Triesman: City takeover undermined Premier League test

The fit and proper person test aimed at preventing unsuitable people becoming owners and directors of football clubs is deeply flawed, according to ex-FA chairman Lord Triesman.

The peer’s evidence to an MPs’ inquiry this week questioned how the former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was permitted to own Manchester City despite his notorious human rights record.

Triesman said Shinawatra had been permitted to take over the club because there were no court convictions or financial judgements against him.

Triesman said: “We can see a whole range of difficulties in the fit and proper person test.

“As a former Foreign Office minister I felt there were very, very grave doubts about the person who had taken over Manchester City.

“Indeed I had been sent by the Foreign Office to encourage him to not to dispose of his political opponents in quite as ruthless a manner.

“Nonetheless, he was able to take over the club even though there were severe difficulties – which you can find in Human Rights’ annual report – associated with that individual.”

Triesman said it was obvious that while Shinawatra had held power in Thailand he would not have been dragged before the courts there.

He added: “Whilst there are rules about who is and who isn’t a fit and proper person it would extremely unlikely that somebody who is an immediate past head of state is going to fall foul of the courts in that country.

“The body of public knowledge of that individual is quite large enough to say ’is this an appropriate bloke?’

“Were this to happen in a plc I have no doubt whatsoever the board would say we’re not going to do that.

“The fit and proper person system is thoroughly unsatisfactory.”