VISA BAN ‘TO THWART SUPER LEAGUE REBELS’
Ministers threaten foreign work permit crackdown and super-tax
MINISTERS went to war with England’s biggest football clubs last night as they threatened to hit them with a super-tax and ban their foreign players from working in this country.
Amid national uproar, Boris Johnson pledged to do ‘everything that we can’ to kill off controversial plans for a new breakaway European Super League.
The Daily Mail understands measures under consideration by ministers include revoking the work permits of the rebel clubs’ foreign players, refusing to police their matches and imposing new taxes on the teams involved.
They are also looking at travel exemptions, competition laws and fast-tracking new legislation to allow the Premier League and the Football Association to take action against the clubs. And there will now be a fan-led review of football, billed as ‘a root-andbranch examination’ of the sport.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur sent shockwaves through the sport by announcing late on Sunday night that they would join six clubs from Spain and Italy in founding the so- called European Super League.
The mid-week competition would rival current European competitions, but the founding teams would never face relegation – leading to accusations they are creating a closed shop driven by greed.
Following emergency talks with the Premier League, FA and Uefa (Union of European Football Associations) yesterday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the game’s authorities had the Government’s ‘full backing’ in imposing ‘draconian’ sanctions on the teams he likened to a ‘cartel’.
In a Commons statement, he said that if the sport was unable to ‘stop this move in its tracks’, then ministers were prepared to step in to protect the national game.
‘Be in no doubt, if they can’t act, we will. We will put everything on the table to prevent this from happening,’ he said. ‘We are examining every option from governance to competition law to mechanisms that allow football to take place.
‘We will be reviewing everything Government does to support these clubs to play. We will do whatever it takes to protect our national game.’
On a visit yesterday, the Prime Minister said the breakaway plans were not ‘good news for fans’ or English football. ‘I don’t like the look of these proposals,’ he told reporters in Gloucestershire. ‘We are going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this doesn’t go ahead in the way that it’s currently being proposed.’
Mr Johnson said the teams are more than just ‘great global brands’, adding: ‘ They’re also clubs that have originated historically from their towns, from their cities, from their local communities. They should have a link with those fans, and with the fan base in their community.
‘So it is very, very important that that continues to be the case.’
Later, Mr Johnson said the breakaway league could ‘take a lot of the cash away from clubs that really need it’.
Former sports minister Tracey Crouch will be chairman of the fan-led review. Mr Dowden told MPs he was ‘appalled’ by the announcement by the clubs and promised a ‘very robust response’ from Government. He said: ‘These six clubs announced this decision without any consultation with football authorities or with Government. Worst of all, they did it without any dialogue whatsoever with their own fans.
‘It was a tone-deaf proposal, but the owners of those clubs won’t have been able to ignore the nearuniversal roar of outrage from all parts of the football community over the past 24 hours.
‘This move indeed goes against the very spirit of the game.’
Earlier, Downing Street did not rule out actions, including the introduction of a German- style system of fan ownership of clubs and clawing back coronavirus support loans. MPs on the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee this morning will meet to discuss holding an inquiry that could see football bosses hauled before Parliament.
Tory chairman Julian Knight said yesterday it was a ‘dark day for football’ with ‘a deal done behind closed doors, apparently with no regard for supporters’.