Lewis attacks high football wages

27th September 2011

The Labour party has attacked high wages to top football players at a time when funding for the sport's grassroots is being cut.

Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said it was time for answers to the "fundamental questions" over the relationship between elite sport and lower tiers.

In his address to Labour Party conference, Lewis also announced that media and arts organisations have signed a pledge to open up access to job opportunities to people from poorer backgrounds.

He told the audience in Liverpool that top end professional footballs were paid £72,000 a week on average yet money to local clubs is being cut.

Lewis said that it was time to ask "some fundamental questions about the relationship between grassroots and high level professional sport".

"The Premier League is a tremendous commercial success and in many ways has rejuvenated our national game," he said.

"But can it be right that last year they turned over £2bn and top flight players are earning an average of £72,000 per week.

"While the Football Foundation's funding which supports improvements to local pitches and changing facilities can only scratch the surface of need and is now being cut.

"Surely, not only the kids but the thousands of soccer and hockey mums and dads, volunteer coaches and organisers who are the hidden heroes of our grassroots sport have a right to ask how this can be fair.

"They have a right to expect our Party to ask those questions. We will not let them down. "

He added that the Labour party will demand from a full disclosure of all government documents relating to Hillsborough.

The shadow culture secretary told the crowd that six new organisations had signed up to Labour’s pledge to open up access to the "historically closed" media industry.

He said: "The success of our creative industries is at serious risk due to global competition, the impact of the new digital economy and the policies of this government.

"If these industries are to provide the British jobs of the future we need a government committed not to a helpline but an active, industrial strategy."

Lewis said that Channel 4, Virgin Media, UK Music, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Advertising Association and the Sharp Project had all agreed to sign up to the pledge.

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