Lobby your MP to ensure football reform

The idea of the European Super League is dead, at least for now, but the hard work to ensure that it can never return is only just beginning, and the first step in that process is demonstrating that there is political support for the much-needed reforms to our game.

Ian Mearns, Labour MP for Gateshead, has introduced an Early Day Motion (EDM) before Parliament calling for support from MPs who back the FSA’s reform proposals, and to make sure that fans are put front and centre of the upcoming fan-led review of football governance.

We want individual fans and supporters’ groups to contact their local MPs to sign EDM 1765, to ensure that the promised fan-led review of football governance delivers real results for football fans on the things that matter to us – giving fans a position in boardrooms and putting them at the heart of decision-making processes within the men’s and women’s game. Measures that will give fans a voice in determining key issues like ticket prices, kick-off times, distribution of finances and funding of the grassroots game.

Find out who your MP is via members.parliament.uk – enter your postcode then you can then send them a message directly about clubs in or close to their constituency, or just as a fan to ask them to sign EDM 1765.

In the past supportive MPs have told us that copy and pasted “template” emails are more easily ignored, so we encourage supporters to craft their own messages of support where possible, but we have included some simple guidelines and lines of argument below – feel free to use any or all of them that chime with your views.

Ideas for emails:

• Introduction – You should introduce who you are, who you support, and your thoughts on the last few days, the European Super League, and your opposition to the further concentration of wealth and power within the hands of a few billionaire club owners.

Some points/arguments that you might want to include:

• Football has shown that it is not fit to regulate itself – the people who are bound by the rules shouldn’t be the very same people who make them – there needs to be independent regulation of football.
• Barriers to supporter ownership should be removed, and supporters should be empowered to take a meaningful ownership stake in their clubs.
• Fans need a much greater say in the decision making structures of clubs and should be embedded on club boards to prevent any chance of this sort of thing happening again.
• Too many clubs further down the football pyramid have gone to the wall because of a lack of transparency and financial oversight – more needs to be done to ensure that community institutions are not lost, and reckless owners can’t destroy our clubs.
• The women’s game should not be an afterthought, and clubs should not be tethered to their men’s equivalent but free to make the decisions that are best for their continued growth and success.
• Nothing should be off the table, including Government legislation if necessary, to make the changes we need. Fans need to be front and centre of the fan-led review, and that includes key issues like ticket pricing, kick-off times and the dozens of other things that actually matter to matchgoing supporters.
• Sign-off with your name and address, so that they know you are a constituency member.

Cross-party support in Westminster will demonstrate that there is a real desire for something to be done, so it doesn’t matter if you live in a Conservative or Labour or Liberal Democrat or Plaid Cymru seat, we want to take this first opportunity to show to the Government that there is widespread support for real change.

• Find your local MP, and how to contact them, here.