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Lord Lyell: My Lords, what a pleasure it is to follow the marathon man, the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, who has been sitting in his place for about three hours now. I shall attempt to curtail my remarks so that he may take a reasonable bath at a reasonable time.
It shows the enormous spread of your Lordships' House that it takes a Scot—myself—to bat at number two, straight after the noble Lord. I declare my interest straight off; it is nothing to do with England. I am honorary patron of Forfar Athletic Football Club in Scotland, which attracts on a good day about the same number as your Lordships' House at Question Time. On a bad day, when the polar bears come down from the north, I assure your Lordships that a warm welcome is available there.
The noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, pointed out in great detail, with enormous knowledge and with great passion, what is happening in the game in England as he sees it. The game is watched by many of us—by millions of us, not just in your Lordships' House but all over the country and perhaps even round the world. Football, that extraordinary game, is played, watched, admired and perhaps loathed by millions. Above all, in this country, it is played by millions of small boys of all ages. Looking at my noble friend Lady Morris, I can add that a remarkable amount of ladies' football is played. Indeed, last week I was abroad with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and noted a game between Germany and the United States in Portland, Oregon. I have to say that I was pretty scared, because I thought that they were American footballers—but they were female soccer players, apparently. But it shows that players all over the world of both sexes enjoy themselves.
These players do various things with a football. I am told that they kick the ball, trap it, pass it and juggle. My continental friends say that they even caress the
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ball. That is not awfully well known north of the Border, where they tend to get rid of it quite quickly; indeed, the tendency is to play the man first, in some cases. But, for millions of small boys and girls, that is perhaps a part of playing football. I wonder why they do it. I do not think that it is just for their own good or following the precepts of staying fit. There I take a quiet dig at the right honourable gentleman the Prime Minister in his tracksuit this morning; if he really wishes to prove his courage and fitness, perhaps he might follow my noble friend Lord Moynihan and myself—and perhaps the number 10 speaker tonight, the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester—in skiing in the first week of January. That is a real test of courage and sportsmanship. But that is for another evening, when we discuss that type of sport.
But what are all those boys and girls playing football for? I do not believe that it is just for the betterment of their souls. The noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, pointed out that football is a world game; it is enormously popular all over the world. But a huge number of boys and girls play football; they work, train, run and sweat—and a lot of people help them in pretty harsh conditions outside. Why? Because, perhaps, they have a dream. They dream that they might emulate a particular player or team which, in many cases, they may simply have read or heard about, or they may have watched them live or seen them on the television. Is it loyalty to a particular player, or to a team? If to a team, do they join what I call the clan or the tribe?
As for loyalty to a particular club, let me tell your Lordships a tale of two little boys. I do not refer to the popular Christmas song of some years ago by Mr Rolf Harris, that noted Australian artist. One young boy, of 10 or 11 years, was shopping one morning. What happened? An appalling bomb was detonated by the IRA in Warrington. The young boy was fatally injured, and he died. But the one thing that mattered to him was a football jersey; it was a blue jersey, and the club sent to his funeral the director, the manager and the first team players to support that boy. Why?
I refer to another small boy. On 21 September 1986, there was a big game. Manchester United were playing—and when they came out there was a full house. The home team brought two mascots, one boy and one girl. Someone sitting next to me said, "Do you see that little boy, he's not too well. The tall one is his sister. The little boy has leukaemia, but today will be a great day for him". Manchester United lost 3–1 to the home team and that little boy went home stuffed with goodies, sweeties, toffees, and carrying mascots and flags. He was still wearing his jersey; perhaps it was slightly sweaty, perhaps it had stuff spilled down it and perhaps it was slightly muddy. His mother tucked him into bed and he said, "Mum, it were a great night. We beat them!" I presume that he said "beat them", but perhaps what he said might have been a little tougher than that. She tucked him into bed and he died that night.
That is what the jersey meant to those two little boys. It will mean it to millions of other people, similarly. That might be mawkish, but that is what
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supporting a football team meant to those two little boys, and your Lordships will find tales like theirs throughout England, Britain and the world.
If your Lordships are looking for a small boy here, there are at least one or two—certainly one. I have to tell your Lordships that I am on to my seventh club jersey, which I wear in January when skiing. They have various tooth-marks in them; I have crashed into ski gates, walls and things like that. But I support my team. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, will make his own speech, but when he does so he may not have time to tell your Lordships how he was taken short last week after about 60 minutes of the game that he was watching. His neighbour told me that the noble Lord left his seat and so may have been unaware of the result. The noble Lord may be able to advise the House about that.
However, I am able to tell noble Lords that his club is also my club. It has a marvellous programme, which follows the programme from the Premier League, called Football in the Community. The Premier League has been kind enough to give me a sheet which says:
"Everton Football in the Community became a registered charity . . . targeting various social agendas, including homelessness, older people . . . crime prevention"—
I hope I am not looking in the mirror—
"the club has just begun a new project aiming to reduce the drop out of young people at 17 from learning".
I left school at 17. I struggled to carry on with chartered accountancy and other studies. That may have been relevant to me, but it is also relevant to many other young men. The Premier League was good enough to send me a complete compendium of all the Premier League clubs and what they do for Football in the Community.
The club that I support does not consist only of supporters who enjoy watching, listening, hearing, speaking and making friends; we are also part of the club. The club, and I believe every other Premier League club worth its salt, has a very strong aura and a strong ethos of supporting the youth. I believe that the youth academy of Everton, under Mr Ray Hall, from the Tamlin family, is second to none in producing its own players.
Where does all this lead? At the weekend it lead to a report in the press—one of the tabloid newspapers— that this particular team has a bond that cannot be bought and a quality beyond price. That links the team together, but it also links the supporters.
I can say without any humbug that football in England has enriched my life. I have made many friends. The frothing of the media over players' pay and players' behaviour is by the by. Dream the dream and make friends. One of the friends referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, the president of world football, came to your Lordships' House last October and gave me a small present, which I shall hand over to the Government Whips. It has red and yellow cards in it. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, for giving us this opportunity to
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express our thoughts about English football. There will be many more who will be able to say that and I am very glad to support him.
Lord Addington: My Lords, I felt that I would be a fraud to talk about football, until it was pointed out at our Whips' meeting that the noble Lord did not specify which type of football he meant—Union or League, possibly? I approach football as part of the continuum of sport. It is the largest and richest part of sport. I regard it as a sport, and that will colour my comments today.
The noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, went down a path that I could not begin to follow: the governance of professional football. Professional sport operates in a vacuum in which the normal rules of accounting, and in some cases legality, do not appear to apply. Of late, we have started to address that, and football is the lead sport doing that.
As regards sporting clubs that attract a degree of fanatical support, football clubs are at the forefront. Rugby League clubs may come second, whereas only one or two Rugby Union clubs and possibly some cricket clubs tend to inspire such support. Hundreds of thousands of people turn up to support their club simply as supporters, without having any stake in the club. The move of Wimbledon to Milton Keynes probably displayed the legal limitations.
When my party considered its sports policy, it thought long and hard about what it could usefully do. The conclusion was that professional sport had to look to itself first. Do we want to regulate such a business activity, or do we want to dive in and make it special, even though we cannot? We could not see how to do that usefully or where we could draw the line. Should we allow the structures to be supported for ever more and allow their debts to be cancelled? No. We agreed, as I believe virtually every political party has, that we should give most of our support to amateur sports clubs. They give us the greatest benefit in social interaction and health benefits. Professional clubs are now involved in that process, and the noble Lord has been a key player in ensuring that professional football knows that it is expected to do that.
On the recent issue of racism in football, the sport can take real pride in the effectiveness of the anti-racism structures in football. One cannot stand apart and say, "What goes on in the stands has nothing to do with us". Football has to address the issue and be active in it. As a sport and as part of the sport continuum, football is our biggest showcase.
On the frightening statistic given by the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, of only 38 per cent of players being English—the statistic for British players may be slightly better—I suggest that the game should look to its youth development. He also mentioned the agents, the middlemen. If everyone spoke the same language, I am sure that the fees could be cut down. Basically, association football, the big boy, has to put its own house in order; it must look more to its amateur body and take it more seriously. Those people further down
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the list have to address that and pump more back into the sport. The situation is better than it was; they are doing something, but they are still not doing enough. We have to make them take those responsibilities seriously, but how do we do that, if we do not want to get involved in day-to-day legislation? We can support everything that they do.
Supporters Direct, the body that sets up the trust that has influence over the fans, is probably the most positive thing to come out of the English football system for a very long time. It means that those who, with religious zeal, follow their club are involved to a real extent in the management and ownership of their own organisations and clubs. The Government should help, and they should provide seed money for other sports. I do not know how far development in Rugby League has taken place, but football is the next place for such models.
Small clubs are dominated by one or two owners who, if they are not making money out of football, may suddenly think, "What are the redevelopment costs?". If one is a straightforward businessman and regards sport as a business, that is a perfectly legitimate use of one's assets. If it is more than that, one must give them some support for it not happening. We find ourselves in a very odd situation. Local or central government, or some other source, must be found to help and to support those groups.
As the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, said, football has to ensure that its internal governance is better. Its comfortable position is a historical anachronism. All sports have the capacity to say that they have always done things in a particular way. We tack bits on the end and then the structures are confusing. All sports go through that process. Football is where the money is and so should set an example. If we can encourage people, that is what we should do.
Association football is a very good sport for general involvement through amateur sports clubs. Women can play it without fear of damage because there is no upper body contact. You are not supposed to have such contact, which means that it is probably one of the best traditional male sports in which to get women involved. If the FA can encourage greater participation in female sport, the Government's cause will be served tremendously well. It is one of the great areas in which it can assist.
Also football has been—to coin a phrase—"the sexiest sport" for the past few years. England winning the Rugby Union World Cup has possibly taken off a little bit of gloss and one or two scandals and the near folding of Leeds United, one of the bigger clubs, may have taken a little bit off the current hype of football. But even on a downturn, football could swallow up its nearest two competitors. We must make sure that the FA is encouraged, supported and helped to assist the junior parts of its clubs.
Sport is one of those areas in politics in which we end up discovering that we are incredibly close to agreement with each other. If the Government can take the first steps, they may find a great deal more
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consensus than—I shall probably get into terrible trouble for saying this—the spin doctors from the various parties would like.
Policy differences between us are generally ones of emphasis. The Government would say "school sport", and we would say "school-age sport". They would say that the schools lead and we would say that the clubs lead, but the two have to be linked. We must encourage them to make the links. Association football is probably the sport that should show the way. I hope that when the noble Lord addresses the issues about football, he will pay attention to how the Government are helping those amateur clubs, because all amateur clubs basically have the same problem.
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