Government To Establish Independent Football Regulator

Following recommendations made in a fan-led review into football, the government has announced that it will establish an independent regulator in the game.

The new regulator will hold significant power, including the ability to sanction clubs in English football that break financial rules. It will also be able to gather and investigate club information that the government has not had access to before. There will also be the development of an owner’s test that will include legislation to give fans more say in how the game is run.

The news follows recommendations made by the fan-led review into football which was headed up by former sports minister Tracey Crouch. The review called on an independent regulator to stop football lurching from ‘crisis to crisis’, following numerous high-profile stories within football during the last year. These include the failed European Super League and the collapse of Bury FC.

The new enhanced owners’ and directors’ test will replace the current tests carried out by the Premier League, Football League and Football Association. These rule changes are in a direct response to several controversial ownership changes in recent years. The Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle United attracted much criticism due to the country’s poor human rights record, and the current sanctions placed on Chelsea FC and its owner Roman Abramovich has raised further questions surrounding money in football.

No direct timeline for implementing the changes has been announced but the government said a white paper be published in the summer.

Crouch has labelled the government’s endorsement of the review “an enormous step forward” but also noted that the unclear timeframe for making the changes was “worrying“.

Crouch also said, “I am exceptionally pleased [the government] has accepted or supported all the strategic recommendations of the review, including committing to legislation for a statutory independent regulator which will regulate financial resilience as well as ownership of clubs.”

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries added, “Football is nothing without its fans and for too long the football authorities have collectively been unable to tackle some of the biggest issues in the game.

“The government took decisive action to conduct the fan-led review and today we have endorsed every one of its 10 strategic recommendations and the approach set out by Tracey Crouch.”

Crouch’s review also recommended looking at financial distribution in the game, including “more support from the Premier League to the pyramid through a solidarity transfer levy, paid by Premier League clubs on buying players from overseas or other top-flight clubs”.

But the government said it believed “that this should be solved by the football authorities in the first instance”.