The fit and proper test which is unfit and improper

By Brian McNally

Published 12:30 05/02/10

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Football fans from Newcastle in the North to Portsmouth in the south must wonder why the football authorities even bother to have a fit and proper person test.

The schedule of offences that purports to disqualify owners, chairmen and directors who behave improperly clearly isn't working.

OK it prevents the ludicrous situation that existed before 2004 when even convicted fraudsters could take over a club.

Now prospective owners face being barred for a raft of misdemeanours that include unspent dishonesty convictions, being a bankrupt or being disqualified from company directorship, taking a club into administration twice or being named on the sex offenders register.

But those measures are having little practical effect as far as I can deduce. It still seems that any spiv, whether he comes from St Albans or Saudi Arabia, can drive a coach and horses through a test that proves absolutely no barrier to the seriously undesirable.

Events at Portsmouth has totally discredited the fit and proper person test.

The Fratton Park fiasco is proof positive that the test didn't even have the clout to kick out skint owner Ali Al-Faraj, who couldn't even pay his employees wages on time.

There is apparently no requirement for a new owner to show that he has sufficient funds to actually run the club- only a money-laundering check that any cash he has is legitimate.

Big deal. I have to do that as as a matter of course every time I deposit cash in my bank or building society account.

Then we are told that Daniel Azougy, convicted of fraud and deception in Israel, was heavily involved in the transfers of two Pompey players - centre back Younes Kaboul to Spurs for £5m and goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to Stoke City for £3.25m.

Azougy actually served five months in jail and was disqualified as a lawyer in Israel, yet somehow manages to be involved in stricken Pompey's recent affairs.

The Premier League claim that they are powerless to do anything about Azougy as he is described as a consultant on a short-term contract to the club.

Now we are told that Pompey's fourth owner in a year, Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai, is next up to take the test that no new owner ever seems to fail.

Strange that because under Premier League rules the test is supposed to be taken BEFORE a new owner buys or acquires 30 per cent of a club. Yet Chainrai has already bought 90 per cent of the Pompey shares.

As I observed in October if football was serious about imposing effective "fit and proper person" rules on club owners then Newcastle's Mike Ashley should have faced disrepute charges and investigation into his running of the Magpies within hours of admitting being dishonest to fans and journalists at a tribunal into former manager Kevin Keegan's departure.

But admitting lying to your customers it seems doesn't make you unfit and neither does being a throughly unsavoury character as Thaksin Shinawatra found out when amazingly being allowed to buy Manchester City.

Indeed, the only serving director of a club I know to have been barred under the test is Denis Coleman, a Rotherham United director when they twice went into administration.

We have also seen the ridiculous situation this season of the authorities having to investigate who actually owned Leeds United and Notts County.

Surely it is not beyond the ability of the test enforcers to make it a requirement for prospective owners or 30 per cent-plus shareholders to formally identify themselves to the league they are competing in.

The test, if it is to be effective, must also demand that detailed plans for the running and financing of clubs be lodged before purchase and that buyers prove that they possess ample funds not only to buy clubs but to finance their running over a given period of time.

And, while we are at it, it might be a good idea to subject Premier League supremo Richard Scudamore and Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney to their own competency exam to ascertain whether they are indeed qualified to run the fit and proper person test.

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