Proposals to put elected fan reps on the boards of football clubs, to give fan groups the right to purchase up to 10 per cent of a club’s shares in the event of a sale, the establishment of an expert group to examine ways of removing barriers to supporter ownership… all of this can only mean one thing. There is a general election in the offing. The history of attempts to reform football being talked up when the leading parties need the votes of football fans, then being kicked over the stand and into the allotments beyond when the election is over means it’s easy to be cynical about the latest flurry of activity. But that easy conclusion overlooks the significant breakthroughs that are occurring right now.
As I said last week, the debate is no longer about whether football should be reformed, but how. There has simply been too much mismanagement, incompetence and downright crookery in the game over a prolonged period for the argument that the system does not need fixing to retain a shred of credibility. Since 1992, 36 Football League clubs, half the membership, have gone in to administration. The fact that, in many cases, it is the fans themselves who have rescued clubs from the brink of oblivion and then run them sustainably and successfully removes credibility from those who would argue that fan involvement at board level is unrealistic.
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