Yesterday, the House of Commons had the long awaited second reading of the Football Governance Bill. I was truly delighted to speak in the debate on behalf of Southend United and all its fans. As often happens in Parliament, the time MPs are allowed to contribute to proceedings gets shortened considerably as time goes on so I wanted to publish the full version of my speech, so constituents have the opportunity to read my thoughts on the highly anticipated Independent Regulator.
Please find my speech below:
"For too long, football clubs like my very own, Southend United, have been left at the mercy of unscrupulous owners who are either unwilling or unable to fulfil their obligations to the clubs and the fans.
For too long, fans have suffered having vital decisions made on their heritage with little to no consultation.
For too long, there has been no focus on sustainability and future planning, leaving many clubs just one bad season away from insolvency.
Whilst I would normally be totally against any regulation, especially regulation that affects an industry as successful as football, so I welcome the Government’s plans to introduce the Independent Regulator which will set out to address these issues, and put fans back where they belong, at the heart of football.
To date, I have mentioned Southend United 11 times in this place, and a majority of those have been to raise awareness of a club on the brink of oblivion.
Were it not for the heroics of those at the club, like Tom Lawrence, Kevin Maher and all the players who somehow delivered result after result each week, we could very well have lost 117 years of history. The Southend United saga exemplifies why we so desperately need intervention now, to stop situations like those we have seen at Southend, Reading, Derby, Bury, Torquay and elsewhere from ever being repeated.
Under the outgoing owner, the club has been subject to 19 winding up petitions in 25 years. This instability is exactly what I hope the bill’s strengthened Owners and Directors tests will address.
Worryingly, the current Premier League and the EFL Owners and Directors Test requires that any prospective owner must not have been subject to two or more bankruptcy events; whereas Part 4, Clause 37, Subclause 4 of the Bill removes any minimum number of events.
However, I would like to hope that instead of just punishing poor owners, the regulator will have a mechanism to reward good owners who are making a positive, tangible difference to their club and community. Southend United’s Community and Educational Trust’s social value to Southend and Southeast Essex communities was £10.3m and tremendous work that gives back to the community must be encouraged and rewarded appropriately.
Southend United has a truly remarkable fanbase, who despite everything, kept supporting their club no matter what, throughout the season, over 150,000 fans came to Roots Hall to show their support and almost 18,000 travelled away. These astonishing numbers mean that Southend United were the 3rd best supported club in the National League at home and the 2nd best supported club away.
Almost every club has a Supporters Trust, and we are lucky to have the hard-working Shrimpers Trust, led ably by Paul FitzGerald and James Schooley. But throughout football there is such a broad depth of knowledge from supporters, and I am delighted that the Regulator will require clubs to engage with fans on all heritage matters. Although it is my hope that many clubs will join Southend’s incoming new owners and appoint a Fan Advisory Board to ensure fans are given a formal voice on the operations of the club.
I also hope the Regulator will be given the power it requires to mediate in all matters between the Premier League, EFL and National League, not just financial ones. I of course refer to last weeks concerning news regarding the unscrupulous scrapping of FA Cup Replays.
Whilst it is hard to measure or describe such an abstract concept like “the magic of the FA Cup”, every single person hearing these words thinks of something different, but equally real. For Southend United, the magic of the FA Cup is best shown in 1979, when 31,033 spectators crammed into Roots Hall to witness their heroes take on European Champions, Liverpool. To put that into context, more than 11% of the entire population of Southend at the time, was at that game.
The FA Cup is the world’s oldest football competition, and for such monumental changes to be proposed with little to no consultation with Clubs in the National League is shameful. I would appreciate clarification from the Minister on this and how he intends for the Regulator to address similar issues in the future? Replays are a huge opportunity for smaller clubs bringing extra income and capturing the imagination of the community. Scrapping them to appease the top 7/8 teams in the Premier League with European commitments midweek shows a complete disregard for the rest of the pyramid.
The Regulator needs to be seen as an opportunity to safeguard the future of English football for generations to come, so our children and grandchildren can find the same joy and sense of community that we all have from our football teams.
I understand Regulator has its sceptics who believe there could be unintended consequences that could make English teams less competitive. To those people I say, put yourself in the position of a Southend United, a Torquay United or a Bury, in some cases hours away from ceasing to exist, and you would understand exactly why this legislation is needed and there is not a moment more to lose."
