How should football be regulated?
How should football be regulated?
As the new football regulator steps into the beautiful game, how will it strike the right balance between sustainability and growth from a business point of view? Finance experts explain how.
The world of English football stands on the cusp of its most significant governance reform in decades – the upcoming Football Governance Bill. At the heart of the proposed reform is the creation of an independent statutory regulator for English football. The regulator’s core mandate is to ensure the sustainability of clubs, preventing the financial collapses and ownership crises that have marred the sport in recent years.
At an ICAEW event on 30 April, senior figures from the sport, regulatory bodies, and financial circles came together to unpack the upcoming Football Governance Bill and its implications for clubs, investors, and the broader football ecosystem, exploring how to regulate one of the most lucrative industries in England, which had a turnover of £3.65bn in 2024.
The event, which was live streamed and can now be watched on demand, was chaired by Adam Edelshain, Business Director at MediaSense and ICAEW’s Entertainment, Sport and Media Community Advisory Group Chair. The panel featured:
Dame Caroline Dinenage, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons;
Adam Crockett, Head of Football Regulation Policy at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport;
Jonathan Brown, Co-Lead of Sports Advisory, Ankura Consulting; and
Kieran Maguire, the academic author, broadcaster, and presenter of the podcast, The Price of Football.
A new era of oversight
As Crockett explained, the regulator will focus on enforcing strong ownership tests, mandating sustainable business models and ensuring clubs honour their financial obligations.
“It’s about making sure you don’t have an owner who’s a crook, that there’s a proper business plan in place, and that clubs can meet their liabilities,” Crockett noted. The regime, while robust, is designed to be “light touch” for well-run clubs, with enforcement powers reserved for truly egregious cases. Sanctions could include fines, bans, and even forced divestment for owners who fail to comply.
Regulation and investment
A recurring theme during the discussion was the importance of striking the right balance between rigorous oversight and maintaining England’s position as a global football powerhouse. The regulator will be legally required to consider the impact of its actions on both domestic investment and international competitiveness.
Crockett emphasised that while checks and balances are essential, the regime should not deter legitimate investment: “The regulator is forced to think properly about the impacts on investment and competitiveness when it acts. It’s designed to ensure sustainability without being onerous.”
Dinenage echoed this, noting that while there are inevitable detractors – including from within the Premier League – the explicit inclusion of growth objectives in the Bill should reassure investors and clubs alike. “It’s not going to be something that wildly drives clubs into more debt,” she said.
Learning from Europe and beyond
Maguire highlighted models from across Europe that offer useful lessons. Spain’s proactive system, which requires clubs to submit business plans proving they can meet their financial obligations, was cited as a potential best practice. UEFA’s tightening of financial fair play rules, including restrictions on non-sporting transactions and related-party dealings, also earned praise.
Maguire was candid in his critique of the current Premier League system, suggesting that outdated rules have struggled to keep pace with the influx of state-backed clubs and private equity funds. “The dynamic now is very different ... the rules need to evolve with it,” he argued.
Fan representation
The panel also touched on the Bill’s fan engagement provisions, which were born out of the fan-led review chaired by Tracey Crouch MP. Dinenage emphasised that meaningful fan representation – beyond token gestures – will be crucial: “We want to make sure fans have real opportunities to communicate with the regulator and ensure their clubs are protected.”
Brentford FC and Exeter City were highlighted as examples of good governance. Brentford, with its data-driven recruitment strategy and strong community links, and Exeter, one of the few remaining fan-owned clubs, represent models where financial discipline aligns with competitive success and social responsibility.
Challenges ahead
Despite broad support for reform, the Bill faces ongoing scrutiny. With more than 320 amendments tabled in the House of Lords, Dinenage acknowledged that not everyone is on board. “There are always going to be those who seek to challenge as we go through this process,” she said, forecasting a rigorous two-month committee stage ahead.
There is also recognition that the women’s game, while currently outside the Bill’s scope, may require future regulatory inclusion as it grows and faces its own financial sustainability challenges.
A new culture of compliance
In closing the event, the panellists underscored the need for a proactive, rather than punitive, regulatory culture. Crockett suggested that swift interventions and dialogue with clubs would prevent drawn-out enforcement cases: “We want to move away from an enforcement culture that waits for breaches to happen and instead proactively solves issues before they escalate.”
Charles Worth, Head of Business Law at ICAEW, attended the event. He believes that further parliamentary scrutiny will be valuable and that the proposed growth objectives provide only limited comfort; they simply require the new regulator “to have regard to” the desirability of avoiding adverse effects on financial growth and competitiveness.
This article is sourced from the following link:
https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2025/may-2025/how-should-football-be-regulated
