The Football Governance Bill continues to work its way through Parliament and Football Supporters’ Association reps have been working closely with officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ensure the legislation is as strong and fan-friendly as possible.

We’re very happy with how the legislation has progressed and the FSA has been an influential force shaping future laws within the corridors of power.

Back in 2021 we not only sat on the Fan-led Review of Football Governance panel (AKA the Crouch Review), but we also submitted 300+ pages of evidence and gave hours of testimony, while orchestrating the input of 130+ supporter groups, encouraging them to get involved, and helping shape legislation.

Those passionate testimonies from our fan reps are now leading to real world changes, mandated by Parliament.

The FSA team has been working on this for a decade or more, spending hundreds of hours with government ministers, shadow ministers, MPs, Lords, peers, and DCMS officials to deliver legislation which will create an independent football regulator.

What does the Football Governance Bill do?

It will deliver better supporter engagement, increased financial protections for our clubs, put more blocks on unsuitable owners, prevent domestic clubs from entering any breakaway European Super League, and give greater protection to “heritage” items – meaning supporters have a say on ground moves, kit colours and badge and name changes. 

The wider finances of the game will change as the Bill provides a “backstop” which allows the regulator to intervene in the distribution of revenue between the Premier League, EFL and National League, if they can’t come to an agreement. 

The Premier League has always opposed this but it can lead to fairer revenue distribution in our game, especially in relation to parachute payments which have a huge impact on the competitiveness between the Premier League and EFL. The top-flight shouldn’t be a closed shop.

The regulator, its wider powers, and the backstop are all things which we have lobbied for over many, many years. It’s a big step forward and the FSA has played a huge role.

As with any negotiated process though, there’s always room for manoeuvre, and we still feel there are areas where the Bill can be strengthened, although it’s worth pointing out that it is way ahead of anything fans would have dreamed of just a few years ago.

Supporters’ trusts

One such area which will be of significant interest to FSA members is the role of independent, democratic supporters’ groups.

We have long pressed for an explicit requirement in the legislation that any supporters’ trust, registered as a Community Benefit Society with the Financial Conduct Authority, must be represented within a club’s supporter engagement process.

Supporters’ trusts are an incredibly important part of our membership base and we have always lobbied on the importance of trusts. They should be central to engagement activity. See our briefing paper to MPs (p4) in November 2024 which made that very point.

Supporters’ trusts and other FSA affiliates pass a very high bar, requiring an organisation to prove its independence and democratic structure while having published accounts, alongside other strict criteria such as regular auditing and governance training. 

Where next?

For the past six months we have focussed our lobbying on five remaining amendment requests, which we believe are both beneficial to the Bill and have a chance of being adopted by the Government.

Those five amendments: 

1. Supporter engagement – this work has now ensured supporters are one of the stakeholders which the regulator will recognise alongside club owners, executives, competition organisers and players. There are still some tweaks which we’d advocate but count this in the “win” column. 
2. Assessment – supporter engagement should be independently assessed and include supporter trusts within any fan engagement process. Fan representatives at club level must be democratically appointed, independently of control by the club.
3. Relocation of “home games” – clarity is needed on what is a “home” game and clauses within the Bill may need tightening. Games played abroad as a designated “home” game should never be allowed. 
4. “Relevant revenue” for distribution – Government must ensure that clubs do not find loopholes to exploit e.g. if broadcast revenues were paid directly to clubs rather than via the Premier League they may not fall under “relevant revenue”.
5. Independent non-executive directors – they should be in place at every club to provide proper scrutiny and challenge to club owners with a particular responsibility to represent the interest of fans and the local community.

You can read, word for word, what we have proposed in our briefing paper here – and credit to our (largely) volunteer policy team for all they have done to work with DCMS and shape the legislation.

Eyes on the prize

There is little point in wasting time on things which we know from our discussions with high-ranking officials will be discarded, and the Government is committed to pushing the legislation through before summer recess, which is 22nd July 2025. 

Many Conservative politicians who previously supported the Bill, are now playing party politics by trying to delay its progress – but they are only scoring own goals.

Ironically, some campaigners who support the Bill are actually playing into those opponents’ hands by constantly talking it down, lobbying for things which are already included, or making proposals which could delay the Bill’s progress for years (read more on “hybridity” – it’s one for the Parliamentary policy purists). 

Since the start of the year we have been working with the shadow regulator’s team to define what the regulator expects from clubs in the supporter engagement area.

Last month we were also very pleased to welcome Martyn Henderson, the interim chief operating officer for the incoming Independent Football Regulator, to our annual conference. He discussed his team’s work in building the regulatory body before the Football Governance Bill achieves royal assent.

How the Bill is interpreted and acted upon is critical to the good it can do – that’s where a lot of our current focus lies and where more of our work in this space will take place.

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