Football Governance: call for evidence

Aims of the Bill

The Football Governance Bill would establish an independent regulator for the top five tiers of men’s football in England. In a Written Statement of 19 March 2024, Stuart Andrew, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), said the regulator’s primary purpose would be to ensure that English football was “sustainable and resilient for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve”. The regulator would do this through:

• Operating a licensing system, where all clubs in the top five tiers of the men’s game would need a licence to operate.
• Establishing a new, strengthened owners’ and directors’ test to make sure a club’s custodians were suitable and to protect fans from irresponsible owners.
• Setting a minimum standard of fan engagement and requiring clubs to comply with new FA rules on club heritage.
• Requiring clubs to seek regulator pre-approval for any sale or relocation of their stadium.
• Preventing clubs from joining breakaway leagues that did not have the support of fans or that threatened the heritage or sustainability of English football.
• Having a backstop power to intervene in the distribution of broadcast revenue if the leagues failed to reach an agreement.
• Establishing a compulsory “Football Club Corporate Governance Code”.

The Bill would extend to England and Wales only.

Follow the progress of the Football Governance Bill

The Football Governance Bill [Bill 187 2023-24] (PDF) was introduced in the House of Commons on 19 March 2024. The Bill’s second reading was held on Tuesday 23 April 2024.

• Bills before Parliament: Football Governance Bill
• Read Explanatory Notes: Football Governance Bill
• House of Commons Library Briefing Paper

The DCMS has published  an Impact Assessment (PDF) and a Human Rights Memorandum (PDF) on the Bill.

Factsheets on the following aspects of the Bill are available:

• Overview (PDF).
• The independent football regulator (PDF).
• Licensing regime (PDF).
• Owners and directors of regulated clubs (PDF).
• Duties on clubs and competition organisers (PDF).
• Financial distribution backstop mechanism (PDF).
• Investigations, enforcement and appeals (PDF).

The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) has published an Opinion on the Government’s Impact Assessment on the Bill (PDF).

Oral evidence sessions are expected to be held on Tuesday 14 and Thursday 16 May.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 14 May and the Committee is scheduled to report by Thursday 6 June. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 6 June. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here (pdf, 1MB).

Image: Parliamentary Copyright