| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Before I call the next hon. Member to speak, I remind the House that, although we have some time left, it would be helpful if hon. Members bore in mind the fact that if their speeches are long, other hon. Members will be squeezed out. I want to be able to call everyone who wants to be called, especially as this is a Friday.
12.3 pm
Mr. Shaun Woodward (Witney): Over the next few weeks, much of the nation's attention will rightly be focused on matters in France and the world cup, the excitement of which all hon. Members feel. Some 2.5 million to 3 million seats will be available and, undoubtedly, many British fans will want to be present at the matches or to watch them on television. Unfortunately, as the Government know, the tickets for most of those seats were sold by 7 May, and a number of British fans feel that the allocation of tickets was gravely unfair.
Hon. Members may have read in The Daily Telegraph today reports about how the 3 million seats are being distributed. Of those 3 million seats, some 382,000 have not been allocated. That number is significant because it is more than twice the number of seats that were to have been made available on the hotline in April. The Minister for Sport aptly described the hotline as a bad situation made considerably worse by a telephone fiasco.
The significance of all this is that, as The Daily Telegraph has shown, the 382,000 unallocated tickets are going to two groups of people: to the press and to Ministers and visiting officials from all over the world. When there has been such a poor allocation of tickets, it is pertinent for The Daily Telegraph to ask who of the 382,000 will get tickets because they are, for example, members of the British Government. That need not have been the case if the British Government had done more, earlier to ensure that good information was available to British fans on how to get hold of tickets.
There is a Government campaign which says, "If you haven't got a ticket, don't go." On that basis, few British fans will make the trip across the channel. Some would say that they will probably be outnumbered by the Ministers who we hear are planning to go, in some cases more than once.
Mr. Banks:
The hon. Gentleman can be assured that I shall not be using any tickets in France. He is right that the British Government might have taken more of a lead, but he is talking about the wrong British Government. He should be talking about our predecessors because the ticketing arrangements were put in place some years ago. It is easy to blame the French, but some blame must be extended to FIFA as well as to the current French organisers. To be fair, he should make that clear.
Mr. Woodward:
I am grateful to the Minister, who makes a proper point. Undoubtedly even we, when we were in government, could have done more. Sadly, we have not been in government for the past 13 months whereas he has. Much more could have been done in those 13 months to ensure that the information was available to British football fans to allow them to have more than the official 15,000 ticket allocation.
The Minister also knows that, sadly, it was not the British Government, in any shape or form, who decided to press for action against the French officials who carried out their own allocation that meant that more than 40 per cent. of available tickets went to French fans.
Mr. Woodward:
I am grateful for the correction;60 per cent. of seats are going to French fans. The
It is a sad day when it is not the British Government but a group of 25 MEPs, only five of whom are British, that is fighting for the ticket allocation of British fans and for the rights of soccer fans all over the world. British fans are being told not to go. We should welcome the example set by the Minister for Sport, who will not be among the Ministers who take up seats being given away to visiting officials. However, will he tell us whether that self-imposed stricture applies to, for example, the Chancellor of the Exchequer? On 1 June, The Mirror carried a story saying,
I pay tribute again to the Minister for Sport for choosing not to take any tickets, either for free or by paying. It is a noble example, but will it be followed by the Secretary of State for Scotland? I hear that he plans to visit the world cup, although British fans cannot go.I also hear, and was pleased to hear, that the Prime Minister will, as it happens, make a trip to Paris--I cannot, of course, see any connection--on the day before the Scotland-Brazil match. Perhaps the Minister for Sport can tell us whether the Prime Minister is arranging for his diary to be a little empty the following day so that he can go to the match.
We are all delighted that the Prime Minister stands up for British sport; we would be delighted if he felt it would be right to be there. I do not criticise a wish to be there, but British fans will not be able to join him. There will certainly be criticism of the Government if it is found that any Minister is not paying his or her way or is taking more than one ticket, free or not, for the world cup. That privilege is not being extended to most British fans.
We all know where this will lead. British fans will go to France, whatever Government advertising says. There will be problems when they cannot get tickets. They will be exploited and will have to pay ludicrous amounts of money for a poor ticket, yet British Ministers and officials will not, unless the Minister can tell us otherwise, have to deal with touts who want to exploit them, and they will take some of the best seats.
The Secretary of State talked about the importance of access for all. The only all who have access to the world cup are British Ministers. All does not include British football fans. I accept that the Conservative Government could have done more to ensure that information was disseminated, but we have been out of power for13 months now. A great deal that could have been done has not been done. Few British fans have tickets and, far worse, many will go in the hope of getting one. Either they will not get one or they will be exploited.
Access to sport is crucial. No one--great sports enthusiast or not--should underestimate the importance of access, whether it is for the elderly, children, disabled people or anyone else. Access for all is the right motto for the House.
We must consider carefully the long-term interests of sport and access to it through television. That is a difficult subject, and it excites prejudice and hot emotion. It is in the long-term interests of sport that the right decision is made about listed events.
Nothing could bring home the danger of continuing to prosecute the present policy better than the BBC's current problems of industrial disruption caused by the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union. Most hon. Members will have seen reports in the newspapers this morning that the BBC has admitted that coverage of the world cup is under threat from strike action by the technicians. BECTU believes that it can win the support of French workers in the media industry to prevent pictures of matches being transmitted to Britain. As BECTU's broadcasting official said this morning:
It will be possible to switch channels to see matches, especially the earlier ones, but the problem is significant and it should be a warning to the Government when they think about coverage of listed events in the future. They must think hard about whether it is sensible and in the long-term interests of sport to continue to pursue a policy that is effectively a very closed shop.
At the beginning, it was right that only the BBC and ITV showed sporting events such as the world cup because they were the only two channels that could do so, but that situation has changed dramatically. We now have Eurosport, Sky Sports, Channel Five, BBC Five Live, Live TV--the list is endless and it will grow because extraordinary changes are taking place in television technology with the advent of digital and cable, for example. The Government must bear that in mind when they think about future access to sport for all.
At present, most people feel that the BBC and ITV should hold onto major events because watching them is effectively free. People have access for the modest amount that they pay for the licence fee. Set against that is the horror of the suggested £10 per match to watch football on Sky. I accept that, at first sight, that is a horrible prospect, but the reality is that the BBC and ITV show matches, games and other events on a highly subsidised basis. Sadly, events are not subsidised by the Government.
The Government are not handing out money to football clubs, tennis clubs or whatever else--lottery money is a separate discussion. Events are being subsidised at the expense of the sports themselves. Many sporting clubs and fixtures want wider competition for their events because they know that in those circumstances they would be paid more. They want to be paid more because they want to invest in their sport.
We all know that the Minister for Sport genuinely believes in investing in sport. There are few people in the House who have been more passionate and have more conviction about the importance of investment in sport than the Minister, but the truth is that unless that investment is made, sport will not develop or flourish in Britain.
"Brown: Tony won't stop my cup trip."
It adds:
"The soccer-mad Chancellor will defy Premier Tony Blair's 'one minister per match' order and be at the Scotland-Brazil opener in Paris on June 10."
I do not doubt that the Chancellor, who has a generous salary, will offer to pay his way. That is not the point. The opportunity to pay their way is not being extended to most British fans.
"There is no question that we can take these matches off the air with French support. We could also stop the Radio 5 Live coverage of all the matches without outside help."
What a great thing that would be. British fans are being discouraged by the Government from going to France. If they go and try to get a ticket they will probably not succeed unless they are prepared to pay several hundred pounds, and now fans face the prospect of the BBC technicians union blacking the screens for them.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |