Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the European Super League.

I welcome the decision of the six Premier League teams to withdraw from the European Super League. I believe that these proposals are unfair, anti-football and a fundamental attack on the very integrity of sporting competition. In my view, not only would they do immense damage to football, but they disregard the fans who, throughout the pandemic, have been at the centre of supporting communities up and down the country.

I have long supported reform of football. Its governance and finance are broken and fans, whichever club they support, are ignored. I believe it is wrong for owners to treat football clubs as just another commodity, with no care for the history of the sport, for its role across the nation, or for the fans at its beating heart.

The Government has announced its fan-led review of the long-term future of football including the terms of reference. I welcome this review but, having been promised in 2019, it is now long overdue and there has long been support across the House of Commons for football reform. I do not believe the Government has allocated sufficient parliamentary time for tackling the problems within football and I believe that these delays have allowed a vacuum in which these super league proposals were able to become a reality.   

I believe we must seize this moment to initiate serious and urgent reform on ownership, finance, culture, conduct, regulation, transparency and, most importantly, the involvement and voice of the fans. I would encourage all who care about football to work together to put supporters back at its heart.

This is a watershed moment for our national game. I have never before seen such unity across football, and I believe it is essential that we do not allow those who threaten our game to continue to do so. There is a need to act quickly and we must get on with these other necessary changes. I hope the Government will now make time for Parliament to legislate for such reform.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue. I can assure you I will continue to call for action to reform football.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP