The Supporters’ Trust at Reading (STAR) have created a document detailing their suggestions for potential improvements to the 2024 Football Governance Bill.
The Supporters’ Trust have used their own experiences of ownership troubles at Reading Football Club and surveyed their members to create this 20-page document.
This contains STAR’s main priorities for the Football Governance Bill, other suggestions and the need for competition organisers to make reforms to sanctions, which look set to sit outside of the Independent Football Regulator’s scope.
STAR acknowledges and appreciates some of the improvements that have been made since the last Bill was published, but feels more can be included on specific areas that have affected Reading FC in recent years, including asset protection (stadiums, training grounds etc), the removal of owners, the Owners’ and Directors’ Test (OaDT) and the need for emergency funds to be available when an owner is no longer able or willing to fund a football club.
Adam Jones, the Football Governance Liaison at the Supporters’ Trust at Reading (STAR), said: “Football has shown that it cannot be trusted to regulate itself and because of this, we are delighted to see the government reintroduce this Bill as one of their key priorities.
“We are pleased to see more has been included in the current Bill regarding fan engagement and distribution of revenue, but we feel more can be done to ensure clubs don’t go through what we and others have in the past and present.
“At STAR, we are particularly keen to have the voice of Reading fans heard because of what’s happened to our club.
“We’ve had serious cash flow issues, could have lost our training ground, have an owner who doesn’t engage with fans and have seen our Women’s team decimated. The club is still very much in danger and there’s no safety net for us.
“The Football Governance Bill and the establishment of the Independent Regulator could be vital in helping to safeguard other clubs in the future and we hope our suggestions can be used to strengthen this legislation.”
