Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and writes a weekly column for City A.M.
And you thought the official overseeing the much-derided VAR had the toughest job in the Premier League. Spare your thoughts, instead, for the legal team supervising English football’s top flight.
After Financial Fair Play charges laid at the doors of Manchester City, Everton (twice) and Nottingham Forest, the current Premier League champions are doubling down. As I revealed on Sky News last week, a club (understood to be Manchester City) wants to pursue an arbitration process to overturn rules governing related party deals on the basis that the clampdown breaches English competition law.
The Abu Dhabi-owned club’s move has the feeling of a scorched-earth policy to it. A date has already been set for later this year for its hearing on 115 charges of Financial Fair Pay breaches; what’s one more legal fight to throw onto the bonfire?
In its 32-year history, the Premier League – and, by extension, the enduring health of the English football pyramid – has never felt this fractured.
Already divided by the scale and division of funding of football’s so-called New Deal between the top flight and the English Football League, the latest row over associated party transactions is driving a further wedge between those sides with either state, private equity or multi-club ownership, and the remainder. Would Etihad’s sponsorship of City’s stadium be available at its level to anyone but them? Would Chelsea’s front-of-shirt deal with Infinite Athlete, a company with links to the Stamford Bridge club’s owners, have been accessible to any other top-flight club not playing in Europe?
Without a tightening of the rules, the Premier League is at risk of becoming a tacit enabler of clubs generating revenue purely for accounting purposes, alleviating any restraint on their ability to pour unlimited sums of money into players. At that point, the golden goose of English football becomes vulnerable to the accusation that its playing field is distorted well beyond the natural order of sporting merit.
In the next few weeks, the government will publish the legislation that will lead to the establishment of the country’s first football regulator. The scope of its powers in areas like associated party transactions will illustrate whether it is a watchdog with the teeth and independence required to police the finances of the world’s most popular domestic football competition or whether it is hidebound by the status of mere Whitehall window-dresser.
TORIES ARE BANKING ON A SHARE PRICE JUMP
The last time Labour was in power, gatherings of bank chiefs at the Treasury were fraught and common affairs concerned with the solvency of the entire financial system.
A lot’s changed in 15 years. Now, Sir Keir Starmer’s front bench is on a charm offensive with the City as it tries to reposition itself as the party of business
One thing remains the same as 2009, however: UK bank valuations are seriously depressed, both in absolute terms and in the context of their international peers.
After Jeremy Hunt’s recent summit with bank bosses to discuss the issue, a wishlist from lenders – including reining in what they perceive to be an excessively intrusive conduct regulator – is now being drawn up by industry executives.
The most obvious measures, such as the abolition of the Bank Levy introduced during George Osborne’s chancellorship, are politically unpalatable before the election, particularly because the government is already viewed as having done the industry a big favour by abolishing the bank bonus cap.
With ministers preparing to launch a retail offer of NatWest shares during the summer, it is an opportune time for banks to be requesting additional help. A scenario in which millions of voters buy discounted shares only to see them slip in value before the election is unthinkable for the Conservatives; instead, what they need most is a bounce in bank share prices later this year which makes a chunk of the electorate feel suddenly better-off.
That’s why next month’s Budget and this year’s Mansion House dinner are more critical than usual for the industry. There might not be an overnight remedy for the industry’s anaemic share price performance, but don’t be surprised to see Hunt scrambling to provide one.
BOARDROOM QUEUE BUILDS AT UK INSTITUTIONS
It may be neither as serious nor as prominent as those afflicting the NHS, but there’s another British backlog causing serious consternation: the one relating to board appointments at public bodies. Myriad candidates say that recruitment processes are being held up, re-run or blocked by government departments.
Among the latest to fall foul of political decision-makers’ whims is the chairmanship of the V&A Museum, one of the most prestigious positions in the British cultural establishment. That post will be re-advertised in the near future after Samir Shah, one of the frontrunners for the role, instead became chair of the BBC.
Another job that I understand may become vacant soon is the chairmanship of the National Theatre, which Sir Damon Buffini has held for most of the last decade. Doubtless, that and the V&A will become a battleground for Conservative donors and other figures friendly to the government who may expect a reward for their recent financial support.
Much like the honours system, the way that prominent public roles are dished out needs careful independent scrutiny.
Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and writes a weekly column for City A.M. He can be found tweeting here.