Football Governance Bill: Public Interest Considerations in the Financial Stability of English Football
Keywords:
Football Governance Bill, Financial Sustainability, Independent Football Regulator, Public Interest, English FootballAbstract
One specific challenge for a lack of financial resilience across most clubs in England is the treatment for reducing the severity of financial crisis in the English football industry. This paper presents an overview of a new “Football Governance Bill” for promoting the governance of men's elite football in England, the establishment of a new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) for English men's elite football and the public commitment to safeguard the financial stability of English football.
This paper examines these different initiatives and assesses whether these evolutions can truly be the first steps towards a brighter future for the enforcement of financial stability rules in English football or whether a new proposed regulator for English football provides a fresh approach to the problem of safe-guarding the public interests of English football. This paper also discusses the challenges for the protection of the public interest in English football, with a focus on the functions of the regulatory regime.
This paper reveals that when significant financial issues occur in the self-regulated football industry in England, the state intervention might be able to enhance appropriate financial resilience across the English football leagues. Legal analysis is used to illustrate the importance of creating an independent football regulator to oversee the financial sustainability of English football and its possible benefits.
This paper examines these different initiatives and assesses whether these evolutions can truly be the first steps towards a brighter future for the enforcement of financial stability rules in English football or whether a new proposed regulator for English football provides a fresh approach to the problem of safe-guarding the public interests of English football. This paper also discusses the challenges for the protection of the public interest in English football, with a focus on the functions of the regulatory regime.
This paper reveals that when significant financial issues occur in the self-regulated football industry in England, the state intervention might be able to enhance appropriate financial resilience across the English football leagues. Legal analysis is used to illustrate the importance of creating an independent football regulator to oversee the financial sustainability of English football and its possible benefits.
References
Behravan, I., & Razavi, S. M. (2021). A novel machine learning method for estimating football players’ value in the transfer market. Soft Computing (Berlin, Germany), 25(3), 2499–2511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-020-05319-3
Brannagan, P. M., Scelles, N., Valenti, M., Inoue, Y., Grix, J., & Perkin, S. J. (2022). The 2021 European Super League attempt: motivation, outcome, and the future of football. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 14(1), 169–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/194069 40.2021.2013926
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2023). Policy paper: A sustainable future - reforming club football governance: consultation response. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforming-club-football-governance-consultation-response/a-sustainable-future-reforming-club-football-governance-consul tation-response
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024a). Football Governance Bill: European convention on human rights memorandum on introduction to the House of Commons/House of Lords. Retrieved August 2, 2024, from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f8b232ca3670001a13a360/Football_Governance_Bill__ECHR_memorandum.pdf
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024b). Impact assessment: Fact sheet - duties on clubs and competition organisers. Retrieved August 4, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/football-governance-bill-supporting-documents/fact-sheet-duties-on-clubs-and-competition-organisers
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024c). Impact assessment: Fact sheet - financial distribution backstop mechanism. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/football-governance-bill-supporting-documents/fact-sheet-financial-distribution-backstop-mechanism
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024d). Impact assessment: Fact sheet - investigations, enforcement, and appeals. Retrieved August 2, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/football-governance-bill-supporting-documents/fact-sheet-investigations-enforcement-and-appeals
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024e). Impact assessment: Fact sheet - owners and directors of regulated clubs. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/football-governance-bill-supporting-documents/fact-sheet-owners-and-di rectors-of-regulated-clubs
Department for Culture, Media & Sport. (2024f). Impact assessment: Fact sheet - the Independent Football Regulator (IFR). Retrieved August 4, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/footba ll-governance-bill-supporting-documents/fact-sheet-the-independe nt-football-regulator-ifr
Football Supporters’ Association. (2024a). The Football Governance Bill: A Brifing Paper for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Football Supporters. Retrieved June 11, 2025, from https://thefsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/FSA-BRIEFING-2-FINANCIAL-DISTRIBUTIO N-IN-ENGLISH-FOOTBALL.pdf
Football Supporters' Association. (2024b). The Football Governance Bill: Briefing Paper for FSA Affiliate and Associate Members. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://thefsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/202 4/05/FSA-BRIEFING-FOR-AFFILIATE-AND-ASSOCIATE-MEMBERS.pdf
Frazer, L. (2024). Football Governance Bill: Government Bill. Retrieved August 2, 2024, from https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3701
Frazer, L. & Andrew, S. (2024). Press release: Historic Football Governance Bill introduced in Parliament. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/historic-football-governance-bill-introduced-in-parliament
Houben, R. (2023). Sports governance (in football) under attack. The International Sports Law Journal, 23(3), 271–292. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s40318-023-00253-6
House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. (2023). Football Governance Ninth Report of Session 2022–23. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/40681/documents/198244/default/
Lawton et al. (2022). 102796 Contingent Valuation of men’s Professional Football Clubs and the Fan-Led Review Recommendations for DCMS. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f8eadfe90e0740d12b7d6b/Research _report_Contingent_valuation_of_men_s_professional_football_clubs_and_the_Fan-Led_Review_recommendations.pdf
Łukomski, J. (2020). On the finalisation of international football transfers and professional football players’ contracts. The International Sports Law Journal, 20(3–4), 157-179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40318-020-00170-y
Malagila, J. K., Zalata, A. M., Ntim, C. G., & Elamer, A. A. (2021). Corporate governance and performance in sports organisations: The case of UK premier leagues. International Journal of Finance and Economics, 26(2), 2517–2537. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.1918
Michie, J., & Oughton, C. (2005). The Corporate Governance of Professional Football Clubs in England. Corporate Governance : An International Review, 13(4), 517–531. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2005.00446.x
Plumley, D., Ramchandani, G. M., and Wilson, R. (2018). Mind the Gap: An analysis of competitive balance in the English Football League system. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 18(5). 357–375.
Regulatory Policy Committee. (2024). Regulation of English men’s professional football. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fb0cf1703c42001a58f0eb/2023-11-28-DCMS-5250_2_-Football_Governance.pdf
Sport England & UK Sport. (2021). A code for sports governance. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2021-12/A%20Code%20for%2 0Sports%20Governance..pdf?VersionId=Q0JD6BVXB.VgwbGEacG0zWsNPiWcGDHh
Wilson, R., Plumley, D., & Ramchandani, G. (2013). The relationship between ownership structure and club performance in the English Premier League. Sport, Business and Management, 3(1), 19-36. https://doi.or/10.1108/20426781311316889
Woodhouse, J. (2024a). Football Governance Bill. Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk /document/CBP-9996/CBP-9996.pdf
Woodhouse, J. (2024b). Football Governance: Time for change? Retrieved August 1, 2024, from https://researchbriefings.files.parlia ment.uk/documents/CBP-9255/CBP-9255.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Law and Local Society Journal

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Articles published are copyright of local law and society journals. Faculty of Law Surat Thani Rajabhat University
Content and information in articles published in local law and society journals It is the opinion and responsibility of the author of the article directly. which the journal editor It is not necessary to agree or share any responsibility for articles, information, content, images, etc. published in local law and society journals. It is the copyright of the local jurisprudence journal. If any person or entity wants to distribute all or part of it or to take any action must have prior written permission from the local jurisprudence journal only.