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Not in themselves revolutionary suggestions; indeed, supporters groups have been arguing for them for years. But for a group such as this to officially back such schemes is a positive move for the sport.
Unsurprisingly, Premier League chief Richard Scudamore has immediately rejected the calls. After all, the Premiership was founded on the premise that the big clubs who generated the TV money should get more - a premise known as greed to you and I - so it is hard to see why it should suddenly recognise that it has a role to play in safeguarding the future of the game at lower levels just at the moment.
Scudamore’s argument was essentially that the Premiership already distribute more of their wealth than any other league in the world. Well, that’s alright then. Just as long as we’re the best of a bad lot, that will do us. The fact that any number of football clubs below the top echelon are struggling to survive, including Burnley, is of irrelevance; the fact that the drop in TV revenues hits teams relegated from the Premiership like a sledgehammer is equally unimportant, apparently.
So it looks like we’re going to need more than just the voices of a powerful lobbying group in Parliament - it’s probably going to need Tony and co onside. That’s also true in the context of a fit and proper person test for club ownership, where at the highest level, legislation will be needed to make football an exception from normal principles of company law.
But there can be no doubt that it is necessary. Ask fans at Hull, at Wimbledon, and Luton for starters. Now, you can even ask fans of the biggest club in the land, who find their club being used as a pawn in an unseemly row over stud rights for a racehorse.
John Magnier and JP McManus may be bona fide Manchester United fans, and they may have the best interests of the club at heart. Then again, they might not - there is just no way of knowing. We don’t even know if they do intend to try and gain control of the club. What we do know is that, should they wish to, there is nothing that can be done to stop them, and that Manchester United fans are distinctly unhappy about their club being manipulated in this way.
Anyone can become owner of a football club. Look at the way Roman Abramovich took control of Chelsea over the summer, without anyone even being aware of who he was. Even now, details of how he came by his millions are sketchy. Sure, Chelsea fans love him now, but I must confess that if someone like that rode into Burnley, I’d feel a touch uneasy. I think I’d rather have Barry Kilby.
The Manchester United saga has also brought the Murky world of agents onto the front pages. I recently finished reading a book called Broken Dreams, by a journalist named Tom Bower. It’s a cracking read, and it does show the vast amount of money which leaks out of football to third parties of varying repute and intentions.
Of course, there will be a vast amount of opposition to any reforms within the game. Football is full of self interest and vast egos. Football would like to regulate itself, keep the outsiders out, and maintain the status quo. We’ve already seen this when the Government tried to impose a regulator in the late nineties, when we had David Mellor and the Football task Force. We ended up with the Independent Football Commission, a good intentioned body with little punch.
Yet the existing authorities clearly cannot run the game. We have an FA whose handling of the arrangements for the FA cup ties involving Millwall and Telford, with their knock-on effects for Burnley, have been nothing short of diabolical. They’ve messed everyone around, and particularly the fans. I’m left unable to get to a game which is comparatively accessible for me because I cannot get to Burnley to buy a ticket. The club are not to blame - but the FA are. In every respect, the Association panders to the big clubs, leaving the smaller outfits to fend for themselves off the scraps.
And what about the worldwide game? I give you FIFA. Yes, the very same one who try and impose world cups every two years that nobody wants, has faced widespread rumours of corruption and who have ‘clarified’ the offside rule in such a way as to leave players, management and fans confused and frustrated - yet who I read today believe it to be working. Not exactly the kind of organisation you want to keep the national federation in check.
Quite clearly, the task must fall to somebody else, somebody outside the clique who currently dominate the sport - somebody who understands the lifeblood of the game, supporters. Remember what I said about Burnley being our club? Well this is also our game. Even the players and officials started out as fans. These proposals represent a bring the chronic need for change to the top of the agenda. Now it falls to the real power brokers to bring about that change.