Former Deloitte Consultant and Programme Leader for GIS’ MSc Football Business gives his take on the government’s recent approval of an Independent Football Regulator in England, after backing a fan-led review…
This week’s news has been a long time coming for football clubs and fans alike across the English footballing pyramid. Whilst such a review of English football governance and finances had been touted for the best part of a decade, it took major landmark events such as Project Big Picture and The European Super League, the unfortunate and unnecessary demise of Bury FC, and a global pandemic, to highlight the fragility of existing business practices, governance principles and revenue distribution mechanisms in the English game.
A new independent regulator has been the hallmark of many calls for change over the last few years, and once established and powers eventually granted, one would expect a significant increase in the levels of governance and financial oversight applied if appropriately resourced. A beefed up owners and directors test is a key aspect of this, and is expected to bring consistent and ongoing levels of due diligence of ownership structures in a world where many feel not enough has been previously done, especially in the context of many cases of club financial mismanagement.
However, whilst the government is stating their support for the vast majority of recommendations, there appears to still be uncertainty around redeveloped financial distributions from the Premier League, which are consistently linked to financially unsustainable behaviour by many clubs in the EFL. With both the fan-led review and the government stating this is a matter for the football authorities to find a solution on, and a reported limited amount of progress made to date, it may be some time before the existing parachute payment and solidarity broadcast revenue distribution mechanisms are revamped to narrow the perceived financial chasm between the Premier League and the rest.
It should be noted that such a regulator will require the right levels of staffing and expertise, funding, and support to succeed- and with the Premier League reportedly stating their reservations over a statutory regulator, as well as no clear timetable for implementation and formation, there would appear to still be many hurdles to overcome in this respect.
