December 2 – Leeds United CEO Angus Kinnear (pictured) has compared calls for a transfer levy and an independent regulator in English football to Maoism and the Great Chinese Famine, arguing it would not make the game any fairer.
They were two of 47 recommendations made by a fan-led review of football governance which was announced last week.
Kinnear supports much of what was included in the review but took exception with two key issues which he said were “as flawed as they are radical”.
Writing in his programme notes for Leeds’ latest home game against Crystal Palace, Kinnear said: “Of the 47 recommendations contained in the fan-led review of football governance there was much to applaud.
“Increased supporter consultation, heritage shares, renewed focus for the women’s game and improving equality and diversity (among others) will all be met with almost unequivocal support.
“However, the two most significant recommendations are as flawed as they are radical. The first is the demand for independent regulation and the second is an increased transfer levy to redistribute increased funds further down the football pyramid.
“Football is a private sector business and has flourished that way. Enforcing upon football a philosophy akin to Maoist collective agriculturalism (which students of ‘The Great Leap Forward’ will know culminated in the greatest famine in history) will not make the English game fairer, it will kill the competition which is its very lifeblood.
“Teams further down the pyramid do not need their means artificially inflated, they need to live within them.”
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