The Liberal Democrats will vow to get Premier League games on free-to-air TV and reform season ticket prices and club ownership as the party targets football fans ahead of the election.
The party will launch its first ever election broadcast targeting sports fans on Thursday night to promote its plans for the beautiful game.
Culture spokesman and long-suffering Blackburn Rovers fan Tim Farron voices a minute-long segment which will air on TalkSport after the Three Lions’ Euro 2024 game against Denmark in Frankfurt.
Mr Farron, the candidate for Cumberland and Westmorland, references Wayne Rooney’s 211 overhead kick for Manchester United against Manchester City, and Stephen Gerrard’s title-losing slip for Liverpool against Chelsea in 2014, saying: ‘These moments belong to all of us, not to billionaire owners. But too many fans are priced out of the Premier League, forced to stump up hundreds of pounds in subscription fees, and even more for season tickets.
‘But this is part of our shared heritage; the English Football League, the Premier league, the Scottish Premier League.’
He goes on to promote the party’s ‘free-to-air revolution’, which would force football the Premier League to allow 10 games per season to be shown on terrestrial television, adding: ‘If you’re tired of shouting at Conservative politicians on the telly, vote Liberal Democrat and you can put the footy on instead.’
He told : ‘As we watch players like Saka and Rice light up the Euros, it is a disgrace that the majority of fans are unable to watch them in the Premier League.
The Lib Dem manifesto also pledged to make sure international cricket, rugby, golf and tennis fixtures are shown on free-to-air television.
It also outlines plans for ‘human rights questions’ to the propriety test for prospective club owners, in the wake of purchases of several clubs, most notably that of Newcastle United by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
It also pledges support for a new independent regulator that is also backed by Labour. It was due to be introduced by the Tories after a campaign led by former minister Tracey Crouch, but the legislation was killed off when Rishi Sunak called the July election.
Mr Farron said: ‘It is scandalous that millions of fans are locked out of watching their team through sky high season ticket prices and expensive subscription services.
‘The Premier League, the EFL and the SPL are part of our shared football heritage. We must tear down the paywall and give football back to the fans, starting with 10 Premier Leagues a season on free-to-air.
‘Rising subscription fees and season tickets are pricing ordinary fans out of watching live football.’
It came after Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the prospect of Labour introducing a 10 per cent tax on Premier League transfers if his party wins power at the general election.
The Labour leader, who is a keen Arsenal fan, rejected the idea despite one of his shadow ministers suggesting she would ‘look at’ the proposal.
Plans for a tax on Premier League clubs buying players from overseas or other top-flight clubs was included in a recent fan-led review of football governance.
If a 10 per cent levy had been in place last summer, it would have cost Arsenal £10million when signing Declan Rice from West Ham for a £100million fee.
Labour’s shadow culture and sport secretary Thangham Debbonaire said she would ‘look at everything’ proposed in the fan-led review on Monday.
But yesterday Sir Keir told LBC radio: ‘Let me just kill it dead, we’re not looking at that.’
The 2021 fan-led review was chaired by ex-Conservative MP Dame Tracey Crouch, a former sports minister.
Among her proposals for an overhaul of the way football is governed was a plan for a new ‘solidarity transfer levy’.
Dame Tracey’s report said this would work ‘in a similar way to stamp duty’ and distribute revenues across the football pyramid and into the game’s grassroots.
The review estimated a 10 per cent levy would have raised £160million per year between 2016 and 2021.
This would have been enough to fund a grant to ensure League One and Two clubs broke even – along with grassroots playing facilities for adults and children.
But the proposal received strong pushback from Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, who branded it a ‘too radical’.
The Government did not include plans for a new transfer levy in its Football Governance Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in March but was not passed by MPs before the general election was called.
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