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  • Why should the government be regulating football?

    • That does sound strange.

      googles

      This has more.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-07/uk-to-set-up-football-regulator-to-stop-clubs-going-bust

      UK to Set Up Football Regulator to Stop Clubs Going Bust

      • Regulator will prevent teams from joining breakaway leagues
      • Plan for club oversight to start in 2024 may be pushed back

      The UK will establish an independent football regulator for England’s Premier League and lower divisions, to protect the financial health of smaller clubs and prevent the biggest teams from joining breakaway tournaments. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak included a Football Governance Bill in his government’s legislative agenda, announced by King Charles III on Tuesday. Bloomberg first reported in July that legislation to set up the football regulator would feature in the King’s Speech.

      The collapse of historic clubs such as Bury FC and Macclesfield Town in recent years prompted a government-backed review of English football.

      Each team in the top five tiers of men’s English football will now need a license to operate as a professional club, according to an overview of the bill. The regulator will have powers to monitor and enforce compliance with financial regulation requirements, corporate governance and club ownership. Clubs will need to seek the regulator’s approval for the sale or relocation of its stadium.

      The King’s Speech marks an attempt by Sunak to set-out his priorities for the run-up to a general election expected next year. Appearing to be on the side of football fans, after a number of local clubs collapsed in recent years, forms part of his pitch to voters as he continues to trail Keir Starmer’s Labour Party by about 20 points in opinion polls.

      Still, plans for the regulator to start its work in 2024 may be pushed back, Bloomberg previously reported. A recent job advert for the interim Chief Operating Officer for the regulator, reported by The Athletic, showed the government will pay a maximum salary of £128,900 per year.

      The new regulator has also faced opposition from football executives, with Leeds United Chief Executive Angus Kinnear comparing it to Maoism.

      Sunak’s administration will also establish a compulsory governance code and prevent clubs from joining breakaway leagues, after an attempt to set up a European Super League in 2021 threatened the success of the English Premier League. It will also create a new test for owners and directors to guard against mismanagement and require clubs to seek fan support for changes to the club’s badge, name and home shirt colors.

      The historical dominance of England’s most financially powerful teams, such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, has disguised the underlying fragility of the English football pyramid, the government argues. Poor governance and industry self-regulation has increased the risk of financial failure of clubs, with Championship teams making collective pre-tax losses of over £3 billion ($3.7 billion) between 2010 and 2022, with levels of borrowing and debt increasing.

      The regulator will also be able to intervene to redistribute broadcast revenue between clubs if leagues do not reach voluntary agreements, to ensure smaller teams remain financially sustainable.

      Hmm.

      Well, from that, sounds like it's either a crowd-pleaser for people worried about their favorite team going under or protectionism against international leagues. Maybe both.

      • So that says that it's a response to the European Super League.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Super_League

        The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal football competition for club teams in Europe. Initially, the league was supposed to include 20 teams, with 12 of them being founding members of the competition.

        The formation of the ESL led to widespread condemnation from UEFA, The Football Association and Premier League of England, the Italian Football Federation and Lega Serie A of Italy, and the Royal Spanish Football Federation and La Liga of Spain. All governing bodies issued a joint statement declaring their intention to prevent the new competition proceeding any further, with UEFA warning that any clubs involved in the Super League would be banned from all other domestic, European and world football competitions,[62] and that players from the clubs involved would also be banned from representing their national teams in international matches.[62][63] In addition, the French Football Federation and Ligue de Football Professionnel of France, the German Football Association and Deutsche Fußball Liga of Germany, as well as the Russian Premier League and Russian Football Union released similar statements opposing the proposal.[64][65][66][67]

        UEFA began immediately looking into making further reforms to the Champions League in a €6 billion effort to prevent the proposal moving forward.[68] The Premier League and the Football Association released a statement "unanimously and vigorously" opposing the breakaway league but ruled out barring the six breakaway clubs from domestic competitions and preferred to not take legal action against them.[69]

        Numerous politicians expressed their opposition to the proposals across Europe, the most prominent coming from the British government, with the objections to the ESL uniting political parties completely behind its prevention. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the proposals "very damaging for football" and vowed to ensure that it "doesn't go ahead in the way that it's currently being proposed",[93] a position which was supported by Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer.[94] In addition, the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said in a statement to the House of Commons that "this move goes against the very spirit of the game", and pledged to do "whatever it takes" to stop English clubs from joining.[95]

      • I'm not worried about what it will start out as, I'm worried about what it might become.

        Football already has independent regulatory bodies, it doesn't need a government regulatory body - it needs legislation to stop all the fraud and bribery that the current bodies commit, not a new body that funnels bribes to politicians.

  • Now that's an image showing broken humanity.

    • A man dressed in ermine robes and a bejewelled crown, sitting on a golden throne, announcing plans to tackle a cost of living crisis.

      Recent events have brought a lot more attention to the monarchy, I would hope that would make more people think about that juxtaposition.

      • I don't know. Using a 7th hand piece of old furniture. A hand me down robe made for his grandfather when his mother had a new one made to fit her. And a 177 year old hat. Sorta seems to meet the ideal of the cost of living. If little else dose.

        Its not like the UK selling of such history is going to make any measurable difference to the lives of people today. While it will prevent future generations from looking at their past even if we ever dump the royal family.

  • I thought the king was just a figure head that brings in tourist tax dollars

  • Plans to ban smoking is a stupid one. Prohibition never has worked and never will. More are moving to vaping anyways. You have to ask why vaping was not included in this.

    The ban on no fault evictions has a stay added until the loop hole can be added.

    The ban on leaseholds is credible. Leaseholds are just a con to make home ownership a subscription scheme. I do not understand why flats are excused. It is very easy to add a tenancy agreement. This does not need to be leasehold.

    Oil and gas licensing is just another scheme to rob the country of money. People want a focus on the climate. This is just a lead balloon.

    Tougher prison sentences are a joke when we have to release prisoners early now because they are at capacity. Where was the funding to build these prisons?

    Self driving vehicles looks like it is having loop holes added. Now we know why Musk was invited to the AI conference.

    The football regulator remains to be seen, but I have no trust the Tories can actually get anything right, or do it without expecting a backhander.

    National holocaust memorial? why. Are we going to have one for the many other atrocities that have happened in history? I could understand this being suggested in the 1940's, but atm it is just a popularity stunt. Someone needs to point out that the British were the inventors of concentration camps.

    Great British railways just sounds like another sell off project. It is just a stunt to make nationalising the railways more expensive when labour come to power.

    Plans to introduce new codes for Netflix is a joke. Ofcom is a joke and a waste of tax payers money. They do not enforce the current laws.

    So all in all the only good I see is the leasehold law. And yet you have to ask would the Tories actually deliver? Sunak has abandoned the Tory manifesto for his own ideas. They are a party that are holding onto power after having conned the public to vote for them.

  • This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Rishi Sunak is hoping to make law and order a key election battleground with a series of measures promising tougher sentences for killers, rapists and grooming gang ringleaders.

    The prime minister has also used the King’s Speech in parliament to create a dividing line with Labour on climate change, with a new law bringing in annual oil and gas licensing in the North Sea.

    The King’s Speech also confirm plans to ban young people from smoking – with the PM aiming to stop children who turn 14 this year and those younger from ever legally buying cigarettes in England.

    The plan will deliver on already-announced proposals for killers convicted of the most horrific murders to expect whole life orders – meaning they will never be released – while rapists and other serious sexual offenders will not be let out early from prison sentences.

    However, as levelling up secretary Michael Gove said last month, the government will not abolish section 21 evictions until “new court process” can speed up decisions – a move sparking outrage among campaigners who fear it kicks the vital change into the long grass.

    Ditching the promise has prompted anger among some Tory MPs, including Alicia Kearns and ex-minister Dehenna Davison – with backbenchers plotting to bring it to parliament anyway.


    The original article contains 1,036 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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