Summary: Anto is joined once again by Sean Hamil of the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre in London to take a look back at the 2011 House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee Enquiry into the Governance of Football that attempted to take a very thorough and sobering look at how football was being managed in the UK to examine what effect it had over the longer term view. Having provided oral evidence during this process, Sean provides a serious level of analysis into what the this important committee got right, how it provided a degree of visibility to examine regulation as part of a successful licensing system while also pointing out some of the factors that still need our attention. At the center of this discussion is the ongoing debate surrounding the Football Creditors Rule, UEFA Financial Fair Play and recent events with Rangers as case study that should be considered as a serious warning signal as its practices with debt and ongoing liability with HMRC are more rule than exception. Also discussed here is the recent Premier League TV rights deal signed with BSkyB and BT and that it says more about the negotiating power of football than the value of the enterprise itself. We also get into a deeper examination of how football in Europe continues to drift further toward other league systems that are found in the NFL and NBA, among others. We also separate the theoretical elements of UEFA Financial Fair Play from its perception in the mainstream and how there appears to be a high degree of belief that high spending clubs will ever be reigned in during this process, and why the transition to UEFA FFP will continue to be a very messy process given the many disparate systems found all across Europe, beginning with the big five leagues of Europe. Since joining Birkbeck, Sean has focused on his core interest - the corporate governance and regulation of sport on which he has written and co-edited an extensive range of articles - notably the 2001-2003 editions of the State of the Game corporate governance of English football review - and a number of books including, The Changing Face of the Football Business: Supporters Direct, Football in the Digital Age: Whose Game Is It Anyway, and A Game of Two Halves? The Business of Football. Most recently he is co-editor of Managing Football: An International Perspective, and author and co-editor of Who Owns Football? The Governance and Management of the Club Game Worldwide.
