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Labour pledges more funding to grassroots football on FA Cup final day

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will visit Hackney Marshes football pitches today to highlight Labour’s manifesto commitment to ensure 5 per cent of the Premier League’s domestic and international television rights’ income is diverted to the grassroots game.

The pledge will help the next generation of players and coaches by drastically improving facilities and pitches.

Labour has also committed today to working with train operating companies, broadcasters and clubs to develop a new ‘Flexible Football Ticket’ so that fans experience minimal disruption when games are switched. This will stop fans being left with worthless train tickets and having to fork out again for new tickets when games are re-arranged at short notice.

The visit is taking place on the same day as the FA Cup Final.

The party’s manifesto also commits Labour to:

•           Put fans at the heart of their clubs – by legislating for accredited supporters trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors and to purchase shares when clubs change hands. We will also review fan participation in sports governance more widely.

•           Fix the broken ticketing market – by enforcing anti-bot legislation and implementing the recommendations of the Waterson review to ensure fair opportunities for fans to buy tickets.

•           Improve access provision for disabled sports fans – by ensuring that rapid improvements are made and by prioritising action to make clubs comply with obligations under the 2010 Equality Act.

•           Ensure that investment and support is given to grassroots women’s football so as many women and girls as possible can benefit from participating in football

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will say:

“The FA Cup final marks the greatest day of the football season. Millions of football fans across the country, including myself, are eagerly awaiting kick off this evening at Wembley.

“Despite the game we all love receiving lucrative domestic and international TV deals, the grassroots game has been shamefully starved of funding over recent years.

“Too often, youth football teams cannot find pitches to play on and when they do they are expensive and the facilities are not fit for purpose. All-weather pitches are like gold-dust and coaching badges can cost unaffordable amounts. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise we are not nurturing the talent that we all know exists within the beautiful game.

“To address this lack of funding and lack of facilities, Labour in government will ensure that 5 per cent of domestic and international TV rights money is diverted to the grassroots game. This will ensure the footballing talent of young girls and boys is harnessed, and football is a game for the many, not the few.”

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour’s Shadow Sports Minister, will say:

“Football is our national game – it brings people together from all ages and all walks of life. We have one of the most commercially successful leagues in the world, but all too often pitches and grassroots community facilities are run down and in a state of disrepair.

“Without supporters, amateurs and young players, football would be barren. As broadcast revenues and the popularity of our leagues increase, so should the support that goes back into the grassroots game. We have to make sure we can develop future British playing and coaching talent, in order to make sure our leagues stay competitive for years to come.”

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Labour •

Communiqué de presse

Les Cinq Organisations internationales partenaires du processus de consolidation de la paix en Guinée-Bissau (UA, CEDEAO, CPLP, UE et NU), communément dénommées ‘P5’, notent avec inquiétude l’évolution de la situation en Guinée-Bissau. En effet, l’on constate une brusque montée de tension dans le pays, caractérisée … read more

EU

Spreading prosperity more widely in the UK

One of the central themes of the Conservative Manifesto is to promote growth and prosperity more widely around the UK. This is an aim I strongly support. This week the ONS brought out some figures to remind us just how much needs to be done to generate more income and wealth in large parts of our country. The ONS calculated tax revenue per head by region, and public expenditure per head by region.

The figures revealed that the UK’s single currency area is also an important transfer union, switching large sums collected in taxation from the richer areas to the lower income areas through higher levels of spending. London topped the lists for tax revenue per person, contributing £15,756 per head. The South East provided £12 449, and the East of England £10,833. At the other end of the revenue table was Wales at £7986 per person, the North East at £8200 and Northern Ireland at £8581.

On the expenditure side The South East was bottom at £10582 per head, with the East of England a close second at £10592. The highest spending per head was in Northern Ireland at £14018, and second Scotland at £13054. London at £12 686 was relatively high, but London still contributed the largest amount net to the rest of the country owing to its very high levels of tax contribution. Only three regions put in more revenue than they took out in spending, London, the South East and the East of England.

The Scottish figures in the past when they have been calculated have been the subject of some controversy, as you could either allocate most of the oil revenue to Scotland, or allocate it according to population on the grounds that it is a national resource for the UK. Last year, the year for these figures, it makes no difference how you do it as there was no North Sea revenue.

I draw several conclusions from this. The first is you do need large transfers of money in a currency union to make it work. The absence of these transfers in the Euro area lies behind the rolling Euro crisis we have seen in recent years as the zone struggles to find ways to send the surplus from the rich areas to the rest of the Union.

The second is the gap between London and the rest is high. We need to help bring the others up by adopting policies that promote more enterprise and new business in the lower income areas.

The third is transfers help balance things up, but they do not in themselves correct the longer term imbalances which stem from too little successful private sector business in the lower income areas. It is that issue which education, training, transport, planning and other policies need to address to encourage more businesses to expand their provision in the areas away from London.

Successful modern cities are particularly good at attracting or producing well educated and highly trained people, and linking them up with entrepreneurs. Cities like Oxford and Cambridge are showing the way outside London. This raises the average income which creates demand and jobs across the spectrum of economic activity.
Published and promoted by Fraser Mc Farland on behalf of John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1 XU

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John Redwood MP •