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Labour Promises Board Membership And Minority Stakes For Football Fans


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Labour has promised a fan ownership revolution if it wins next year’s general election, vowing to introduce new laws that would guarantee football supporters at least two seats on the board and a minority stake in their club.

It has boldly described the plan, to be unveiled on Friday by the shadow sports minister, Clive Efford, with the backing of Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, as “the biggest legislative shake-up in the governance of English and Welsh football clubs since the advent of the game”.

Under the new laws each supporters’ trust in the country – from the Premier League to the Conference – would have the legal right to representation on the main board of its club, with not fewer than two directors.

When a stake of more than 30% in any club in England or Wales changed hands, the purchaser would be obliged to offer 10% of those shares to the supporters’ trust at the average sale price. A supporters’ trust would have 240 days to raise the money to buy the shares. The obligation to sell shares would cease once a trust owned 10% overall.

Labour claims the proposals would allow fans to hold clubs to account on issues such as ticket prices, shirt sponsorship, ground naming rights and changing the colour of the strip or the name.

“Our view is that the time has come for fans to be represented at this level,” said Efford. “It is something we will act on and definitely implement.” [more at link...]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/17/labour-board-membership-minority-stakes-supporters

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Seems Labour might just have decided that the time is right to start offering more radical stuff other than lurching right towards a UKIP 1%er agenda.

Another LibLabCon policy that will drive me further toward UKIP.

I prefer 1%ers (you should add 1%er to your sig to save you having to type it out in every post) to footballers. they don't spit all the time. Having said that, many of your 1%ers probably are footballers.

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I'm a Pompey fan already.

Without fan ownership we'd have died, but I don't think it's a model that's universally applicable.

That said, debts paid off 2 years ahead of schedule was an incredible achievement really.

what has football got to do with lawmaking, other than current companies acts, taxation and the usual.

A private firm can decide whatever form it wants to take

For me, a fan of a football club is a hobbyist. The fact he tacks on to the club as a "fan" makes him no more relevant to the business than any other organisation with a brand loyalty.

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Labour has promised a fan ownership revolution if it wins next year’s general election, vowing to introduce new laws that would guarantee football supporters at least two seats on the board and a minority stake in their club.

It has boldly described the plan, to be unveiled on Friday by the shadow sports minister, Clive Efford, with the backing of Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, as “the biggest legislative shake-up in the governance of English and Welsh football clubs since the advent of the game”.

Under the new laws each supporters’ trust in the country – from the Premier League to the Conference – would have the legal right to representation on the main board of its club, with not fewer than two directors.

When a stake of more than 30% in any club in England or Wales changed hands, the purchaser would be obliged to offer 10% of those shares to the supporters’ trust at the average sale price. A supporters’ trust would have 240 days to raise the money to buy the shares. The obligation to sell shares would cease once a trust owned 10% overall.

Labour claims the proposals would allow fans to hold clubs to account on issues such as ticket prices, shirt sponsorship, ground naming rights and changing the colour of the strip or the name.

“Our view is that the time has come for fans to be represented at this level,” said Efford. “It is something we will act on and definitely implement.” [more at link...]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/17/labour-board-membership-minority-stakes-supporters

Hmm, what should we do today Ed? I know let's increase the level of business risk associated with highly indebted football clubs!

Cue reduced investment in English football (I presume it wouldn't apply to Scotland) in 5,4,3,2,1.....

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It's just surprising that they didn't preface it by saying it was a think tank idea. Weren't they calling UKIP populist a few weeks ago - or was that the SNP.

Mind you apparently the Unions have had a place on the Court of the BoE and it doesn't seem to have helped workers much. It might be worth giving it a try in footie but there are more serious problems to be addressed.

Free money distributed from LibLabCon offices next.

Edited by billybong
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what has football got to do with lawmaking, other than current companies acts, taxation and the usual.

A private firm can decide whatever form it wants to take

For me, a fan of a football club is a hobbyist. The fact he tacks on to the club as a "fan" makes him no more relevant to the business than any other organisation with a brand loyalty.

Football has become quite an interesting microcosm for business really.

Club ownership is a den of thieves, money-launderers, criminals, and state asset-stripping thugs.

I can see why fans would be concerned, but really these are the sorts of people running the world, and there's far more at stake than football.

Pompey had:

A succession of owners looking to wash a bit of money, a skint Arab pretending to be rich to attract investment in his other companies, a made-up Arab fronting a hostile takeover (spun as a positive thing by PR) from the fallout of a feud with an Israeli arms dealer.

On and on it went, greed following greed following greed.

The thing was, as a company (before the fan takeover) the purpose wasn't to run it well or make a profit. It was to wash, or hide, or spin.

Now it's run well and local businesses are doing pretty well out of it too.

As I say, much wider lessons to be learnt here.

Edited by byron78
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Seems Labour might just have decided that the time is right to start offering more radical stuff other than lurching right towards a UKIP 1%er agenda.

Or, the 0.01% have secured a load of debt on the big clubs, extracted the cash, and are now looking to their political stooges to lay the groundwork for putting the impending losses on the peasants.

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I'm not a football fan, so me mate Marcus will probably tell me i'm missing the point.....but is this really THE most pressing issue the UK economy faces? Do falling German bond yields have an immediate impact on the likelihood of the Engerlund team beating them in the next Championship/Cup/whatever?

Or is this just a sop to the masses, who Labour quite clearly believe can be kept quite happy so long as they get cheap football.

The sad thing is, they'll probably pick up votes because of this.

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