PODCAST: Prof. Simon Chadwick – “Football Needs A Parliament”

iSportconnect is collaborating with @SportsContentStrategy, a podcast by @MrRichardClarke exploring sports content, digital and social media by talking to players, executives, coaches, creators and specialists.

In the latest episode of the SportsContentStrategy podcast, Richard Clarke speaks to Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise & Director of Centre for Sports Business, University of Salford, about ‘soft power’ in sport. He argues this has led to disenchantment among sports fans and he is suggesting a solution.

“There is some disengagement when your club is owned by a foreigner but, equally, there’s a danger of disengagement from clubs owned by British investors, because in many cases, they simply cannot compete.

“I am a firm advocate of something like a climate change summit for football because I genuinely believe that we have fundamental issues that we need to address.”

“This should include fans, broadcasters, clubs, players, local communities and social media companies. We all need to reach a consensus about what we want football to be.”

“Right now I sense the game is still an incredibly powerful socio-cultural institution. It’s still compelling, dramatic, it still draws people in, there’s still a lot of excitement and emotion and love. But notwithstanding that, I think there’s an incredible sense of alienation across football from those whose clubs that are owned by people they’ve never even met who are not from the town and those people don’t really care right through to people like me, a local guy whose club is owned by another local guy. He loves the club, but they’re never going to win anything because they just he just simply doesn’t have the resources.

“As we’ve seen with climate change, everybody’s got vested interests. This is just part and parcel of being a human being and everyday life. So when it comes to football, it’s nothing different. But effectively the British government, certainly over the last 25 years since the inception of the Premier League, has done nothing. So effectively, a free market has ruled in football. We’ve done nothing either to stop or moderate or to control it in any meaningful way. But it’s not just us in the UK, it’s France, Spain, Germany and elsewhere. The European Union has done nothing because its sport policy has effectively been focused on participation. It’s not been focused on protecting its industrial assets.”

“I think certainly there’s an opportunity going forward for there to be some kind of ‘football parliament’ for want of a better term whereby the important stakeholders and I’m not just talking about people with money, I’m talking about fans, communities, supporters trusts, grassroots football projects, but equally Sky, Amazon and MasterCard plus and Manchester United and Real Madrid.”

“All of us to have a voice and all of us deserve to be heard. And we need to consensually negotiate a way forward and to establish a vision for OUR football and OUR heritage.”

To list to the complete interview, click here.