Does Dumbarton fate prove Scottish game needs independent regulator?

The Herald Scotland

12 hours ago

And, as administrators for Dumbarton prepare to dissolve one of Scotland's oldest clubs and start again as a newco, years of mismanagement of the League Two club have reinforced the conviction of the local MSP that football clubs should be offered some form of protection from rapacious owners. Whether they want it or not.
'My experience with Dumbarton Football Club strengthens the case for an independent football regulator.
'In the past few years, Dumbarton has lost out to too many owners whose true interest lay beyond the club itself.
'I would like, at the very least, the SFA to be given greater responsibility and power to clamp down on speculative owners. However, inaction by the football authorities makes the case for an independent regulator stronger.'
While independent regulation is common in other industries, the Scottish football authorities are member organisations run by clubs for clubs. And those same clubs don't care for the idea of an independent regulator telling them how to run their business.
Owners and directors might be subjected to fit and proper checks more stringent than a self declaration form or the limited rules set down in Article 10.2 of the SFA handbook.
Clubs might see a light being shone on their darkest alcoves. The game might be forced to confront sectarian singing or bottles, vapes and fireworks being lobbed around grounds by adopting strict liability, a justice system clubs virulently oppose.
There might even be a review of the decision by Premiership sides to ban artificial pitches in the top flight by season 2026/27.
Addressing Holyrood's health, social care and sport committee in December 2023 Scottish FA Chief Executive Ian Maxwell flagged up the significant differences between the game north and south of the border and described Scottish football governance as "robust" when it came to dealing with financial issues. A regulator, he argued, was unnecessary.
Since then Dumbarton and Inverness Caledonian Thistle have endured insolvency events. Livingston have been embroiled in a lengthy court battle with their shareholders and Hamilton Academical have been docked 15 points and incurred the wrath of fan groups for announcing plans to leave their home town and move to Cumbernauld instead.
The SFA and SPFL argue that the levers are already in place to to deal with rule breaches and misbehaviour.
Hamilton's application to move 14 miles to Broadwood is under review while the league recently handed Celtic and Rangers suspended punishments for unruly supporter behaviour at the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals. The SFA have introduced measures to deal with misconduct at domestic cup games. Clubs which suffer an insolvency event as a result of financial mismanagement, meanwhile, can expect a 15 point deduction.
Simon Barrow, co-founder of the SFSA and lead author of the 2023 report 'Rebuilding Scottish Football', which led to a parliamentary debate last year and the establishment of a Scottish Government-hosted roundtable on the development of the game, believes football is tinkering while Rome burns.
'With clubs like Dumbarton and Inverness Caledonian Thistle going into administration and the need to strengthen and invest in the game from the grassroots upwards increasing in urgency, effective transparency and accountability in financial and related matters is crucial,' argues Barrow.
'It is important to see through the cloud of dust that can easily be thrown up by the issue of whether, like England, Scotland should move towards having a statutorily backed regulator for football.
'That is clearly a backstop. But it does not have to be the starting point for discussion. We should first agree the principle that a public facing industry in receipt of the public's money in a variety of ways should be publicly accountable.
'Independent scrutiny is the way to achieve that. It is also essential for building confidence and trust in Scottish football, and for encouraging people to put money into its future. It's a win-win situation.
Dumbarton Rock towers above Dumbarton Football Stadium (Image: Christian Cooksey)
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'What it means is qualified assessors having the power and information to examine who owns and runs the game, how public interest can be made central, and how Scottish football's finance, governance and conduct can be improved and strengthened.
'Practically, there are a variety of ways that independent scrutiny, short of a statutory regulator, can operate. That is what the conversation should be about.'
Critics of an independent regulator argue that the scheme is an expensive and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
Some of the issues which plague Scottish football – such as pyrotechnics and missiles - are matters governed - in theory at least - by the criminal justice system. Clubs pay Police Scotland good money and expect them to earn it.
Speaking after a Hampden AGM where clubs signed up to tougher rules around crowd disorder for cup games governed by the SFA CEO Maxwell acknowledged that football had to do more to combat anti-social behaviour in the stands.
The Scottish Government, meanwhile, are scheduled to host another Round Table to discuss some of the issues surrounding the game.
The implied threat underpinning the talks is clear. If football fails to clean up its act then the politicians reserve the right to step in at some unspecified date in future. Even if the will to do so is weak.
One senior figure – speaking on condition of anonymity - told Herald Sport that an independent regulator in Scotland had always been an idea promoted by former first minister Henry McLeish as a vehicle for Henry McLeish.
'The regulator down south was a tool to stop the Super League, something which was never relevant in Scotland. To stop heritage assets being removed like changes to colours and crests, which has already been achieved through the SFA and to get 20% of income through to the lower leagues, which is roughly where we are in Scotland anyway.
'Clubs like Dumbarton, Inverness and so on are where they are because of their own individual circumstances. It has nothing to do with anything that a regulator could change. All a regulator brings is bureaucracy, costs and administration paid for by the industry.
'All we will see down south is a rising number of legal fights between clubs being regulated and the regulator.'
Legal disputes in football are now commonplace. Last season the English Premier League spent £45million on legal costs due to various disputes and arbitration revolving around financial fair play regulations.
Cases involving Manchester City, Everton, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Leicester City demonstrate that wealthy owners of football clubs don't care much for external scrutiny of how they spend their money. Some believe that the main benefactors of a football regulator will be lawyers.
In Scotland, at least, the issue is hypothetical because there is currently no plan for a Football Governance Bill. Unless Labour secure power in the Holyrood elections next year there appears to be no political will to introduce a regulator in Scotland.
'The row over the Offensive Behaviour in Football Act put the SNP government currently in power off the idea of legislating football,' says Paul Goodwin, co-founder of the Scottish Football Supporters Association in 2015. 'I think we are still in a recovery period from that.'
A critic of the SFA and SPFL Goodwin senses no real movement towards an independent regulator in Scotland, but believes there should be.
'Part of the challenge football faces is the history of being anything but open and anything but transparent. There are conflicts of interest everywhere.
'I am not saying that an independent regulator will go in and say, 'you can't get your league structures right, I am going to fix it.'
'But what an independent regulator might do is look at the financial distribution model and say, 'why is Scotland the only country in Europe where solidarity money coming from UEFA is not filtering down to the lower levels of the game?
'The problem here is that the SFA, like the SPFL, is run by the clubs for the clubs. It's self interest that dictates everything.
'The SFA should be overseeing the governance of our game but they come under so much influence from clubs in the SPFL. And, let's be honest here, turkeys do not vote for Christmas.'