The regulation zone: what the new Football Governance Act will mean for the game
29 July 2025
Almost four years since the fan-led review of football governance, the Football Governance Act (the Act) has received Royal Assent, establishing a new Independent Football Regulator (the IFR). The Act is complex and far-reaching, dealing with everything from changing a club's shirt colours to removing club owners.
Where did this bill come from?
With over 27 million fans watching on TV every year, hundreds of thousands going to stadiums to support their team each week, and over 2 million playing the sport annually, football has an enormous cultural significance in England. The level of financial investment in the game has grown exponentially in recent years, with over £6.7 billion generated in TV rights alone in 2023.
Football is also arguably the UK's most valuable soft power asset and devoted fans of Premier League clubs can be found in all corners of the globe. Overseas investors have been attracted to opportunities arising from UK football for some time with clubs having become an asset class in their own right. For the 2025/26 season, only two of the 20 Premier League clubs will have majority UK ownership.
But standards of governance have not kept pace with the game's growth. In 2019, Bury Football Club, one of the nation's oldest football teams, was expelled from the English Football League owing to financial difficulties. There is a long list of clubs that have faced similar troubles and the Government took the decision to intervene in order to "protect and promote the sustainability of English football."
Overview
The Act introduces to the top five tiers of English football (the Premier League, Championship, Leagues 1 and 2 and the National League) a ground-breaking and comprehensive form of statutory regulation, establishing broad duties on key stakeholders within football clubs. The Act intends to answer the concerns, both financial and cultural, that were highlighted by the fan-led review.
The Independent Football Regulator
The Act establishes the new IFR. This is the entity that will grant operating licences to football clubs; determine the suitability of football club owners and officers; make orders requiring an organiser of football competitions to distribute generated revenue; and have powers of investigation and enforcement.
The Act also imposes various duties on football clubs, the owners and officers of football clubs, and the organisers of football competitions.
The IFR has three main objectives:
- to protect and promote the financial soundness of regulated clubs;
- to protect and promote the financial resilience of English football; and
- to safeguard the heritage of English football.
"Individual ownership fitness criteria"
The Act introduces new fitness criteria for owners and officers of football clubs. The tests will apply both to prospective new owners/officers of clubs, and to incumbent owners/officers on an ongoing basis. The key elements of the criteria are honesty and integrity, financial soundness and – in the case of officers – competence.
Failure to meet the fitness and propriety criteria may ultimately lead to an individual being removed from their role as owner or officer of a club, and so is likely to be an area which is particularly contentious.
Powers of investigation and enforcement
The Act grants the IFR broad powers of investigation and enforcement.
The IFR will have a general power to request information and appoint an "expert reporter" to investigate a club. In doing so, the IFR may enter business premises under a warrant (i.e. it has the power to conduct "dawn raids").
The IFR has a wide range of sanctions at its disposal where there has been an infringement, a failure to comply with an information requirement or an information offence. These include financial penalties (up to 10% of a club's annual revenue) and "name and shame" censure statements, as well as the revocation of licences. The IFR can also take enforcement action against individuals who undertake senior management functions at a club, including by way of financial penalties and censure statements.
Prohibited competitions
Like many sports in the 2020s, there has been a controversial debate in football around novel and lucrative leagues that, some have argued, threaten the heritage of the English game.
It was, broadly speaking, fan backlash in 2021 that saw English clubs withdrawing from the proposed European Super League. Any clubs seeking to join such leagues now also have to consider the requirements of the Act. In particular, the Act prohibits clubs from participating in "prohibited competitions". The IFR will determine whether a tournament is or is not prohibited by applying the following grounds, namely, whether the competition:
- is merit-based;
- operates on the basis of fair and open competition;
- jeopardises the sustainability of relevant competitions;
- jeopardises the sustainability of clubs operations in relation to relevant competitions; and
- harms the heritage of English football.
Protecting the fan
The Act places a firm emphasis on protecting the experience of fans. In particular, the IFR is to be notified – and may grant or withhold approval – prior to a club disposing of its home ground. Any changes to a team's crest, home shirt colours, or name must not be made unless a simple majority of the club's domestic fans vote in favour. Fans are also to be kept abreast of any insolvency proceedings.
The Act creates something called the "fan engagement threshold requirement", which is met only when a club adequately and effectively consults its fans on matters of strategic direction; the club's business priorities; match-day issues such as ticket-pricing; club heritage; and club plans relating to additional fan engagement. Not only must a club consult its fans, it must also take the views of fans into account when making decisions.
The Act introduces a two-stage process for obtaining an operating licence, with clubs initially applying for a "provisional" licence that can be converted to a "full licence" upon satisfying the statutory test. A club on a provisional operating licence must meet the "fan engagement threshold requirement" if it wishes to meet the "full licence test". Fan engagement and consultation is not, therefore, an afterthought; it has been substantially baked into the Act's newly created governance processes.
Appealing IFR decisions
If a decision taken by the IFR is one of 27 "reviewable decisions", the concerned person is permitted to appeal. The concerned person can request an internal review of the decision by the IFR's Board or Expert Panel.
Certain reviewable decisions – among them the revocation of an operating licence; a determination of owner or officer unsuitability; a disqualification order; or a suspension or revocation of an operating licence order – may be appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT).
Depending on the nature of the decision being reviewed, the CAT will either determine the appeal on judicial review principles (i.e. focusing on how the IFR reached its decision) or on the merits (i.e. focusing on the substance of the decision, effectively stepping into the shoes of the IFR and determining whether it arrived at the right or wrong decision). Appeals to decisions of the CAT can only be brought in the Court of Appeal on a point of law.
Conclusion
As money has flowed into football, the standards of governance for many clubs have remained static, and many have come perilously close to ceasing to exist as a result of financial difficulties. The Act provides a long-awaited set of regulations that seek to address this imbalance and prevent football clubs from teetering over the financial precipice. It will also stand in the way of any clubs that wish to play in new competitions that threaten the heritage of English football, such as the proposed European Super League.
While the precise challenges the IFR will encounter remains to be seen, it is almost certain that its decisions will be tested in the courts. What can be said with certainty is that the passing of the Act represents a sea change in the governance of football. The game's stakeholders will need to carefully review and consider the new rules to adapt to the coming era in football regulation.
Other authors: Mark Donnelly, Associate; Freddie Freeman, Trainee; Jamie Walker, Trainee
