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12.34 pm
Mr. Alan Keen (Feltham and Heston): I was extremely happy earlier, sitting between two supporters of Sheffield Wednesday, which my team Middlesbrough beat twice last season, both games being shown live on television. The right hon. and learned Member for Putney(Mr. Mellor) was too much of a gentleman to say who his team beat, but he did mention that Chelsea scored five goals only once last season. I can hear my hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) laughing, as I tried to avoid him at half-time, but was unable to do so. I feel happy that those two Sheffield Wednesday supporters have left, as I do not feel so guilty now.
In relation to sport for all, one of my themes, it is worth mentioning the Oval on Wednesday--not Surrey, but the Lords versus Commons match, where a full range of talent was on display, from none to at least halfway up. Ages certainly ranged from the highest to almost youth. My hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) contributed not just near youth, but a woman playing the great game of cricket.
That was a great day. I do not know whether it was a bad omen for old Labour, but Lord Desai and Lord Donoughue came in with 10 overs to go and 50 runs to get and took the usual delaying tactics of the place. They scored no runs in the last 10 overs, but lasted until the end, so it was ancient Labour striking back against the Commons.
I support my party's charter for football in principle because it does not take the attitude that so many articles that I have read and so many television pundits take. They
start off by saying, "How are we going to make England, Scotland or the United Kingdom world champions?" Our charter starts at the other end. The aim is not to make British world champions, but to involve all youngsters in sport.
I am not opposed to the British academy of sport--in fact, I support it--but we are not going to get world champions by sending half a dozen people at a young age to Bisham Abbey or somewhere else and by cutting them off from society, especially if they make up only 5 per cent. of people who participate in sport. We shall win gold medals and make our nations world champions only if we ensure that all children and young people have a chance to participate in sport.
This has nothing to do with the wonderful athletes whom the Gateshead club turns out, but I remember Brendan Foster saying, when he was at his peak, that he was not the best middle-distance runner in Gateshead. His point was that few youngsters had the opportunity to become involved in athletics, so although Brendan was the world record holder at that time, had everyone in Gateshead had his opportunity, he might have been in second place. We must remember that.
Sport is like music and drama. We need to give young people encouragement and education. Sometimes, inspiration can come from a good teacher and coach or, many times, from the example of a sporting hero. To reach the levels that we want children and young people to reach, we need the facilities, equipment, sport halls and playing fields. Youngsters need the choice and, to have a firm foundation, they need a community around them. We must consider that we have lost the community that was built around single industries in towns. We must consider where such communities can come from, around which we can build the environment that youngsters need.
I spent my childhood in a small town named Grangetown, between Middlesbrough and Redcar, where all the children did was play sport. In the summer, we played tennis from early morning until we could no longer run about, then we played bowls. In the winter, we played football all the time. We built our lives around sport and had no energy left for anything else. Grangetown was shown on BBC breakfast news one morning in early 1993. The film almost brought me to tears. I even recognised the street where I lived, but where the youngsters were now setting fire to cars and houses. I wonder whether the lack of opportunity for children to play sport is a crucial cause of the breakdown of community spirit.
Perhaps we should look to the premier league clubs for opportunities for young people. Other hon. Members have complained that the fantastic amount of money that those clubs will receive in future will not be passed down. The Bosman ruling is stopping transfer fees going from large clubs down through the leagues. Perhaps we can build around the premier league and other clubs. We must avoid the drawbridge being pulled up by the premiership, especially when club directors see the money that is available.
There is a growing trend for premier league clubs to become public limited companies, when the duties of the directors change from the community to the shareholders. We are in danger of a tremendous amount of money being lost to the game. At present that money is going not to the directors but to players, in wages and signing fees. We must worry about that money going straight out of the clubs to investors, which has not happened before.
We all agree on the damage done through lack of investment in research and development and in manufacturing industry, and we cannot afford to let the same happen to sport. I was astonished to hear on television this morning the amount of money that the premier league is to receive. I am delighted, but we must try to keep that money within the game. I hope that the massive income from television deals will enable clubs to attract more world-class players from all over the globe. I hope that that wealth will not stay in Europe. The public pay excessively high entrance fees and buy expensive team shirts from premier league clubs.
I trust that some of that wealth will go not only to top players but to the countries from which they come in growing numbers, such as Brazil and Africa. I hope that some of the money will go to children in countries around the world, so that they will have the facilities to participate in sport, which will give them something to live for. I hope that the children will not merely be television spectators through the railings of the stately homes of the Bundesliega and premier league in Britain.
I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-West will be pleased to hear me say that we must look at the alternatives to building on green-field sites. When a wonderful new stadium is built on such a site, it gets headlines, but that is not necessarily good news. The last act of Cleveland county council was to criticise the inadequate car parking facilities at the new Riverside stadium in Middlesbrough. What it forgot was that it was closer to the town centre than Ayresome park. People could park their cars in the multi-storey car park and walk to the game. We want to be sure that people can come into the town from outlying places, using public transport.
We should not build any more grounds on green-field sites. Thank goodness there are not that many areas with derelict industrial land, but where there is, we should consider those areas carefully. If we do build new grounds on out-of-town sites, it should be where there are already multi-screen cinemas and superstores. If facilities are concentrated in one area, we might be able to persuade public transport to service them.
We must listen to the supporters of the game of football. Indeed, there are signs of that happening on both sides of the House. Perhaps we should pay attention to the fanzines. We read them for their humour. They often attack football directors, but they do so with great humour. They have an insight into the psychology of football fans. It would be a good idea to get hold of a selection of fanzines and read them not just for their humour, but for the other information that we can get from them.
While driving here this morning, I was disturbed by the number of people ringing in to the radio programme to complain bitterly about the state of the stations around Wembley. They felt very guilty and ashamed that visitors from abroad would have to travel through those stations. More preparation should have been done and the place spruced up a little. Some hon. Members have referred to the entertainments planned for some of the cities, but perhaps we should have been better prepared in other areas.
I support what the Minister said about a school's prospectus having to state its sporting aims. It is one way to get into people's minds a subject that has mostly been forgotten.
Although I have had a little dig at the academy of sport, I actually support it. Close to the most deprived area in Feltham is a stadium that, at first glance, looks excellent. However, in reality the running track is unusable and Hounslow athletic club--one of the top clubs in the country--can no longer train there. The all-weather football pitch needs repair. I am not saying that we must put those facilities before the academy of sport, but we need to find some balance to ensure that there are facilities for all, rather than just taking the most promising people and giving them specialist training and coaching.
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