Enterprise and Culture Committee, 18 Apr 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Official Report 235KB pdf

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Scottish Football (Reform)

Item 5 is consideration of responses to our report on the reform of Scottish football, although as the Scottish Football Association has pointed out our inquiry was originally on

"‘the future of football in Scotland'".

At this point, I must thank Nicholas Grier for his very helpful contribution to today's stage 1 consideration of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Bill.

We have received a memorandum from the Scottish Executive and a response from the SFA. I believe that members want to discuss both papers and decide whether we should do anything about them. I should say that what I know about football can be written on the back of a postage stamp, so I ask for other members' comments on the responses.

The responses bring our inquiry and report to a perfectly good conclusion, because both parties pretty much agree on the need for increased participation, better facilities and—yes—SFA reform. Although some people want progress to be more revolutionary than evolutionary, the Executive and the SFA seem to want things to evolve.

As both responses point out, we have embarked on a 10-year action plan, and there will be many opportunities for this committee and others to examine its progress. I hope that when Parliament scrutinises the action plan it will look back on our report and reflect on whether the goals that have been set by the SFA and the Executive have been achieved.

Although some questions remain outstanding, I do not think that the committee needs to pursue them formally. Of course, sportscotland's audit of local sports facilities, which has been promised for mid-May, and the implementation of the subsequent strategy will be important in achieving these goals—no pun intended—of increased participation and better facilities.

I am pleased by the consensus in the responses on those matters, and I hope that progress will be made on them in future.

Although our report expressed concern about the lack of local sports facilities and highlighted the need to examine what happens at the grass roots, both responses very much focus on national and regional facilities. Indeed, the Executive's response does not address the local issue at all and the SFA says that most of the national and regional facilities are for the "top end" of the sport.

As one would expect, the Executive's response is very much along the lines of, "Aren't we doing well?", but it does not really add anything to our report's recommendations. For example, it has not commented on key suggestions such as the establishment of a football academy, despite the fact that, as the SFA points out, there is a growing disparity between investment in local football facilities in Scotland and the situation in England, where a fund has been set up to provide investment in that respect.

I suspect that these responses—particularly that from the Executive—have come a little early, because sportscotland's audit will give greater insight into and shed new light on the extent of the lack of local sports facilities, particularly for football. The strategy that the Executive and the SFA develop in response to that audit will give us much more of an idea of how serious they are about tackling some of the issues that we have highlighted.

I agree with what Michael Matheson said about local facilities, the funding of which will continue to be problematic, because such facilities are relatively expensive. I note that the Executive's response is not limited to football facilities but mentions "other sports" and I agree with that approach. The SFA's response is perhaps a little disingenuous in that it appears to forget that the greatly increased funding in England comes from the English premiership—funding comes from the sport itself rather than from Government. The level of Government support in England is about on a par with—

That is match funding—

Yes, but to be fair, less is match funded in Scotland than in England, perhaps because of the nature of the sport.

On the Executive response under the heading "Other Areas of Public Policy", how we deal with sectarianism is a topical issue. The committee should keep an eye on how successfully sectarianism is being dealt with, because recent events have not been edifying.

The responses from the Executive and the SFA were much as we might have expected them to be. I agree with Richard Baker that the responses represent the final word on our inquiry and report and I do not have much appetite for further work on the matter. To respond to Christine May's suggestion, the last thing that the committee should do is to get involved in discussions about sectarianism. We should not open the door to such discussions, in particular at this stage in the parliamentary calendar. We should record our thanks to Richard Baker for his work on the football inquiry. The process was interesting and generated good responses. We have produced a sound foundation for future work should a future committee want to reconsider the matter, which I dare say will happen.

The responses were entirely predictable. The report was worth doing and the proof of the pudding will be evident in two, three or four years' time. We should wish Walter Smith and his team all the best for the future.

In the final paragraph of its response, the Executive says that it does not want to give the committee an annual report on football. I am not inclined to go to the barricades on the matter; I am quite happy for the Executive not to provide such reports. Do members share my view?

We welcome the fact that we will not get an annual report.

The Executive should brief the convener annually on football.

Absolutely. The Executive can start doing that next year, when there will be a new committee and a new convener.

I think that Susan Deacon is the only member who has not commented; do you want to say anything?

I have nothing to add to what has been said.

Thank you. I look forward to seeing members at next week's meeting.

Meeting closed at 15:58.