Ex-FA chief Alex Horne: Club game, regulator and football finance
Since September began the world of football has continued to offer talking point after talking point.
The Premier League transfer window closed to bring the curtain down on a summer splurge which topped £3bn for the first time; the Independent Football Regulator published its first piece of official policy ahead of its November detachment from government; Tottenham Hotspur’s owners ousted long-time chairman Daniel Levy; and the London City Lionesses spent £1.4m on PSG’s Grace Geyoro to smash the record for a women’s transfer.
There’s never a quiet day in the world’s only truly global game, and capitalising on the popularity of a sport which can be replicated with two jumpers and something remotely kickable has been the project of many a person or organisation.
While many attack this from a place of business and love, former Football Association chief Alex Horne has harnessed his experience of being at the governing body for over a decade to engage more people with the game.
In the club
“We’re launching Club,” he tells Morning Wire. “Which is a new mobile football game. It’s focused today on the English Premier League, and it’s a response to a sentiment that I’ve had for a while.
“Since I was at the FA I’ve been looking at how fans are engaging with football and their lives are changing. Social media apps rise in mobile gaming. I’ve got a couple of kids who are Gen Z and even when I was at the FA I could see that fan habits were changing.”
Horne – who was instrumental in the financing and construction of Wembley Stadium as well as the creation of the Women’s Super League – says the game replicates what it would be like to build a club from scratch.
Users get a “little pitch on a bit of scrubland” with “rag-tag players” and must build a formidable team, stadium and club identity which competes against similarly ranked players each weekend.
The game has investment from TikTok influencers, while a round of funding is expected in the coming months. But while Horne’s game sees every Tom, Dick and Harry able to own a football club, the reality is that some less than ideal candidates are already holding senior positions in the real English football pyramid.
Football finance worries
“I’m a free marketeer at heart,” Horne adds. “I’ve never been particularly concerned about the sort of whys and wherefores [of investment]. I am concerned about the motivations and [having] the right people to run the club. I want people who care about the club and the longevity of the club, the stability of the club, as well as the success.
“It’s obviously a fine balance. You can overcommit and get it wrong, and we’ve seen it time and time again. We want responsible owners who have long-term plans, resources and are prepared to commit to the fanbase, the community, the club ethos, and show you something that the fans want to see.”
Part and parcel of the incoming Independent Football Regulator will be to introduce a new Owners, Directors and Senior Executives’ Test which could land dodgy bosses in prison. Media rights expert David Kogan is set to take up the lead role, but concerns over previous donations to now DCMS secretary Lisa Nandy and now Prime Minister Keir Starmer have cast a shadow over his independence.
Whatever the situation he’s in for a difficult job, according to Horne.
“I’ve yet to understand what David [Kogan’s] job is going to be. I’ve read what his job could be, but I don’t know who he answers to, and I don’t know what is in his inbox. When I read all of the hand-wringing around the Super League won’t be addressed by the regulator, and the hand-wringing around ownership changes, they will struggle to regulate without clearly a thought through framework around what is and isn’t allowable, and then they’ll struggle to put together a takeover panel. Who’s going to regulate all this stuff?
Football regulator job
“I don’t know how this independent UK regulator manages that in a world of football which is global now, let alone European. When you’ve got owners coming from all over the world, you’ve got players coming from all over the world, who is Kogan answerable to in terms of what are the right objectives for a licensing framework?
“But I don’t envy him in the job, and I don’t know what his in-tray looks like, and I don’t know who’s answerable to.”
Maybe in a world where the real football landscape is rather fractured and finance-led, a mobile game simulating like-for-like circumstances could be a rather potent tonic. Because surely us normals cannot do worse than some of those with actual power? It’s certainly food for thought.