BORIS Johnson insisted today that an investigation into football governance WILL still go ahead – despite the collapse of the European Super League last night.
Ex-sports minister Tracey Crouch will do a "root and branch" prove into how footie is rules and how fans can best be represented, the PM vowed this lunchtime.
The PM said today he was it was essential that the investigation continues – after all six English clubs pulled out last night – killing the project before it could really begin.
He said at PMQs today:"It's entirely right that (former sports minister Tracey Crouch) will do a root and branch investigation into the governance of football and into what we can do to promote the role of fans in that governance."
Bashing the proposed new super project, which was slammed by politicians and fans alike, he added: "I think that one of the most worrying features about the European Super League proposals is that they would have taken clubs that take their names from great, famous British towns and cities, English towns and cities, and turned them just into global brands with no relation to the fans, to the communities that gave them life and that give them the most love and support."
Last night The Sun revealed how fans could be handed control of their clubs to stop future breakaways like the European Super League.
Fans and supporter groups would be able to vote on key decisions, like moving league, stadium or new ownership, without having access to the revenue.
And ministers privately say they will be able to implement this because of a “Brexit bonus” with the nation no longer in a vice-like grip of the European courts.
Government “golden shares” were barred by the EU after airport group BAA euro courts ruled they broke laws promoting the single market back in 2003.
Whitehall insiders say than now we are free from the shackles of Brussels, there would be nothing to stop government imposing similar schemes on clubs – with fans, rather than government owning the shares.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden confirmed this today, saying the Government will look at introducing a German-style ownership model in a major shakeup of the game.
He said UK competition laws could be updated to protect significant cultural institutions from takeovers, as happens in France.
And he even suggested a new Ofcom-style regulator with the power to sanction clubs could be brought in to keep them in check.
Mr Dowden and the PM spoke out today after all six English clubs involved in the Super League plans pulled out last night following a huge fan backlash.
The Sun Says
THE howl of rage was deafening. And it has worked.
Grasping billionaires will not be allowed to destroy our national sport.
Fans — backed by a robust Tory Government, by Prince William, by every sane voice in the land — united in uproar, either abandoning the “big six” clubs they have supported all their lives or protesting outside their stadiums.
Slowly but surely managers and players, blindsided like everyone else at the weekend, began to rise up. This cold-blooded coup by a megarich cartel has been a direct attack on them too.
Even potential TV broadcasters of the “European Super League” turned their guns on it. We don’t blame them. Who, long-term, would pay to watch a league where nothing is at stake?
Where the same founder members effectively play out stale friendlies again and again?
But the tycoons’ foolish misconception is a lesser point. For this has been a simple issue of right and wrong.
Avaricious men with no connection to, or feel for, the beautiful game must not steal it from the millions of ordinary people who make it what it is.
The clubs are listening. Chelsea, Man City, Barcelona and Atletico pulled the plug. Others were considering their options. Man United’s chief resigned.
The huge threat from Boris Johnson’s “legislative bomb” was bad enough.
But even soulless owners driven solely by profit baulk if they sense their plan is a financial disaster. As fans desert their clubs, buy no merchandise, cancel season tickets and end their TV subscriptions for the Prem, those greedy fools are finally realising what a shameful mistake they have made.
What a hornets’ nest they stirred up trying to line their pockets by tearing the heart out of Britain’s national game.
It must not happen. Not now. Not ever.
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