CAST vice chair Heather Alderson spoke on Monday at a Westminster Media Forum conference organised to consider the subject of  the next steps for football governance and the implementation of an independent regulator in England.

Heather spoke on the subject of stakeholder views on priorities for football governance going forward and this is what she said:

"Good morning my name is Heather Alderson. I am vice chair of the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust - affiliated to the Football Supporters Association

For us Addicks, the Football Governance Bill cannot come soon enough

Charlton Athletic is the original community club. We have a multi award-winning community trust. We were pioneers in tackling racism in the 90s. We were founded by a group of friends - not a school, a factory or a congregation - just lads who played football together and decided to get organised, oh and to eat addick and chips – We very nearly lost the lot.

By the early 2000s, Charlton was recognized as the model club – successful in the Premier League on well-managed modest means. But relegation in 2007 put us on the slippery slope to ownership and financial chaos & disaster. We nearly did a Bury, not once but twice.

Today we are now working constructively with the club’s management board and the new ownership consortium. However, the stadium and the training ground are still owned by Roland Duchatelet, the businessman who precipitated our shenanigans. That makes us vulnerable

Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust gave direct evidence into the Crouch report. After explaining our shenanigans, the sales for £1, the court cases, the police being called, threats to supporters and fleets of Range Rovers, the racked up debts, the transfer embargoes, this is what we asked for:

We need new legislation to empower an independent regulator to oversee football governance. This legislation needs to address football’s conflicts with company law.  This legislation needs to identify and exclude the rogues so that such individuals are prevented from owning clubs in the first place; and any later breaches of regulations result in the individual being sanctioned rather than clubs ruined.

We need a regulator with teeth - answerable and accountable to fans - to ensure that the legislation is adhered to and to establish transparency concerning ownership and finances – both at times of ownership change but also ongoing.

We wish the review to establish and strengthen processes of fan engagement with the regulator, giving funding and formal recognition to fans as stakeholders, to the FSA and to democratically constituted fan groups, especially Supporters’ Trusts. This should, we said, extend to fan representation on the boards of competition organisers.

We ask for much stronger protection of tangible assets. We’ve done all we can, but it won’t be enough - CAST has obtained Asset of Community Value status for The Valley but that protection is limited and weak. It does not dispel the dark shadow of Duchatelet’s £50M valuation and the potential for malicious rent rises.

We also ask for protection of the intangible assets – the club’s name, colours, badge, songs: put the soul of the football club into the hands of fans and the community.

Putting all clubs in the pyramid on an equal regulatory footing should protect their future. But this must not go so far that it limits their ambitions: the dream of football fans ‘to do a Leicester’ is the essence of the pyramid, the essence of our beautiful game. Football without fans is nothing. Football without hope is nothing.

So, what now?

We were pleased to hear the new sports minister, Stephanie Peacock announce in her speech to the FSA AGM that she wants to make England "the best place in the world to be a football fan’.  We hope the new government gives the regulator sharp teeth regarding fan engagement. Now is the chance to eliminate practices that disrupt sporting integrity and fairness such as parachute payments or associated party transactions. We need to make sure there is no danger of league matches playing abroad now that FIFA has left the door ajar on that. The Premier League and EFL have still not reached a deal to distribute TV money down the pyramid. It needs doing for them.

In 1992, Charlton Athletic returned to play at The Valley after supporters had formed a single-issue political party. Home is where our heart is. As we sing on a Saturday, "Valley Floyd Road, our only desire."  So, when drafting legislation regarding ground ownership, let’s also consider the clubs who rent from the potentially difficult third parties. What could be done, for example, to put grounds in trust for the communities they are part of?

If our tally is correct, there is now only one football club amongst the 92 left marooned in a Tory constituency (not us by the way).  Let’s do this and do it quick.