Massive changes and restructuring are expected as the United Kingdom government led by Rishi Sunak is set to regulate English football in the UK.
New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has given the nod to a planned attempt to revive a regulatory body for English football.
Fans and stakeholders in the Premier League will be affected by the current move by the British government to regulate the operation and running of football administration and organization in England.
The move is coming after a planned attempt by a previous US government led by Liss Truss was almost abandoned after powerful lobby groups, and other football stakeholders with vested interest devised machinations to nibbed it in the bud.
Among the top actors who were against the proposed regulatory body was the Premier League. The football administrative body is said to have jubilated for having ‘killed off’ the bill.
However, the emergence of Rishi Sunak as the new Prime Minister have led to an attempt to reawaken the bill, with a white paper proposal said to be ready next year.
Why is Rishi Sunak supporting a regulatory body, and why is the Premier League kicking?
In 2012, Manchester City was spotlighted for breaching Financial Fairplay Rules. Investigations were opened into the alleged breach of the game’s extant rules in 2018. However, no conviction or decision has been taken. And it took the Premier League six years to even open an investigation.
Manchester City has won multiple Premier League titles since then, and no sanctions have been applied against them. Such lapses are what the UK is hoping to curtail. The influence of powerful and influential foreign state actors who owns a club in England is also another factor.
The bond of contention between the proposed football regulator and the current administrators is centered on the financial operations of the clubs.
The football regulator proposed by the government of Rishi Sunak will wrest football administrative powers from the Premier League to a more refined clique of financial professionals.
Clubs will not be run by a cozy cabal of owners and their friends forming illusive boards to harvest rip-offs.
Apart from the issue of vested interest and power tussle, a football regulator may not have the requisite overarching knowledge of football but will be a financially savvy clique keeping an eagle eye on how club owners run the club.
Ghost of scrapped European Super League
The emergence of the European Super League was another evidence of the rot and the craze of club owners to look for other sources of revenue.
While the revenues of these few elite clubs would have skyrocketed, that would have left the smaller clubs in a financial quagmire creating a glut and disconnect in the football ecosystem.
The European Super League was asymptomatic of the current deficiencies and chinks in the armor of domestic league administrators. Hence, the UK government is attempting to check such excesses by effectively monitoring the running and financial transactions of the clubs.
The place of the fans
Part of the proposal for the football regulator is fans must be drafted into the board to contribute to th decision-making process of the clubs actively. However, they will not take part in the daily financial operations of the club but will have the power to veto critical decisions.
When will the Football Regulator come into operation?
The White Paper for the body will be announced and introduced to the parliament in January next year. However, the Football Regulator will be fully introduced and adopted in 2024.
