LCP provide insight to MPs on proposed new ‘Sustainability Index’ tool to reward well-run football clubs at Parliamentary briefing
Sports Policy & regulation
Today, Bart Huby, Head of LCP’s Football Analytics team, took part in a parliamentary briefing organised by football campaigning body Fair Game, to highlight their proposals to create a new mechanism to reward well-run clubs and incentivise better governance and financial stability.
The launch was hosted by the former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron with the support of Baroness Ann Taylor, former England internationals John Scales and Brian Deane, as well as representatives of Fair Game.
Fair Game, a group of 34 value-driven football clubs, works with its network of world-renowned experts to develop realistic long-term solutions to the problems faced by football in England and Wales.
They commissioned LCP to look at how the findings of Tracey Crouch’s recent Fan-Led Review could be operationalised and embedded in football based on the Sustainability Index.
LCP’s Football Analytics team have extensive knowledge of football data, having developed an online scouting tool, TransferLab, which uses event data from around over 100 men's leagues and 25 women's leagues from around the world, covering over 80,000 male and over 8,000 female players. It assesses each player’s past performance and predicts their future performance, based on a Markov chain model of how each interaction during a game impacts the likelihood of the player’s team scoring the next goal.
The Sustainability Index looks at using new and existing revenue streams in football, such as the proposed Solidarity Transfer Levy and parachute payments, to incentivise clubs by distributing funds according to how well they score well on four criteria.
The four, which are all heavily referenced throughout the Fan-Led Review, are
- Financial Sustainability
- Good Governance
- Equality Standards
- Fan and Community Engagement
Head of football analytics at LCP, Bart Huby, explained: "In simple terms, regulation needs a stick or a carrot to succeed – and carrots tend to encourage more collaborative behaviour than sticks.
“Successful examples of regulation influencing behaviour tend to include a strong element of incentivisation, for example the increase in wind and solar power in the electricity generation industry, and the pension protection levy.
“The Sustainability Index proposed by Fair Game provides that carrot for football.
“It takes all the elements recommended in the Fan-Led Review and brings them together to create a scoring mechanism. And the clubs that score well get a larger share of football's broadcasting revenues - the carrot.
“The Index is a realistic and practical solution that will help the game to truly embed the changes it needs to thrive in the future.”
Christina Philippou, Director of Policy for Fair Game, said: “The Fan-Led Review led by Tracey Crouch was comprehensive and thorough. It chimed well with our own findings and we believe all the recommendations from the Review should be enshrined in legislation.
“It addressed concerns over financial management of clubs, poor governance, and fan engagement. And rightly outlined several potential sanctions.
“The Index creates an incentive for clubs to reform or maintain governance and reporting standards. It is an approach that has consistently worked in other industries and with other regulators.”
Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game, added: “The potential for the index is huge. It could be truly transformational for our National Game.
“There are significant funds that are allocated from the Premier League. The Sustainability Index provides the mechanism to ensure that those funds are channelled to well-run clubs.
“We believe it would create a cultural change that would benefit all of football.
“The Fan-Led Review provided the ingredients, we believe the Sustainability Index is the recipe and now it’s up to politicians to serve it and deliver a better future for football.”
The event finished with MPs being asked to pledge their support to Fair Game and the implementation of the recommendations of Tracey Crouch’s Fan-Led Review.