**Tonight, we welcome Nottingham Forest Football Club to the Mangata Developments Stadium Meadow Park, can I wish their Directors, Manager, Players, Staff and Supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe journey home.**
Firstly, can I thank my staff, our dressing room and you the supporters for your efforts and attendance in pre-season and on Saturday. Although we lost to a much fancied and very good Rochdale team, I think we saw enough to be optimistic for the season and though we are young in certain areas we do have experience in others, and I believe with a bit of patience we have huge potential to grow together over the season.
In truth, we have needed to change things slightly on the recruitment side as two weeks ago we were invited into this evening’s National League Cup competition due to the very sad off field issues up at Morecambe. That brought about our invitation into this cup and with it 4 home cup games beginning tonight.
In simple terms it meant we needed to improve our budget to facilitate a slightly bigger squad for these extra games. As such, Luke and Charlie Hunter have gone out and bolstered our ranks with the permanent signing of highly rated midfielder Tom White from Morecambe and I would expect one other permanent addition or two loan players through the door in the next few weeks.
As I said in my last programme notes, it was a big decision for this football club with our current squad size to accept the late invitation into the National League Cup, especially after we lost Jack Payne to injury, an operation and a 14-week layoff. That said, I will always support Luke and the dressing room where I can, to be competitive going forward.
### Three up, three down, financial fair play and sporting fair chance
It’s a hot topic at the moment and in truth is something I care about deeply. Yet again, clubs at National League level get to receive the basket case clubs and their madcap owners (through no fault of those club supporters I might add), who periodically drop out of the EFL into the National League with many of these clubs on life support and just a whisker away from going under.
In the recent past this has included Macclesfield, Southend United, Bury amongst others and it now appears Morecambe are the latest such club to suffer from financial mismanagement. That mismanagement is a biproduct of what appears to be continued EFL negligence, lack of governance and lack of scrutiny.
The EFL and its finance division surely already know through their clubs audited accounts and from their disclosures which clubs are in trouble, which ones are suffering from years of poor governance and what their misleading account submissions amount to. Many are guilty of serious financial misconduct as it appears they are trading when in reality they are insolvent.
Trust me I genuinely feel sorry for these badly run clubs, their loyal supporters, their players and their loyal employees but I also feel sorry for their wider communities who suffer in every direction which includes their high streets, pubs, restaurants and all things in between that rely on third party spend to keep their communities alive – a football club is such a vital part of a town or city’s fabric and its identity and they must be protected from charlatans.
These immoral club owners both domestic and from abroad, again show me it is not the Premier League who need a government regulator, it’s Mr Rick Parry and the EFL Board.
It is they who for years have presided over these inappropriate club ownerships, it’s they who have not shown any consistent leadership and it’s they in my opinion who should have sorted out these basket case owners and found a way to avert them from trading when insolvent or asset stripping clubs by spending way above their means.
It was surely obvious that more robust ownership tests and stricter spending rules needed to apply. For me, it’s always been the EFL’s failure to properly run themselves, with the old adage “who polices the police” being relevant here. It’s always been the EFL policy to deflect all financial blame onto the Premier League when the truth is all their clubs financial woes come down to the EFL’s own lack of leadership, governance, checks and balances.
Now it appears the EFL are begging for government help and a government regulator to step in. All that will happen is that we will soon see both government and the EFL blaming the Premier League while diverting all blame away from Rick Parry, the EFL and the continued lack of governance by the EFL.
Ask most fans of the clubs I mention above, and they would all want the EFL to properly administer a fit and proper owners test that protects their clubs, and all of us are asking one question. Why have their clubs been killed off or are being killed off and nobody other than the club itself is ever held to account, nobody is ever prosecuted, and nobody ever goes to prison?
Our clubs are community institutions, meeting points for everyone and they should be cherished. We all know it’s not down to the Premier League, we all know it’s down to immoral and unscrupulous owners but it’s the EFL Board, Mr Rick Parry and the EFL clubs themselves who fail to insist on more robust fit and proper owners tests, aligned with far better and far stricter spending limits being adhered to.
Those are not Premier League issues, these are constant EFL failures at Board level and it’s they who have allowed these owners to kill or almost kill off those clubs that I mention above. Even now with Morecambe at risk of going pop there is no owner accountability, no EFL protections being discussed further down the line and they will now wait for a government regulator to be appointed. Yet it’s EFL negligence in weeding out these immoral owners who kill those clubs, kill those fans, their towns and who have killed off whole communities and it’s an absolute disgrace.
Now we have to listen to Lisa Nandy, who no doubt is a well-meaning but inexperienced Cabinet Minister pontificating about Morecambe FC and how her club Wigan went through this type of experience. However, the truth is Wigan were another basket case club, with another basket case foreign owner and the EFL did nothing and learnt nothing from their plight.
In truth this government’s fake concern is simply a vote winner, and as a Chairman and owner of 27 seasons, I believe it’s very dangerous when talking about a government involvement in football. I say that because both recent Labour and Tory governments have a record of messing everything up business wise, whether it’s Brexit, whether it’s in the public or private sector – as well as lying through its teeth recently in regard to Tax and National Insurance increases which in truth are killing small businesses and football clubs.
Surely, we want our government concentrating on the country as a whole, on lowering our taxes, on improving the NHS, on improving education, on investing in defence, on controlling immigration and on securing our borders?
I just hope this government doesn’t interfere too much in the Premier League and their impressive product as I’m of an age that well remembers when we fell well way behind the Spanish, Italian and German Leagues and failed to qualify for a World Cup after Mexico 1970 until Spain 1982.
In truth it’s the Premier League, Sky and the broadcasters who have teamed up and created what you see today, not the government and not the EFL. As such, government interference at Premier League level would for me be a huge worry, as none of us want inexperienced politicians or well-meaning civil servants telling the Premier League how to run one of the country’s best loved entertainment products and institutions and one of the greatest importer/exporters we have as their product is sold to every country around the world.
In truth the EFL cannot blame the Premier League or the FA for EFL Club mismanagement any longer, when for years it’s been the EFL hierarchy who almost every season fail to apply their own checks, balances, processes and procedures.
The EFL must weed out, and prosecute through their rules as necessary, these immoral club owners both domestic and foreign, who take the Premier League monies, take the broadcast monies directly from their club’s coffers with no apparent ramifications, with no external checks or balances.
To me that appears to be a blatant abuse of power, as they obviously find loopholes in how their accounts are reported and learn how to bypass any legal ramifications or scrutiny. These owners then leave our clubs destitute, our towns and communities in tatters, and if they are foreign often return home leaving a bankrupt, liquidated and broken football club and disappear without trace, with no consequences for their actions.
In Morecambe’s case it is alleged that their owner bankrupted Worcester Warriors and was then allowed by the EFL to purchase Morecambe – now was that not complete madness on the EFL’s part?
Trust me It’s only the big clubs who have established the English Premier League at the forefront of world football and it’s the big clubs who have created the Premier League wealth and sat it at the top of football’s worldwide wealth table.
Without the Premier League’s business acumen and investment, there would be very little financial support for any clubs at National League level, as the EFL give us nothing. So, in my opinion and it’s only my opinion, certain EFL clubs under Rick Parry’s stewardship, are only alive because of Premier League handouts but they are still allowed to live way above their means and everyone in football knows that.
Everyone knows their debts, everyone knows these clubs are only trading because they rob Peter to pay Paul each season and it’s obvious that they can only do that, because they’re being propped up by the Premier League and broadcaster’s interim payments.
Mr Parry never speaks about this or the EFL’s lack of governance or their clubs failing to live within their means, so when the government regulator arrives I do hope they bring common sense to the table, I hope they create spending caps that are enforced and effective based on a club’s income and I hope they create a system where non-compliant clubs are placed with bonds to ensure they can not only start but finish a season.
In my opinion Rick Parry is now footballs first, very well paid EFL politician. He understands his decision making and knows his media reports and press releases hold huge sway in regard to the actions of EFL Clubs and how things are reported in the media.
He is in truth the sharpest of football operators who knows completely the corridor of power and how the system works and knows how to shut out any noise from the National League in terms of our three up three down campaign.
I feel he will now ask the new government regulator to dance to his and the EFL’s tune, which would be a disaster if football at EFL level then lost the Premier League’s goodwill. Mr Parry himself is a long-standing football administrator who has for years been very well remunerated and his salary is beyond most people’s comprehension. He’s certainly paid a lot more money than say our Prime Minster and his Cabinet Ministers.
The reality is and I’m repeating myself………..it is only the Premier League clubs, it’s only the Premier League and it’s only through the broadcasters’ incredibly slick marketing, production and entertainment value, that has allowed the EFL to thrive and it’s the broadcasters’ subscribers and though it’s not cheap, it is in my opinion a great Premier League production and does give us value for money every week in our living rooms.
Subscriber money in turn creates most of the EFL club’s wealth and as I’ve said, it’s only the Premier League’s self-made internal revenue streams created through their worldwide investment that has kept most EFL clubs solvent for so long and in turn helped the National League.
Rick Parry with 72 clubs under his remit, is one of the most powerful men in football at our level, as it’s he who presides over three divisions and at National League level, we feed into that EFL system. In truth Rick is king over all he purveys, but regardless of that, many of his clubs are still mismanaged and many are still being allowed to live way above their means.
If Rick Parry and the EFL continue to allow basket case owners from both home and abroad to take over our community football clubs and just look at the current position at Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe, then people should resign their positions. The current owner of Morecambe FC had recently bankrupted Worcester Warriors and if reports are true, he has had over 20 injunctions, insolvencies, administrations, bankruptcies and liquidations to his name. If that’s true it is scandalous.
If any of the above is true how could these owners have passed an EFL fit and proper persons test when in the real world, they wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage, a loan or pass any simple credit check? Yet these owners have been ratified as “fit and proper” by the EFL and to the fans that means they’ve been given a clean bill of health and that’s the power Rick Parry has.
Now Mr Parry and the EFL clubs want a government regulator to be their saviour and make the Premier League pay them even more money to bail their EFL clubs out. However, everyone in government must be reminded by the likes of me and my fellow Chairmen that, the National League clubs still operate nationally while receiving absolutely no money (not one penny) from Mr Parry and the EFL.
Yet the EFL still send us their broken or bankrupt basket case clubs, who the National League are unfairly compelled to accept though the rules whilst the EFL can choose which National League Clubs to accept as we saw with Gateshead recently, and we do our very best to welcome, put back together and help them find a way to fix themselves within the National League structure. For me Morecambe FC should be allowed to get rid of their basket case owner today through the courts or helped by the EFL, but at present as we know, the laws of the land will not allow that.
As such, Morecambe are perhaps just a week from being the latest in a long line of clubs to have gone pop after their owner disappears having already spent last season’s Premier League and broadcast monies and who will be protected by company law.
Morecambe will be skint with no rainy-day money left to operate and today’s news will be tomorrow’s fish and chip paper. Surely a percentage of any future Premier League and Broadcast monies that these clubs receive, could firstly be held back in the form of a holding deposit, a bond and put in an escrow account held by the EFL or the new regulator, to somehow safeguard these clubs future, their stadiums future upkeep, deal with all safety certificate work, insurances, unpaid staff wages and all things in between?
Could it be that once we get the government regulator in place, that Mr Parry will feel it’s his time to resign and accept the EFL might need a new broom, a new fresh and bold approach? On a personal basis I feel strongly that the EFL should now recognise the National League and recognise we have earned Three up Three down and in my opinion the whole of football also believes in the merits of our case.
So for me, a government regulator is not needed at Premier League level but if it is going to get involved, please do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg as it’s the Premier League who feed the whole of English football.
Market forces and subscribers mean we spend our money on a Premier product that is the envy of the world. In truth the whole world wants to buy the Premier Leagues product, so I ask the government to tread softly here and ask Rick Parry and the EFL please do not get too greedy.
Let’s together create evolution not revolution and let’s have a government regulator mostly for the EFL and hopefully one that will be fair to the National League? Rick Parry often goes on about fairness at grassroots level and though he pontificates about financial fair play for his EFL clubs, he cares nothing for the National League and that’s a fact.
So, I hope Rick Parry can pivot and revisit his stance on grassroots and not just concentrate on wanting more Premier League money to bail many of his struggling clubs. Of course, every one of us can see that EFL Clubs do feed into the Premier League and most yo yo in and out. As such the EFL, as the Premier League’s feeder league, totally deserves fair remuneration for being part of the promotion and relegation merry go round – but that’s exactly why the wider football pyramid and National League should be supported by both the EFL and Premier League, as we feel in and out of the EFL which also means financial fair play and sporting fair chance should apply equally to the National League and all of its clubs.
At National League level we reluctantly accept that Rick Parry’s and most EFL Clubs in divisions 1 and 2 will still look to deny us the additional promotion space we thoroughly deserve, thus denying us any of the EFL windfall monies that they receive each and every season from the Premier League – but is that fair?.
I believe almost every club within the EFL and their supporters now accept that we are an important part of the EFL structure and in truth we are their only feeder league. As such it’s immoral to preach one thing to the Premier League then deny us sporting fair play with three up, three down.
So I have a few questions for Rick Parry and all EFL Clubs;
When will it be our time to receive financial fair play?
When will it be our time to achieve 3 up, 3 down?
When will it be our turn to be given a sporting fair chance?
I’ve been a Chairman and owner at my local club for 27 seasons, my father managed here in the sixties and seventies. I played here in the eighties, I purchased the club in the nineties, and I’ve had my promotions and relegations in between. I’ve taken my club to Wembley in that time, rebuilt the stadium and facilities and I’ve even taken my club to Goodison Park in the 5th Round of the FA Cup, so I believe I’ve paid my dues, I take no salary, and I have ensured we carry no historic debt.
So, I ask myself, is the regulator only needed because Rick is so intransigent or because he is not capable? In recent years we’ve seen example after example, time after time with clubs like Southend United, Bury, Macclesfield, Morecambe and now Sheffield Wednesday amongst others that involve EFL clubs who are on the brink of extinction.
So, I say again, why will the EFL not allow financial fair play and sporting fair chance for the National League Clubs as we are the EFL’s only feeder league?
Why will Rick and the EFL still not consider giving the National League Clubs any worthwhile remuneration?
Why does the EFL deny us the sporting fair chance with three up that we have earned and deserve?
Now is the time for the EFL to re-look at creating a fair funding structure that recognises the work of all our clubs within the National League, to allay the fears of the EFL clubs who are relegated.
Anyway, enough of my diatribe, let’s get back to this evening and our first ever game in the National League Cup. After tonight we play Carlisle United away on Saturday in the National League. So, by midnight on Saturday when we will arrive back from Carlise, it would have been a fairly hectic first week back at this level.
Whatever happens this evening and on Saturday, I’m just happy to be celebrating our first week back at the level and am fully aware of the challenges ahead.
Let’s hope for an open, attacking game tonight and may the best team win.
**Take care,**
**Danny.**