Rich Premier League clubs should pay for stadium inspections, say skint councils
Premier League clubs should pay for vital stadium safety checks, town hall chiefs urged today.
As the top flight kicks off tonight with Burnley v Manchester City, council bosses demanded an overhaul of the system for ground safety certification and later inspections. The Local Government Association called on ministers to “blow the full-time whistle on outdated charging regulations that mean the local taxpayer is having to foot the annual bill for sports clubs to have ground safety certification”.
Councils are responsible for issuing safety licences for the 92 English Premier League and Football League clubs, as well as other sports clubs. While they can charge a fee for issuing safety certificates, regulations only allow the fee to cover administrative costs.
Manchester City begin the defence of their title away in Lancashire (PA)Officials say local authorities lose money because they cannot charge for ongoing compliance checks, inspections and meetings. LGA researchers claim it totals more than £1.1 million per year, with councils paying an average cost of £5,869 per sports ground to oversee sports safety.
Analysts believe the process for checking football stadia could cost at least £20,000 per ground. The LGA wants the Government to amend the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 and linked regulations from 1987 which set out what councils can charge for.
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The Act requires all EPL and EFL stadia with a capacity exceeding 5,000 to have a safety certificate. The LGA’s safer and stronger communities board chairwoman Heather Kidd said: “Councils want to work with football and other sports clubs to ensure they have all the necessary ground safety measures in place. Football and sport have changed massively since 1975 when Kevin Keegan was footballer of the year and Brentford were in the fourth division.
“The current charging regulations are outdated and in need of reform. It is perverse that with the revenue in some sports, particularly football, that clubs are not meeting the costs of this vital work, unlike other businesses councils regulate, which rightly pick up the costs of regulation through the licence fees they pay.”
While councils issue safety certificates, responsibility for implementing the requirements and responsibility for the safety of spectators rests with clubs. However, councils carry out annual audits to ensure safety standards are being met.
Ms Kidd added: “Some of our top clubs are paying their players hundreds of thousands of pounds a week while at the same time councils face significant financial pressures to provide vital local services, and this is an extra cost they shouldn’t have to pick up. It is only fair that clubs pay the fees involved to cover the full cost of issuing safety certification, rather than for this to fall to the taxpayer.
“While these fees would not be huge, we do recognise this might be a challenging additional cost for some smaller clubs also struggling financially. However, there is enough collective wealth within the game to ensure that clubs, rather than taxpayers, should fund this.”
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