Debate on Football in Parliament

John Van Laer said:

Good to see such wide recognition that the financial problems in football are not just restricted to the high-profile cases reported in the media. It’s important that you and other MPs relate these headline issues to local teams, which play an important role in constituency communities.
As a long-term Hayes / Hayes & Yeading Utd fan now living in Germany, it’s interesting for me to look at how football is regulated in Germany and compare it to the situation in the UK. Although the German system is not ideal, it does include far more financial safeguards - each season, teams in the national and regional leagues have to provide a budget statement, showing actual and projected earnings set against expenditure on players’ wages. If the figures don’t add up, the club does not receive a playing license and has to drop down several divisions to a level that they can afford. This would seem to be fairly simple to implement and would surely go some way to ensuring that clubs cannot run up an unsustainable level of debt. Apart from that, making this ‘fit and proper person test’ worthy of its name would also help - the system in place does not seem to be very effective if it allows someone like Steven Vaughan to continue to control Chester City and drive the club into the abyss.

February 18, 2010 at 14:11

Brian Moere said:

Well done, John. If we don’t regulate in some way our national game will be ruined.
Mentioning the H&Y united Latvian signing shows you keep up to date with our local club.

February 16, 2010 at 21:09