English football has embarked on reforms to better control club owners

During the 2022-2023 season, the English Premier League will only have four teams majority-owned by British shareholders, only one in the “Big 6” of the richest clubs, Tottenham. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are owned by billionaires or American funds, Manchester City by an Emirati fund.

The early arrival of foreign investors in this pioneering Premier League, which had launched its international development strategy at the start of the 1990s, contributed to its enrichment and its current economic supremacy. Until recently, this globalization of capital had not aroused major resistance.

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In a few months, three events changed the situation. In April 2021, the launch of the Super League, a private and closed European competition, came to an end. The “Big 6” making up half of the twelve secessionist clubs, the attempt arouses widespread disavowal among their supporters, ulcerated that invisible owners make such decisions without even explaining them publicly.

Supporters’ right of veto

In October, the Premier League authorized the Saudi fund Public Investment Fund to buy 80% of Newcastle United’s shares, despite opposition from other clubs and the anger of human rights NGOs against this “sportswashing” operation. Finally, in February, the war in Ukraine suddenly made oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea since 2003, undesirable and precipitated the sale of the club to an American consortium.

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Sponsored by the government the day after the Super League fiasco, a mission led by MP Tracey Crouch delivered its report in November 2021. The government has undertaken to transcribe its main recommendations into law.

In addition to a cardinal measure already on track – the establishment of an independent regulator, in particular to oversee the management of clubs – the report recommends better involving supporters in the governance of clubs by granting them certain rights of supervision and veto. .

Under pressure, the Premier League is worried about losing its sovereignty, but gives pledges of goodwill. It thus recognizes the need to strengthen the integrity test – “owners’ and directors’ test” – that future owners and directors have had to pass since 2004. This examination mainly checks the solvency and the absence of criminal records of the candidates, but it neglects the control of the origin of the funds and the solidity of their holders, for lack of means to disentangle the skein of often opaque financial arrangements.

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