The State Of The Game Report

This morning the annual State Of The Game report by The Football Governance Research Centre (a recognised centre of Birkbeck, University of London) was published at a meeting this morning. The report includes an analysis of the Independent European Sports Review ("IESR") and ownership models/ the development of the Supporters Trust movement in Britain and Europe both interesting topics which we have reported on here previously.

The keynote speakers at the meeting this morning were Jose Luis Arnaut (IESR), Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP (Minister for Sports), Lars Christer Olson (UEFA), Gordon Taylor (Professional Footballers Association), Joe Mclean (Grant Thornton) and Peter Hunt (MUTUO). For those who haven't heard of MUTUO or Communicate Mutuality Limited it is a not for profit society which amongst many things campaigns for a better understanding of the benefits of mutual businesses.

Richard Caborn was quoted earlier today as saying that growing commercialism is threatening football's future. He also went on to mention that football governance arrangements needed to be looked at to ensure that they were "fit for purpose". These comments are in the same vein as the ones he previously made at the Supporters Direct conference two months ago which we published here on 21 October 2006. The article can be found in our October archive here http://mcfcsupporterstrust.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

Finally, Brian Barwick of the FA has been quoted with reference to the State Of The Game report "The FA recognises the importance of the State Of The Game survey and its contribution to monitoring governance standards and helping to spread best practice. Keeping the subject at the top of the game's agenda is crucial".

No doubt there will be some media coverage of the State Of The Game report tomorrow. When we have read through the report and coverage we will publish our findings here.