9 Oct 2008Scudamore defends Premier League club ownership test

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has come out in defence of the 'fit and proper persons' test applied to owners of clubs in the division.

Nine of the 20 top-flight clubs are currently under the stewardship of foreign owners, a growing trend which has drawn criticism this week from Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

Blatter called for stricter regulations to be put in place because "something has to be done about these billionaire owners", but Scudamore has responded strongly to the claims.

He said: "I am certain there are people who are not owners of clubs because of the test. I don't think it's inadequate. Where we have an issue is we would rather not get involved in too much subjectivity."

Scudamore did admit, however, that the test could be renamed to remove that subjective element and proposed calling it the 'ownership qualification test'.

But he also pointed out the fact that the Premier League is a self-regulatory organisation and that, as such, the 20 top-flight clubs can vote to change the test if they are unhappy with it.

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