Swindon Town in bottom half of league for fairness and finances

Fair Game is a campaign group working to alter how football is governed and has put together a new index assessing fairness in football.

This uses over 80 sources of data on the finances, commitment to equality, fan engagement and governance of clubs.

Town scored 40 out of 100 on the index, placing them 13th out of all last season’s League Two clubs.

A spokesperson for the club said: “On Fair Game, we agree with their proposals for better governance of the game but believe in respect of our table ranking that given the work we have done on openness with the monthly advisory board we should be higher in the table.

The data suggests that Town ranked 15th in League Two for financial sustainability. (Image: Newsquest)

“We will work on this going forwards and understand further the ranking process that fair game have used.”

The findings also show that the Robins are not signed up to the Living Wage Scheme which commits employers to pay all staff a minimum of £10.90.

According to the index, the club ranked 15th in League Two for financial sustainability.

“In respect of pay to staff, we have a number of staff that we pay well in excess of the national minimum wage and some staff that are on the national minimum wage, just like many other businesses,” added the Town spokesperson.

“We run the club, which is a business as efficiently and fairly as we can, looking to re-invest whatever we can back into the football side of the business.”

The Robins finished 10th in the League Two table last season. (Image: Newsquest)

Fair Game is calling for lower league clubs to receive a greater proportion of television revenue, particularly for clubs with sustainable financial models or good fan engagement.

Under their proposals, Premier League clubs would contribute 25 per cent of their revenue to lower league clubs alongside 10 per cent of all transfer fees.

This would see Swindon Town net an estimated £3.3 million, which is £3 million more than they currently receive.

“We are working with Fair Game to provide feedback on improving the algorithm on how they score us as other clubs have also raised issued with it,” said the club spokesperson.

“It’s the first year they have provided this score for all 92 clubs as previously it was just the Premier League clubs, and some elements don’t apply for lower league sides and need refactoring.”