorer clubs, ‘If you are going to apply that rule of thumb, does that mean every hedge fund manager that is incredibly successful, are they going to filter that down to the hedge fund managers that are not so successful?” football clubs are more than a business, and have huge impacts in the local and wider communities (Reade, 2020). The recent report by the EFL, the Measuring the impact of EFL clubs in the community report, stated that EFL clubs benefit communities in four key ways, Sport and physical activity, Health and wellbeing, Education and employability and Community engagement (EFL Trust , 2020 ). Hence football clubs are more than a busines and are essential to their communities and therefore cannot be allowed to go out of business by COVID 19 or by an inequitable governance structure. 2.3 Hence the financial structure of English football needs a total overhaul to support all the clubs within the football league. I believe this needs to firstly start with a ground up approach, with greater investment in grassroots football. The FA and the government currently jointly invest £60 million into grassroots sport every year (FA, n.d.). I believe if the government increased its level of funding on a yearly basis maybe even matching or surpassing this £60 million of funding then this would free up money within the FA which could then be reinvested back into the EFL to clubs who need it most. 2.4 Although some such as Dyche may argue that a prize money system based on merit is fair, the system in English football is too heavily skewed towards the Premier League and I would argue does not actually reward merit accurately (Reade, 2020). For example when Norwich City won the championship in 2019 they were awarded £7.1 million, but when they finished last in the Premier League in 2020 were awarded £94.5 million, (Reade, 2020). I believe that English football’s finance rules should be reformed to be similar to those pre the early 1980s as described in Reade’s article where revenues are shared across football league member clubs earned from league matches played (Reade, 2020). I believe this would give a more equitable distribution of finance across the four leagues ensuring the long-term stability of all of the clubs in the Football League (Reade, 2020). I would allow Premier League clubs to keep their broadcasting deals money and hence have the reward of higher revenue on merit of being in the top league, but the restructuring of matchday revenue distribution gives a more equitable distribution of money across the football league and ensure its survival. 2.5 Hence my recommendations are as follows: The Government should encourage English Football to move to a system of finance sharing where revenues from all matchdays played are shared across football league members (Reade, 2020). The government should increase its investment in grassroots football as this may free up funds in the FA which can be reinvested back into the EFL.
3. To what extent should elite professional sports support the lower leagues and grassroots
3.1 As outlined above, the EFL and grassroots football underpins the Premier League. Not only does the EFL feed the Premier League with new clubs every season and nurture new talent, it also provides the Premier League clubs with a place to develop their own talent through the loan system, for example Tottenham striker Harry Kane had loan spells at clubs throughout the EFL including Leyton Orient, Millwall and Norwich before breaking into the Tottenham first team and becoming one of the best strikers in the world (O'Connor, 2017). Hence it is clear why the EFL is so important for the success of the Premier League and its clubs (Reade, 2020). Also equally important is grassroots football. All of the world’s top players for example Dele Alli began their career at grassroots level and hence it is key to have a system that nurtures these talents into the top teams (Guest, 2020). I am also including non-league football within grassroots football, its importance epitomized by Leicester striker and 2019/20 Premier League Golden boot winner Jamie Vardy, who spent a significant amount of his career playing non- league football (The Non League Paper, 2020). Hence it is clear why Premier League clubs should be supporting grassroots football. 3.2 To what extent should Premier League Clubs support the EFL and grassroots football may sound like a very complicated question, however I believe that answer is clear, they should support the EFL and grassroots football to the extent that they are both able to survive sustainably, especially in the wake of the pandemic. It would be in the interests of the Premier League clubs to invest in grassroots football, as for both men’s and women’s teams it would help unearth more pools of talent from even more backgrounds as suggested by England manager Gareth Southgate (Football Foundation, n.d.). 3.3 In the recent summer transfer window, the spending by Premier League Clubs totaled over £1.2 billion, with marquee singings such as Kai Havertz being bought for over £71 million (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sport in our communities, 2020, HC 869, 2019- 21, Q2, p.3; Reade, 2020). In comparison the funding given by the FA from the Premier League to the national league ladder was just £12million (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Sport in our communities, 2020, HC 869, 2019-21, Q1, p.3). Rather than spending millions on marquee singings from Europe, I believe that Premier League clubs would be better off investing heavily in the grassroots system and EFL as this would widen the talent pool within England and ultimately be a more sustainable football model where more talent could be nurtured through the system rather than brought in from abroad as indicated by Southgate (Football Foundation, n.d.). The government already encourages Premier league clubs to invest a minimum of 30% of the broadcasting revenue into grassroots development through the SRA, however I would like to see this increased (HM Government , 2015, p. 55). I believe this would be beneficial to Premier league clubs in the long run as teams must currently have at least eight homegrown players in their squad, and there is strong talk that this number will increase post Brexit (Brand, 2020). Hence if greater investment in grassroots football leads to a greater pool of talent is indicated by Southgate then I believe it will be easier for Premier League clubs to fill these quotas, and have even more talented squads, reducing the need to spend huge money on European talent, ultimately saving money for Premier League clubs in the long run (Football Foundation, n.d.). 3.4 Hence my recommendation is as follows: The Government should increase the percentage of broadcasting revenue earned by Premier League clubs that must be reinvested into grassroots football, potentially even doubling it as suggested in the Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an active nation report (HM Government , 2015, p. 55).
4. Conclusions
4.1 In conclusion the governance structures within English football are not fit for purpose, in particular financially, they need to be reformed and address the inequality in the money within English football, redistributing it among the smaller clubs. Both the government and Premier League clubs need to put greater investment into grassroots football, if the government does this then it may free up funds within the FA to help struggling clubs and if the Premier League clubs themselves invest then it may increase the talent pool and make the system as a whole more sustainable. Bibliography Brand, G., 2020. Do Premier League clubs need to sign homegrown players?. [Online] Available at: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/12052427/do-premier-league-clubs- need-to-sign-homegrown-players [Accessed 22 11 2020].
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