Premier League unveils Owners’ Charter to head off future breakaway threat
England’s 20 top-flight football club owners will be required to sign a nine-point plan designed to maintain the competition’s integrity in a bid to avert any future breakaway threat.
Sky News has learnt that Premier League clubs were on Thursday sent a final draft of a new “Owners’ Charter” that their controlling shareholders will be required to commit to annually or risk facing tough sanctions.
A club executive said that the document would oblige clubs to avow their commitment to the English football pyramid – including promotion, relegation and qualification for cup competitions based on sporting merit – and to acting in good faith and with sporting integrity.
Adhering to the charter would also prevent club owners engaging in the creation of any new tournament format not permitted by the Premier League’s rules – effectively preventing any future bid to establish a European Super League (ESL).
Six Premier League clubs were involved in the ESL plans only to pull out amid a storm of protest from fans
The charter, which will be discussed at a meeting of the Premier League’s 20 “shareholders” next week, comes three months after the six clubs which signed up to the ESL – and then swiftly abandoned it – agreed to pay £20m in a settlement with English football’s top flight.
The club source said the charter also included pledges to back the English game and support its national teams; to combat discrimination and abuse; to run their clubs in an economically stable and sustainable way; to ensure that the Premier League remained the world’s most-watched domestic football competition; to protect player welfare; and to recognise the power of the 20 clubs as a collective.
They added that signing the document would also require club owners to acknowledge the importance of fans and the local communities in which they exist, as well as agreeing to the assertion that all Premier League clubs possessed “an equal voice”.
The Premier League said in May that it would introduce an Owners’ Charter, two weeks after Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – and a handful of Europe’s other top clubs – stunned the football world by signing up to a new European Super League.
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Real Madrid president Perez questioned over ESL
A spokeswoman for the Premier League declined to comment on the contents of the new shareholders’ manifesto, but a statement issued after its annual meeting in May said it would be aimed at upholding the “principles” of the competition.
“Clubs… agreed to the principle of an Owners’ Charter, which will reaffirm the values and expectations placed on clubs and their owners.
“These additional rules and regulations are being put in place to ensure the principles of the Premier League and open competition are protected and provide certainty and stability for our clubs and their fans.”
It was unclear on Thursday exactly what form the sanctions for non-compliance would take, but one club executive said they had been told that the charter would require annual attestation by owners.
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Arsenal fans protest against Kroenke over ESL
Signing the document is expected to become part of the formal Premier League rulebook in due course.
It is expected to gain the backing of the Football Association.
The creation of the charter comes as an independent review of football’s governance commissioned by ministers approaches its conclusion.
Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister who is chairing the inquiry, recommended in July that an independent regulator be set up to oversee the game.
“The short-lived threat of the European Super League jeopardised the future of the English football pyramid,” she wrote in a letter to Oliver Dowden, the then culture secretary.
“While that threat has receded – for now – the dangers facing many clubs across the country are very real with their futures precarious and dependent in most cases on the willingness and continuing ability of owners to fund significant losses.”
In addition to the fines they agreed to pay in June, the six English ESL clubs would also be liable to penalties of more than £20m and 30-point Premier League deductions if they repeated their breakaway bids, under the settlement they reached with the Premier League.
They rapidly abandoned the ESL project amid a huge backlash from rivals, fans and politicians.
Only financially troubled Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid have yet to formally withdraw from the ESL – although they have been allowed by UEFA to take part in this season’s Champions’ League.
The Premier League-imposed fines were comparable to those imposed by UEFA, which announced a package of “reintegration measures” for the nine clubs who agreed to pull out of the ESL during a torrid 48-hour period at the end of April.
Business
Ex-Post Office head of IT says Paula Vennells ‘hoped to avoid’ inquiry – and reveals she blocked her number
A former Post Office executive has said she was forced to block ex-boss Paula Vennells’ phone number after the ex-CEO called multiple times asking for help to avoid an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
Lesley Sewell, previously the company’s head of IT, told the Post Office inquiry on Thursday that former CEO Ms Vennells had reached out to her four times between 2020 and 2021.
Ms Sewell said that she blocked Ms Vennells’ number due to discomfort with the contact.
In her witness statement to the probe, Ms Sewell said that one of Ms Vennells’ emails referenced the need to fill in memory gaps regarding Horizon and “Project Sparrow”, a committee addressing issues with forensic accountants who identified flaws in the accounting system.
“Paula contacted me on four occasions in total. I recall blocking her number after the last call as I did not feel comfortable with her contacting me,” Ms Sewell said.
“I had not spoken to Paula since I had left POL [Post Office Limited] in 2015.”
Lesley Sewell giving evidence to the Post Office inquiry. Pic: PA
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According to Ms Sewell’s testimony, former chief executive Ms Vennells said that she had “been asked at short notice” to appear before a parliamentary select committee on “all things Horizon/Sparrow and need to plug some memory gaps”.
Ms Sewell says Ms Vennells added: “My hope is this might help avoid an independent inquiry but to do so, I need to be well prepared.”
Ms Sewell, who struggled to contain her emotions and broke down in tears while giving her oath at the start of her inquiry evidence, was offered support and breaks as needed by chairman Sir Wyn Williams.
Sir Wyn told the former executive: “Ms Sewell, I appreciate this may be upsetting for you, Ms Price will ask you a number of questions in a proper and sensible manner, but if at any time you feel you need a break, just let me know, all right?”
Lesley Sewell taking the oath at the Post Office inquiry. Pic: PA
The Post Office has faced significant scrutiny following the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office which highlighted the Horizon IT scandal.
The faulty system led to the prosecution of more than 700 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015, with many still awaiting full compensation despite government announcements regarding payouts for those with quashed convictions.
London City Airport will on Thursday name its first permanent female chief executive as it targets approval of an expansion plan that would create nearly 1,500 jobs.
Sky News understands that the Docklands airport has told staff that Alison FitzGerald, who has been co-CEO since January alongside finance chief Wilma Allan, has landed the role.
A woman wearing a face mask walks by London City Airport, which suspended its operations during the pandemic
She replaces Robert Sinclair, who left in January after six years to become boss of the High Speed 1 rail link.
The airport is owned by a consortium of Canadian pension funds and Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, which have backed a plan to increase its annual passenger traffic from about 6.5m to 9m.
It is appealing against Newham Council’s rejection of a planning application that would see it extend operating hours at the site, which is popular with City commuters.
The airport’s proposals include no increase in the annual number of flights and, in what it claims is a first for a UK airport, a commitment that only cleaner, quieter, new generation aircraft will be allowed to fly in any extended periods.
The runway at London City Airport
The appeal is being reviewed by the Independent Planning Inspector.
Its change of leadership makes London City the second of the capital’s airports to name a new CEO in quick succession, following the arrival at Heathrow of Thomas Woldbye last year.
“London City delivers one of the best passenger experiences in the UK and I’m committed to building on this success even further,” Ms FitzGerald said.
Representatives of Thames Water’s multinational syndicate of shareholders are poised to quit as directors of its corporate entities after refusing to inject the billions of pounds of funding required to bail it out.
Sky News has learnt that a number of board members at companies connected to Kemble Water Finance, Thames’s parent, are expected to resign in the coming days.
City sources described the move as “the logical next step” after the owners of Britain’s biggest water utility said they would not commit more than £3bn to help upgrade its ageing infrastructure and shore up its debt-laden balance sheet.
A default on part of Thames Water‘s holding company debts last month has raised the prospect that the company is heading towards special administration, a form of insolvency that would effectively leave the government liable for managing a utility firm which serves nearly a quarter of Britain’s population.
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Thames Water under threat
Thames Water is owned by a group of sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from countries including Abu Dhabi, Australia, Britain, Canada and China.
A number of the investors are represented on boards which sit at various points in the group’s labyrinthine capital structure.
It was unclear on Wednesday whether Michael McNicholas, a representative of the giant Canadian pension fund Omers and who sits on the board of Thames Water Utilities Limited, was among those in the process of stepping down.
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Along with the rest of the privately owned water industry, Thames Water faces a crucial moment next month when Ofwat, the industry regulator, publishes its draft determination on companies’ five-year business plans.
The draft rulings will be subject to negotiation before final versions are published in December.
Thames Water and a spokesman for Kemble declined to comment.
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