Marina Izidro: What will the new British prime minister do for sport?

This week, Liz Truss became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She replaces Boris Johnson, is also from the Conservative Party and has a huge challenge ahead of her: dealing with soaring inflation that surpassed 10% in July, with rising cost of living and energy bills, in addition to foreign policy matters. like the war in Ukraine. All this with the country mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II two days after Truss took office. In other words, sport will not be a priority at this time.

But there are fears that the implementation of a major reform in English football is at risk. At the end of last year, a member of the party itself published a report that recommended a series of changes in the way sport is financed and managed here.

Among the proposed changes are: creation of an independent regulatory body that would oversee club finances, including mechanisms for the wealthiest to distribute more money to those at the bottom of the English football pyramid; greater rigidity in the tests for those who want to buy a club (an issue that always appears after acquisitions such as Newcastle, for example); increased influence of fans in decision-making; and improvement of the equality of conditions between the feminine and masculine game.

According to the British press, Truss could veto the implementation of the report because she is surrounded by “influential people who have no interest in changing the current structure”, or because the matter is not a priority.

There are other issues on the British sporting agenda: the government’s pledge to review the link between bookmakers and football and potentially ban uniform sponsorship; solve the problem of public sports facilities that were closed, first because of the pandemic and now because of the high price of energy; and the request by the women’s Euro Cup champions team for more girls to have the chance to play football in physical education classes at school.

It doesn’t help much that several themes are concentrated in a single ministry called Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The portfolio has had seven ministers since the 2016 Brexit referendum – the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.

It will also be curious to see how Truss fares in relation to his predecessor in controversial sporting matters. Boris Johnson has been accused by opponents of trying to take advantage of the men’s football team’s momentum by wearing the England kit at Wembley in last year’s Euro Cup final; he publicly spoke out against the creation of a European Superleague; he influenced the sale of Chelsea, as the British government blocked Russian oligarchs’ assets because of the invasion of Ukraine, when the club’s then owner was Roman Abramovich.

As for Truss, it is known for now that she is a Norwich fan, now in the second division.

A study released this year by consultancy Ernst & Young revealed that in the 2019/20 season the Premier League contributed £7.6bn to the UK economy, more than £45bn. And, before taking on the most important post in the country, Truss was the foreign minister, so she knows well what a huge export the league is.

She must imagine that there’s no point in England or Wales doing well at the Qatar World Cup if the population doesn’t have the money to celebrate in the pub or warm up at home in the winter. But it certainly will not, and could not, ignore the sport.