Anyone living in the UK won't have failed to notice that a General Election is taking place, as well as the Euros! Politicians are increasingly likely to use football as a source of popularity and the governance of football has become a political issue, with the current government attempting to bring in financial regulation of the game.
In the name of public service we have gone through the manifestos of the five parties currently leading in the UK wide opinion polls to bring you a summary of their policies towards sport and football in England (for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland sport is a devolved issue).
We offer no support or endorsement of a specific party here but simply seek to summarize the facts out of public service. So here are their policies presented in alphabetical order with a brief comment:
| Conservative |
| Introduce Independent Football Regulator |
| Stop clubs joining breakaway leagues |
| Implement Carney Review of Women’s Football and support participation of women and girls |
| Continue Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme |
The Conservatives essentially envisage continuing as they are - the Independent Regulator legislation ran out of time.
| Green |
| Invest £5bn in local sports, arts and culture |
| Keep local sports facilities open |
| End VAT on 'cultural activities' |
The Greens have few policies on sport and focus on the grass roots side rather than the populist potential of the elite game.
| Labour |
| Introduce Independent Football Regulator |
| Stop clubs joining breakaway leagues |
| Support grassroots clubs to expand access to sport |
| Introduce consumer protection to stop ticket touts |
| 'deliver international events with pride and seek opportunities where we can' |
Labour are adopting the Conservative approach but interestingly with an interest in stopping ticket touts and a minimal promise to host mega-events where it might be relevant - but deliberately avoiding naming any specific event.
| Liberal Democrat |
| Introduce Independent Regulator but with powers to impose 'a fairer financial flow to well run clubs', include human rights questions in propriety tests for owners and directors, and require clubs to have EDI action plans |
| Boost participation in sports and physical activity by investing in leisure centres, swimming pools and other grassroots facilities and supporting community sports clubs.' |
| Protect sports and arts funding via National Lottery |
| Introduce consumer protection to stop ticket touts |
| Place levy on gambling companies |
| Expand free-to-air coverage to include more football as well as rugby, cricket, golf and tennis |
| Generally support and encourage EDI in sport |
The Liberal Democrats are the most interventionist of any major party - they also progress the Independent Regulator but with a much bigger footprint by adding human rights and EDI factors as well as looking at participation. They want to regulate gambling, a big sports-related product more, and more sport on telly, too.
| Reform |
| 'protect country sports' |
Reform have kept their sporting policy simple - defend hunting which they say helps the environment. Tally-ho!
So we can say that where parties consider elite sport they generally offer more regulation of it - but to different extents - for the Greens and Reform, presumably the status quo would continue, and professional football would be left to regulate itself. All except Reform consider grassroots sports with its broader community and health impacts important in some way - but again there are subtle differences in policy.
We hope that this has helped those with an interest in sport and football policy in England to decide who to vote for come July 4th!
No comments:
Post a Comment