Lincoln chief executive says football clubs ‘have to be protected’ by owners

Football clubs are too important to the communities they serve not to be respected and protected by their owners, Lincoln chief executive Liam Scully has said.

The Imps have come fifth in the latest Fair Game Index measuring how sustainably the 92 clubs in the top four divisions last season were run, and got the highest score of all clubs for their equality standards.

City are members of Fair Game, which had been calling for an independent regulator for English football long before the Government white paper on football governance set out details of its remit earlier this year.

Scully said it was not his or Lincoln’s place to tell other clubs how they should run themselves, but insisted it was vital an “overall framework” for good governance was in place to make sure clubs were not lost.

“Owners of football clubs are only ever temporary custodians of these great anchor institutions within their cities and their towns,” he told Football Mad.

“For us, it’s respecting the history and heritage of Lincoln City, running it in a way that we believe is appropriate.

“We’re still trying to be ambitious on the field, but it’s about making sure that at no point we’re putting the overall long-term financial health of the club at risk.”

Scully said clubs were “the glue” that held communities together, particularly in difficult times.

“In lockdown our ticket office staff spent the majority of their time almost being matchmakers,” he said.

“We had people phoning up saying: ‘I’ve sat next to Dave for 15 years. I don’t actually know his surname. I just know him as Dave, and he’s known me since I was a kid. I just want to know he’s all right. Would you mind just passing my number on to him and we can have a chat?’

“You then play that forward and you realise Dave is a widow, he’s in lockdown, he’s been really lonely.

“That phone call from that person he sat next to was actually the highlight of his week and then that got him involved, and then they came down to the stadium because we opened our doors in lockdown, we did a picnic every Friday where people could come in at a safe distance from each other but still be engaged.

“That’s why these clubs are assets that have to be protected. That’s why we’re anchor institutions because, you know, when Bury (had their EFL membership withdrawn) or if Derby had been lost, it’s not really the green rectangle that people would miss.

“It’s a vehicle for however many people that sit together to be together, and have that commonality.”

Scully said a new community and skills hub was being built at the LNER Stadium and that its foundation offered services from cancer care to delivering English lessons and offers around citizenship and education to the diverse community in the area immediately around the ground.

Asked why independent regulation was so vital, Scully said: “(Clubs) manage conflicts reasonably well – we compete at least twice a year and we’d almost do anything for a win, but the rest of the time we’re reasonably collaborative.

“When it comes down to those big decisions or those big moments, those fundamental principles, I think the levels of conflict are incredibly difficult to overcome.

“If you’re a director at Redtown FC and you’re also a member of the EFL or the Premier League board, you have your duties and responsibilities as a director of that company, Redtown FC, as well as the wider game, and I think that’s incredibly difficult to get the balance right.

“Self-interest is a really simple way to put it, and it’s a bit of a combative term, because you’ve got a fiduciary responsibilities as a director to both entities and I think that’s where conflicts become very difficult to manage.

“It’s a sensitive and delicate matter, it’s how we unpick that and how do we find fair and fundamental change in our game overall. I think we just need some outside assistance with that.”