“Football’s got a real challenge” – Port Vale chair Carol Shanahan talks sustainability ahead of Chelsea cup tie

Port Vale co-owner and chair Carol Shanahan has told the BBC that football “absolutely isn’t sustainable” and has called on the new independent football regulator to “make sure the money is distributed more fairly.”

Speaking ahead of Port Vale’s high profile FA Cup quarter-final tie with Premier League giants Chelsea, Shanahan spoke to BBC Radio Four’s Today programme about preparation for the game and the financial challenges in the lower leagues.

It needs an independent voice that has clout to be able to say ‘we need to save this industry and to do that we need to make it sustainable, to make it sustainable we need to make sure the money is distributed more fairly…

Shanahan said the team would prepare as normal for a game due to be televised on BBC One on Saturday evening saying: “It’s a swish hotel (and) it will be a quiz. We have a quiz when they go away on a Friday night so it will be sticking to the normal routine.”

The Vale chair also says that you’d never go into football as a ‘business person’ as it relies on ‘benevolence’ commenting: “As a business women you’d never go into football. My daughter did a masters degree in business finance at London Business School and they had this whole lecture about how businesses work and at the end of it the lecturer said – ‘all of that doesn’t apply to football’

“Football is the only industry in the world that doesn’t follow these rules. It relies on the benevolence of the owner. So, as a business model it doesn’t work at all which is what we’re seeing with these losses.”

While hosts Chelsea racked up English football’s record losses of £262m, the Valiants also recorded their own losses of £6.1m. Shanahan commented: “You’ve got the losses up there with Chelsea and they’ll cope with that but when you get into the lower leagues these amounts mean more and more because they’re focussed on fewer and fewer people. So, if you look at ours, it’s only our family and that’s the same for a lot of League One and League Two clubs. It is a lot of losses to absorb which is where football’s got a real challenge at the moment.”

As for the solution, the Vale owner believes the new independent football regulator will play a key part saying: “In its current model it absolutely isn’t sustainable. which is why when the independent football regulator was announced there was a great hope that what they would go and get the Premier League to let the money flow down through the pyramid because that’s what it needs. It needs an independent voice that has clout to be able to say ‘we need to save this industry and to do that we need to make it sustainable, to make it sustainable we need to make sure the money is distributed more fairly particularly the media money.’

“That’s what I’m really still hoping the independent regulator does. I was asked yesterday by the EFL to be one of a few club owners that speak to the regulator as they are setting themselves up as to what the club owners would like to see – and we’re pretty clear on what we’d like to see to be honest. We like a sustainable industry which means we can deliver this sport to all our fans.”