Andy Burnham's (Minister of Culture and Sport) speech at the Co-operative Party Conference about the ownership of football clubs received plenty of press coverage. The response from Lord Triesman, chairman of the FA was encouraging. It has a wider implication beyond the multi-million pound owners of English Premier league clubs. Emilio Butragueno until recently vice president of Real Madrid warned that it could affect the Champions League with it being dominated by English clubs. He won't remember his own club dominating European football in the 1950's. Then it was backed by the fascist Franco regime.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of Bayern Munich said "Germany needed to have an open discussion about relaxing the country's strict ownership rules and making it easier for individuals to make big investments in Bundesliga clubs." ESPN Soccernet
Back in Blighty, Andy Burnham has responded to a request from FC United of Manchester, our own co-operative football club, to meet and discuss the issue of ownership. Currently clubs in the Football League and Premiership cannot have a mutual ownership model as in Germany and Spain.
