With a proposed £600m offer to buy Wembley Stadium from Fulham owner Shahid Khan now withdrawn, the head of the UK Football Association wants to see a tax on sports betting to fund amateur or “grassroots” football.
Association Chief Executive Martin Glenn had hoped the sale would allow the association to increase the funding of grassroots football, but the deal was not supported by the FA Council and received widespread criticism. Khan has since withdrawn his offer.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Glenn proposed the idea of a tax on sports betting to fund the amateur game.
“France has effectively a tax on gambling. We would call it a fair return on football gambling,” he said. “All those betting companies use our intellectual property to have people lay bets, so why wouldn’t a small percentage of that be put into the thing that made that possible in the first place? We, as football, could approach the government and say ‘Have you thought about something like that?’
Gambling companies and gamblers advocacy groups quickly opposed the idea.
“Gambling companies already pay significantly above the market rate for the right to advertise alongside live sport,” said Gillian Wilmot, chairman of the Senet Group, which promotes responsible gaming. “This is money which flows to broadcasters and ultimately benefits sport through the sale of broadcast rights. “Instead of looking to further monetize gambling’s relationship with live sport, the FA, clubs and broadcasters should be looking to work with the gambling industry to reduce the amount of gambling advertising around football. This is in the interests of protecting young people from any potential future harm.”
The trade group Remote Gambling Association also opposed the plan.
“The British betting industry already pays for the use of football’s intellectual property rights, not least through contractual arrangements with Football Data Co,” RGA chief executive Clive Hawkswood told Press Association Sport. “Alongside that, significant funds flow from the betting to the football industries through a range of commercial partnerships such as sponsorship, advertising and joint ventures.
“If the football authorities wish to use some of those funds to support grassroots football then that is an option they might consider, but there is no basis whatsoever for the introduction of a statutory betting levy to support what most people would consider to be an extremely wealthy sport,” he said.
