The social and community value of football - Are there any regulatory requirements for football clubs to report against social and environment impacts?

James, MD; Miettinen, S

Abstract

It is often claimed that because professional football clubs are at the centre of, integral to
and essential for the communities in which they are based, the pattern of regulation affecting
them should be different from that which is imposed on other businesses of a similar size.
Such claims are used to justify the need for the differential treatment of football clubs in
many different contexts from planning and licensing applications, to calls for the more
effective regulation of football clubs from supporter groups, to the rule providing for the
primacy of football creditors. Despite this claim of difference, however, neither the football
authorities, domestic UK law nor EU law require football clubs to submit to any social
accounting procedures. The result of this lack of a framework for measuring the social and
community impact of a football club is that there is very little evidence that can be relied on
by either the governing bodies of football, their constituent member clubs or their fans to
justify the differential treatment that is often sought. Further, this lack of evidence makes it
almost impossible to justify to clubs why it could be beneficial for them to engage with their
communities more proactively than might otherwise be the case.

Citation

James, M., & Miettinen, S. (2010). The social and community value of football - Are there any regulatory requirements for football clubs to report against social and environment impacts?

• Report Type: Project Report
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Apr 30, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 30, 2010
• Publisher URL: http://valuefootball.substance.coop/files/Regulatory_Working_Paper-Social_Value_of_Football.pdf
• Related Public URLs: http://www.substance.coop/