TER0051

Written evidence submitted by the Football Association

The FA is the not-for-profit governing body of football in England. We are responsible for promoting and developing every aspect of the game, from professional to grassroots. The FA has direct responsibility for the operations of Steps 1-6 of the National League System, and run women’s competitions at the elite level, including the Barclays Women’s Super League, Barclays Women’s Championship and Vitality Women’s FA Cup. 

Applicability

The National League System is a key function of community sport within football. It is an important part of our football pyramid consisting of 6 levels that connects the grassroots game at Step 6 and the Professional game through Step 1. It is a broad-church of 980 clubs; in many cases the NLS team is the most senior of larger community youth clubs.

However, unlike the professional game, this level of football is almost entirely dependent on a volunteer workforce. Whilst only Steps 1 and 2 average over 800 capacity, (average crowds for Step 2: 800, Step 3: 400, Step 4: 200, Step 5 & 6: 100), most of the 875 grounds used in the NLS at Steps 1 to 6 would have a potential capacity of 800+. In fact, the minimum capacity under ground grading criteria must be Step 1: 4,000, Step 2: 3,000, Step 3: 1,950, Step 4: 1,300 – with no minimum capacity at Steps 5 & 6.

The Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship are professional leagues and their member clubs operate, for the most part, as parties to ground-share agreements with professional men’s clubs in the EFL. Beneath this in the FA Women’s National League and in early round FA Cup games, these are run more similarly to NLS leagues via volunteer workforces.

Impact

The primary concern regarding the proposed legislation is the requirement to base risk assessments on the capacity of grounds, with venues being pushed into the enhanced tier if their capacity is over 800. This risks putting a large number of community sports clubs and organisations into the enhanced tier, imposing a disproportionately heavy compliance burden that is unlikely to be able to be supported by what are largely community-run organisations by volunteer workforces.

The documentation and presentation received to date regarding the proposed legislation appears to have been developed with the professional workforce in mind. Many of the community sports clubs in the NLS in particular are entirely dependent on volunteer workforce, and there are concerns about the impact this legislation may have on the operations of these clubs. 

The FA supports Martyn’s Law and recognises the terrible tragedy that occurred in Manchester in 2017 warrants full-scale change in procedures across the professional event space. Our concerns detailed below are raised with regard to not only football, but the impact this legislation is likely to have on community sports clubs and facilities across the country with larger capacities.

In this regard, we note in particular the inclusion of places of worship and education facilities as “special cases”, with them proposed as out of scope of the enhanced tier provisions and therefore subject to a reduced burden to comply with the full provisions of Martyn’s Law. We believe there is a strong case to include community sports clubs within this protected tier.

Some of the key concerns raised within the legislation include:

• Proportionality
  The Home Office guidance states that “proportionality” is a key policy principle throughout this legislation. We would welcome a further discussion on proportionality as applied to volunteer-led events, including community football clubs.
   
• Special Cases
  The Home Office further highlights places of worship and education facilities as “special cases” exempt from the more stringent compliance requirements that this legislation sets out. These organisations will often have a paid workforce and are likely to have a higher ratio of paid workforce per attendee compared to community sports facilities. We would ask the Committee to consider the rationale of including these events but not other events, and whether the special case exemption could include community sports clubs.
   
• Compliance
  The legislation sets out risks of non-compliance, including fines of up to £18m. Whilst it is presumed that these figures would be reserved for larger venues, there is a concern that the risk of non-compliance could be off-putting to lower league clubs staging such events. With the volunteer workforce already struggling to attract and retain volunteers, we are concerned this burden and the weight of non-compliance risk may further deter the volunteers needed to sustain grassroots sport across the football pyramid and beyond.
   
• Ownership and Requirements
  In both the NLS and in particular in the women’s game, operators of club matches and owners of grounds are more often than not separate. Ground-shares are common, with a mix of freehold owners and leased land from local authorities. It is important for the legislation to make clear where liabilities lie between premise owners versus event organisers, and where the compliance requirements will sit for a day-to-day event.
   
• Senior Officer
  The legislation requires a “senior officer” to be appointed with responsibility for compliance. As above, this will present significant challenges in relation to the level of expertise and responsibility currently held by community sport volunteers.

• Guidance

The legislation says that the regulator must issue guidance, must keep it under review and may revise and reissue the guidance.  We would welcome a requirement that the regulator  consults with the relevant sectors in creating its guidance.
 

We believe a proportionate response could take a laddering approach in order for organisations to have requirements to minimise risk based on the size of the event, rather than the capacity of the ground. For example, one ground may have a capacity exceeding 800, which is highly likely, but it is much less likely they will admit this number of spectators in practice.

June 2023