By Matt Scott
June 8 – Insolvent Football League clubs will face an immediate 12-point deduction following new rules introduced at the competition’s annual summer conference in Portugal on Friday.
The new regulations were part of a package of new measures brought in to tackle the damaging effects of insolvency to competitions, clubs’ futures and local communities.
As revealed by Insideworldfootball last week [see related article below] clubs approved a system raising the automatic insolvency sanction from 10 points to 12. While the Football Creditors’ Rule, guaranteeing 100% repayment of debts to clubs and players for transfers and wages, will be retained, rescue bidders will also be obliged to pay a minimum 25p in the pound to all other unsecured creditors as well.
This must be paid upon takeover of the clubs’ assets in the Football League or the sum payable rises to 35p in the pound and must be paid over a maximum of three years. Failure to comply will result in a second season’s deduction of 15 points.
The League also removed the requirement for a formal Company Voluntary Arrangement overseen by registered insolvency practitioners. It noted that the practical effect of those rules had been to enrich insolvency professionals and to make clubs vulnerable to owners who caused the insolvency controlling the process in order to retain ownership of the clubs. In a further effort to assist local communities, clubs’ supporters’ trusts must be provided with the opportunity to bid for the club.
The League has also introduced new regulations providing more opportunity for coaches and managers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. For youth-development positions that require a minimum qualification of a UEFA B Coaching Licence it will become mandatory for clubs to interview at least one applicant from a BAME background.
The so-called ‘Rooney Rule’ has been welcomed by the Professional Footballers’ Association whose members have found pathways to coaching positions blocked. Bobby Barnes, the PFA deputy chief executive who has been heavily involved in drawing up new proposals in this area, said: “The issue has been a real anomaly between the representation on the field and the representation in the stands and on the benches in terms of coaching and management.
“I do applaud the Football League because it’s taken a great amount of courage for them to take this first step. What this new initiative will do is to start an environment of more transparent and open recruitment processes. At the moment football doesn’t have a very good record, not just for BAME but in recruitment per se. Things like shortlists and interviews very often don’t happen – it’s to do with word of mouth.
“What we’re trying to do is to ensure those people who are qualified and who are applying for jobs actually have some hope of getting an interview to present their abilities to the board.”
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