LEAGUE CLAMPS DOWN ON ROGUE DIRECTORS AND OWNERS
| Wednesday
16 June 2004
On Friday the Football League announced that it is introducing a "Fit and Proper Persons Test" for football club directors. The news came eight years after Sir John Smith first proposed that such a test be introduced, and three days before former Darlington FC chairman George Reynolds was arrested on suspicion of money laundering after police found him travelling through County Durham in a van with £500,000 cash. |
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voted for Christmas |
The decision was unanimously taken by clubs at the League's AGM. In future it will be a breach of Football League regulations for the following to be a director or hold a majority interest in a Football League club:
Anyone subject to a ban from a Sports Governing Body relating to the administration of that sport.
Anyone with an unspent conviction relating to fraud or dishonesty.
Anyone who is disqualified from acting as a director of a UK registered company.
Anyone currently subject to a Bankruptcy Order.
Anyone who has been a Director of a club that has been in administration twice during a five-year period or a Director of two different clubs that have each gone into administration in a five-year period.
All current directors will sign a declaration by 31 July showing they are fit and proper persons, and new directors after that date will have to pass the test at the time of their appointment.
The measures are not as strong as the ones that supporters' representatives have been campaigning for, but now the test has been adopted in principle it can be tightened up in future. It's also surprising and encouraging that the League clubs have voted to regulate themselves in this way.
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