The Football Shake-Up Q&A, Part Five

What steps should be taken against club owners and directors shown to be operating in a negligent or incompetent manner?

Gary Andrews: Simple. The FA should actually enforce the fit and proper persons test, and tighten it up. The league should force any bidders or new investors over a certain threshold to be made public, to avoid a situation such as Munto and Notts County and a myriad of other shell companies. Not that there’s any suggestion of wrongdoing at, say, Crawley, but I’ve always found it a tad disturbing we don’t know who is pumping money in and will we ever know who really owned Leeds United over the past few seasons?
It should also be impossible for anybody convicted of fraud to go anywhere near a club, or anybody banned as a director elsewhere. This would have avoided a lot of nonsense at Wrexham, where you had several disqualified directors bidding for control but insisting they would be hands off.
If a chairman fails at one club, then there should be measures to make it harder for them to step into another club. Many people are scratching their heads on how Peter Ridsdale could take charge at Plymouth. Meanwhile, it was faintly ridiculous that Truro City owner Kevin Heaney was the main cash man for Plymouth. How is this not a conflict of interest? I’m all for letting clubs sort out their own mess, but the authorities can do more to prevent those unfit to take over a club getting near the boardroom.

Matt Tickner: I think that there are two ways of looking at this. First and foremost, I would say that people operating at football clubs need to be screened. I know we have the fit and proper test, but then Thaksin Shinawatra went and passed it. Furthermore, I think that if any illegality is discovered, then these directors should be imprisoned. Why should there be one set of rules for business and one set for football? Peter Storrie seems like he can walk on water some times. He seems to be allowed to remain in charge of Portsmouth Football Club when surely some serious questions need to be asked about his role in their downfall?
Secondly, I think that if there were some supporter involvement at board level, then it would be far easier for people to be questioned on their competency and operational decisions. In some cases, boards are extremely detached from the supporters. There needs to be more transparency in these cases, along with more transparency across football governance as a whole.

Ian Stirling: They should be dismissed from the game and not allowed to return.

Rocco Cammisola: It is very difficult to punish owners and directors without punishing the club and the fans but persistent offenders should be banned to stop them ruining other clubs. The problem with this is that it seems most sensible businesspeople are unwilling to step into football, leaving clubs in an even worse situation.

Mark Pitman: Again, this is a society problem more than a football one, but the effects of negligence and incompetence are inevitably felt by fans which makes football different to other businesses. Wrexham fans this summer made an incredible financial contribution to cover the mismanagement of previous owners because the fans will be there when the lights come on. Football currently generates incredible amounts of money and where there is money there will be those looking to claim a share. When it comes to what steps should be taken against incompetent owners, it takes a negligent owner to allow them to take over in the first place, so how far back do you take it? It is easy to be sold a dream in a business where decisions are often made with the heart and not the head.

Gavin Brightman: Firstly, more should be done to prevent this from happening. The fit and proper persons test talks a good game, but is nowhere strict enough judging by some of the unsavoury characters we’ve had at football clubs in recent times. Then there should be full transparency of all clubs finances and ownership. Hopefully, this in turn would prevent owners coming in to try to make a quick buck. If any corruption is found, then a lifetime ban is the only answer. Negligence and incompetency are different things to corruption though, and this is where the line is blurred. Better education to help clubs to be run in the correct manner, as well as stricter rules on spending within a club’s means (hopefully FFP will bring this about) would go some way to preventing clubs being run into the ground.

Jimmy Daniel: Except the fit and proper persons test what can you do? If the owners pass those initial vetting procedures, then I am not sure that anything more could be done. Once they own the club it is then up to them if they destroy it. Apart from perhaps bringing in wage caps and a number of other regulations to ensure that the clubs are run within their means, but even then, once the owners are part of the club, I don’t really see what can be done to stop them from running them into the ground.

Rich Pye: I would like to see, as well as the competitive punishments levied against the clubs, individual bans for the directors involved. These should certainly be weighted dependant on whether the poor decisions that have been taken and which have caused the club to fail, are in fact based in negligence and incompetence, or in corruption and wrongdoing.
For negligent decisions, directors should be banned for one football season. Upon their return, they should also have to undergo a specialised and more stringent version of the fit and proper persons test. For those directors and owners shown to have operated in a corrupt and illegal way, firstly, they should be made to feel the full weight of the law. Secondly, I would recommend if not lifetime bans, then at least five years exclusion from the game to be applied, thus ensuring that they are not allowed to get anywhere near another club, in such time for their knowledge of the industry to still be relevant.

In the final part of the Football Shake-Up Q&A we’ll be asking the panel if Supporters’ Trusts should be guaranteed a minimum stake in their football clubs.