We Love You Football, We Do

Exactly one week before the 2024 General Election, Fair Game brings together a Question Time-style panel to discuss the future of football:

- Clive Betts (Labour), former chair of the all-party Parliamentary Football Group, and member of the Football Supporters' Association.
- Paul Athans (Conservative), Everton season ticket holder.
- Dominic, Lord Addington (Liberal Democrats), previously sat on the National Plan for Sport and Recreation Committee.
- Dr Christina Philipou, one of the country's leading experts on footballing finance and a senior lecturer at Portsmouth University.

The new Government will probably have a closer relationship to football than any before if the Football Governance Bill is enacted and the panel takes questions from some invited guests.

You can watch a re-run of the full live video version of the debate on YouTube.

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Graham Miller speaks to the former Reading, Newcastle, West Ham and Portsmouth goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.

Shaka enjoyed a great career, playing for Kevin Keegan's 'Entertainers', the team that finished second in the Premier League two years running. He also played in memorable play-off and FA Cup finals for Reading and West Ham, and at the World Cup finals for Trinidad & Tobago. He tells us about his experience and observations of racial abuse in public, and even in the dressing room.

Shaka is the honorary president of Show Racism The Red Card and explains how the inherent diversity in football shows how teams are stronger when they working together. He also says Alan Shearer would be a terrible left-back!

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As the Football Regulator Bill continues its journey through Parliament, we look at the progress so far, the changes that have been made to the original white paper and the contradictions that still need to be addressed.

Graham Miller is joined by Fair Game CEO Niall Couper, Bart Huby, the head of Football Analytics at LCP and Nick McGeehan, a co-founder of FairSquare, which investigates sport, geopolitics and business.

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While we wait for the Football Governance Bill, we talk to David Bernstein, who was chairman of Manchester City between 1998 and 2003, and then chairman of the FA between 2011 and 2013.

David has written a book about his time at Manchester City, 'We Were Really There' will be published on March 11, charting the beginning of the journey from the third tier in English football to where they are today, European and World champions.

As you will hear in this episode, David has interesting views on nation-state-owned clubs and the way they may influence the Government.

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The Times Chief Football Writer Henry Winter,  PoliticsHome reporter Tom Scotson and our very own Niall Couper join Graham Miller to discuss the latest on the appointment of football's independent regulator.

The realities of the regulator's relationship with the game are starting to take shape and in this episode we cover a lot of ground, discussing the likely shape the regulator will take, who could be appointed, and how important it is to convince Premier League clubs of the value of the football pyramid.

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With the King's Speech expected to announce the implementation of a football regulator, we take a closer look at the Fit And Proper Persons Test and ask how it should be modified to ensure clubs have better ownership.

In this episode, Graham Miller talks to Chris Blackhurst, former editor of the Independent and author of The World's Biggest Cash Machine, a book that examines the Glazer family's impact as owners of Manchester United; Martin Calladine, author of The Ugly Game and Fit And Proper People; and Stella Cooper, part of our team of researchers at Fair Game UK.

And as always, CEO Niall Couper also gives us the latest news from Fair Game.

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How often do we get to hear football fans discussing the game with a top referee? In this episode, Graham Miller and Niall Couper talk to Keith Hackett, a man who is every bit as passionate about football as we are.

Keith was one of the very best for 15 years and just like us, he wanted to smash his TV screen in frustration when he saw the disallowed Liverpool goal at Tottenham. He tells us the officials in that game did have the power to stop the game and correct the VAR mistake.

Keith managed the group of Premier League referees when he retired and he drove the introduction of technology to help officials do their jobs better and now he thinks there should be a reality TV show to find the next elite referees.

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Brody Peart was a key player of Basingstoke Town. His parents are lifelong fans, he was a mascot at the age of two, his aunt is the club secretary, his grandfather is the kit man and his grandmother is on the club's board. At the age of 17, having progressed through Basingstoke's academy and junior teams, he joined Premier League club Brighton in July 2003 but Basingstoke didn't receive a penny for the transfer. The current rules prevent Brighton from paying any compensation, although strangely Basingstoke could receive a fee if Brody is ever transferred abroad during his career.

In this episode, Graham Miller talks to Basingstoke Town manager Dan Brownlie and Oliver Ash, a co-owner of Maidstone United, who did receive compensation when Chris Smalling moved from Manchester United to Roma.

Graham, Dan and Oliver discuss the way current transfer regulations affect clubs outside the Premier League and Football League.

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This week, Fair Game begins consulting on our Good Governance Code report. Graham Miller discusses the code and the wider importance of Good Governance throughout football with Radojka Milevic, Mark Middling and Greg Campbell.

Mark and Greg worked together on designing the code, while Radojka is the independent chair of the Charity Governance Code. Mark is assistant professor in accounting at Northumbria University, Radojka and Greg are both partners at the management and recruitment consultancy, Cambell Tickell.

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Have you ever looked at the list of your club's employees in the programme, or the Who's Who page on their website and wondered what the Club Chaplain's role is? Graham Miller went to The Valley to meet Charlton Athletic's chaplain Matt Baker, West Ham United's Philip Wright and Neil Durling from Tonbridge Angels.

Three very different clubs, but their chaplains all have important roles to play for players and fans alike and Matt, Philip and Neil gave us a fascinating insight into their involvement.

We hear about a club-branded dog collar, and there is even a claim of evidence that God is a football fan!

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