The Football Governance Act: no longer a whole different ball game
“The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.” – Terry Pratchett
It was announced in July that the long-mooted Football Governance Act had received Royal Assent. The Act sets out expectations and standards that had previously been covered in separate guidelines, or were previously not legislated at all. The purpose of the legislation is to improve financial sustainability of football clubs, ensure financial resilience and safeguard the heritage of English football. [s.6]
Since being put forth by the previous government, the published bill has been strengthened across a multitude of fields such as equality, diversity, and inclusion, owners and officers’ suitability, and strengthening fan engagement provisions.
The bill’s genesis can be traced to a Culture, Media, and Sport Committee’s report on football governance fourteen years ago. The report flagged expenditure on player wages as one of the “big challenges” facing the game and forewarned that “over-ambitious or otherwise incompetent or duplicitous owners” were a threat to the sustainability of football clubs within the UK.
The warning about wages and the remit of good governance isn’t without precedent. Currently, in UK football, Morecambe FC and Sheffield Wednesday represent cautionary tales for both. Throw a dart at a world map and you’ll find similar stories wherever it lands. To name a few, FC Barcelona have seen their wages go over the cap set by the Spanish league which has limited their spending, forced sales, renegotiated contracts, and delayed registration. In France, Lyon retained their place in the top league only upon appeal after they were relegated due to poor finances.
Go back over the last decade and you see Parma, a perma-fixture in Serie A, declared bankrupt in 2015 after a season where missed payment of wages occurred more often than not and they were forced to reform as a new club in the lower leagues of Italy. Similarly, Glasgow Rangers entered liquidation amid a huge tax debt and were forced to scale the Scottish leagues to get back to where they were. It wouldn’t be a huge leap, given the non-exhaustive examples, if foreign football associations and governments overseas will watch how the Act performs with eyes on instigating their own equivalent in the future.
What is the Football Governance Act?
Purpose and scope
The Act intends to establish the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) and a licensing regime for clubs to keep English football sustainable. [s.1; s.5; s.15]
What are the objectives and duties of the IFR?
To create a culture of financial soundness of football clubs, thus improving the financial resilience of the game, and safeguard the heritage of member clubs. The IFR must act compatibly with the Act’s purpose and consider the impacts on competitiveness and financial growth within the game. [s.6–7] When the IFR acts or sets requirements, it must weigh compatibility with the Act’s purpose. [s.7]
What are the regulatory principles and reports of the IFR?
The IFR is expected to engage with the ecosystem: the clubs, the players, and the fans. [s.8] It will publish periodic “State of the Game” reports, and the government will maintain a football governance statement that sets overall direction. [s.10; s.11] The expectation is that these reports will provide forward-looking analysis that will inform the planning cycles of member clubs.
What are the licenses and condition for clubs to comply with the Football Governance Act?
A club cannot operate a relevant team without an IFR operating license. [s.15] Licences include mandatory conditions that touch finance, governance, and culture: financial planning, a corporate governance statement, fan consultation duties, and an annual declaration that ties together the year’s notifications. [Sch.5 paras 1–6]
What are the threshold requirements of the Football Governance Act?
Beyond licence conditions, clubs must meet threshold requirements. These span financial resources, non-financial systems and controls, and effective fan engagement. These are seen to be baseline expectations for a modern, well-run club. [Sch.4 paras 2–4]
Information and enforcement
The IFR can require information in set formats and timeframes, commission expert reports, and enforce sanctions for failures related to information duties or relevant infringements. [s.65; s.66; s.72; s.75] Clubs should have a standing playbook to respond quickly and reliably.
Why Company Secretaries should care about the Football Governance Act
They own the “single source of truth” for people and roles
The personnel statement identifies each owner, ultimate owner and officer, plus senior management functions. [s.16(4)] Once published it must be continuously kept up to date. [s.52(1); s.52(7)] There is a need to set up a living register with approvals and a clear audit trail. If a Head of Recruitment were to be promoted to the Director of Football role, thus holding a senior management function, you would need to refresh this statement and publish the corrected version as soon as reasonably possible. [s.52(7)]
Coordinate owner and officer notifications
Adhering to this Act means that you have two streams that matter: prospective notifications before a person takes up a role and change notifications for incumbents when circumstances shift. [s.27; s.33] Both flows feed into the annual declaration and it would be prudent to treat them as one joined-up process rather than separate silos. [Sch.5 para 11]
Shape and evidence corporate governance
Your corporate governance statement explains how the club applies the IFR’s governance code and how key policies work in practice. Once published , it must be kept current in the face of any changes. The IFR will also publish an aggregate governance report that benchmarks practice. If the board approved a stronger conflicts process, including recusal rules, you’d update the governance statement promptly and expect to see the change reflected in the IFR’s next governance report. [Sch.5 paras 4–6]
Run the annual declaration process
Once a year, the club must summarise all matters that were notified, or should have been notified, during the previous 12 months. You’ll need to build a clean reconciliation from your change logs and notification receipts, backed by attestations from owners and officers. The expectation is that after scheduling the year-end attestations, you’d compare responses to onboarding records and board minutes, and submit a declaration pack with a clear exceptions log. [Sch.5 para 11]
Steward fan-engagement controls around heritage decisions
Within football, heritage and identity carry special weight with fans. You need an effective consultation process in place for strategic issues such as the stadium, club badge, and team colours. You need to record how you considered fan views before decisions are made. If marketing proposed a new design for the club badge, you’d plan a compliant consultation and publish a summary of feedback and board considerations before any change proceeds. [Sch.4 para 4(1)–(3)]
You are the first responder for IFR information requests
Retention, audit, and disclosure discipline start with you. Place legal holds early, coordinate exports, and ensure data is handled correctly. Legal holds are written instructions to suspend routine deletion and preserve any potentially relevant information when an IFR information notice, expert review, or investigation is anticipated or received Failures pertaining to information requests can lead to sanctions. [s.75]
What “good” looks like for a governance professional under the Football Governance Act
Live governance model
You should look to map owners, officers, senior managers and senior management function, capturing connected persons and roles. Tie each person to notification triggers so nothing is missed when circumstances change. [s.16(4); s.27]
Clear cadence
It would be seen as good practice to run quarterly reconciliations and rolling attestations. Similarly, perform pre-board checks before publishing updates to the personnel statement and the governance statement. [s.52; Sch.5 para 4]
Keep an evidence pack on tap
Keep conflicts and interests registers, recusal and approvals logs, version history, and board minutes aligned to IFR information duties. Aim for one-click exports that satisfy both scope and timing. [s.72; s.75]
Keep an evidence pack on tap
Keep conflicts and interests registers, recusal and approvals logs, version history, and board minutes aligned to IFR information duties. Aim for one-click exports that satisfy both scope and timing. [s.72; s.75]
Maintain a fan-engagement playbook
Best practice, from what the Act sets out, would be to create a documented consultation process for heritage and strategic matters, with accessible summaries that are publishable upon request. [Sch.4 para 4(1)–(3)]
Practical pitfalls to avoid
“Should have been notified” gaps
Undisclosed external appointments or informal influence (decision-shaping power by someone not formally listed as an owner, officer, or senior manager)can under mine the annual declaration. [Sch.5 para 11] Close the loop with cross-checks against HR, media monitoring and Companies House filings.
Static PDFs
Personnel statements that sit unchanged after role movements create avoidable breaches. Treat the document as ‘live’ with version control and a named owner. [s.52(7)]
Heritage tripwires
Branding changes that skip or truncate fan consultation create reputational and regulatory risk. Time your consultation to align with board cycles and capture responses methodically. [Sch.4 para 4(1)–(3)]
Information-request scramble
Make sure that no department, individual, or unexpected request for information slows you down. Keeping information in a place which automatically keeps an audit trail and documenting where information is available to package up when needed will allow you respond rapidly to any request. [s.65; s.66; s.72; s.75]
If you’d like to find out how we can help, feel free to request a demo of our Register of Interests platform which can help you to bridge the gap between being caught out and excellent corporate governance.
