Speeches by Peacock.

“I do not want to get drawn into hypotheticals. As we previously discussed, there might be a perfectly legitimate reason for a club to move—or to move temporarily, such as for flooding. It is not an absolute power. We want to give the regulator discretion when clubs may need that for legitimate reasons. The amendment sp…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East for tabling his amendments. Prior to speaking to them, I would like to let him know that I have raised his points on a similar issue—on assets of community value—with the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the…”

“I completely appreciate the shadow Minister’s comments. As I said in my opening remarks, we do not ban all international competitions automatically. We are mindful of enabling innovation in the market. I am happy to supplement my comments with a letter to Committee members. Question put and agreed to. Clause 45 accordi…”

“No, of course we do not. I totally agree. I was coming to that point. As I understand it, friendlies would be out of scope, but I am happy to write to Committee members if they would like greater clarity. We have discussed the appeals and representations several times. The relevant competition organiser will be given a…”

“I am grateful to Members for their contributions and will take their points in turn. The clause applies both to existing and to new competitions. If any competition breaches the criteria, it can be prohibited, but matters such as scheduling are for competition organisers. On shadow Minister’s points, we will come on to…”

“The clause is the first in part 5 of the Bill, which deals with duties on clubs and competition organisers. It prevents all regulated clubs and clubs that have been regulated in the previous 10 years from having a relevant team participate in a prohibited competition. The European super league proposed in 2021 posed an…”

“I echo the shadow Minister’s comments about the power being used clearly, robustly and fairly. I think all of us on the Committee can agree that that is absolutely right. On his question about whether the reasons would have to be written, the regulator will have to give the owner enough reasons for its decision to enab…”

“As set out previously in the debate on clauses 38 to 42, the regulator will be able to direct an unsuitable owner to leave the club in a specified timeframe and to prohibit them from undertaking certain activities at the club in the interim. However, there is a risk that an unsuitable owner does not comply with these d…”

“I will address that point in just a moment. As a club’s licence is separate from its owners, the licence is held directly by the club itself, not its owners. The removal of an owner will not impact the club’s licence status. This ability to isolate and remove unsuitable and owners and officers should mean that a club n…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his amendment. We have seen far too many examples of the damage that can be caused by unsuitable custodians of clubs, and that is why the Bill introduces a strengthened owners and directors test. I believe that my hon. Friend hopes that the amendment will give reassurance to fans that, where …”

“The financial distress experienced by some of English football’s most historic clubs was partly down to unsuitable owners and directors. As we have already discussed, the regulator will be able to conduct strengthened owners and directors tests to tackle that and to help to ensure that each club has suitable custodians…”

“Clause 37 lists the matters the regulator must take into account when it conducts an owners and directors test. That includes what it must consider when determining whether an individual is financially sound, has the requisite honesty and integrity and, for officers only, has the competence needed to do their role—ulti…”

“It is a pleasure to serve once again under your chairship, Ms Butler. I echo the welcome back from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup, to Committee members. I will respond to amendment 110. I reassure the shadow Minister that the intent of his amendment is already achieved within the current…”

“That was so bad.”

“On the point in the amendments about 20 years, we appreciate that not all the leagues go that far, but we think that the point is addressed by the league rules. On the consultation by MHCLG, it might be helpful if I ask my counterpart there to write to my hon. Friend and to share that letter with the Committee, because…”

“It is a pleasure to once again serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I look forward to day three of Committee. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East for the amendments; I am never fed up of hearing from him and I know he is very passionate about this issue. The Government recognise the intent beh…”

“I am grateful to the shadow Minister for those questions. I reiterate, as I said in an earlier intervention, that the licensing is separate from the ownership. On some of his points about the extension, we have talked throughout proceedings about being collaborative and working with owners and clubs; if the regulator n…”

“As we have heard throughout the passage of the Bill, football clubs hold unique importance to their fans and local communities, and it is these fans who lose out when clubs are exploited or mismanaged by unsuitable owners and officers. Clause 28 prohibits a person from becoming a new owner of a club unless the regulato…”

“Absolutely, and I refer back to some of our earlier conversations. If we take the regulatory regime as a whole, at the very basic level, owners need to have a business plan, consult their fans and be fit and proper—those three things work together. As we spoke about earlier, if the business plan does not match the sour…”

“There are different thresholds for new owners and incumbent owners; with new owners, it is grounds for suspecting, but with incumbent owners, it is the balance of probabilities. Of course, the latter is a higher bar, given the existing owner’s property rights. I do not know whether that fully answers my hon. Friend’s q…”