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Football Governance Act 2025

Type Public General Act

Publication 2025-07-21

State In force

Department Statute Law Database

Source legislation.gov.uk

Reform history JSON API

Part 1 — Purpose, overview and key definitions

Purpose and overview

1

(1) The purpose of this Act is to protect and promote the sustainability of English football.

(2) For that purpose—

(a) Part 2 establishes the Independent Football Regulator (referred to in this Act as “the IFR”) and makes provision about the exercise of its functions;

(b) Part 3 makes provision for the IFR to grant operating licences to football clubs;

(c) Part 4 provides for the IFR to make determinations about whether persons are suitable to be owners or officers of football clubs;

(d) Part 5 imposes various duties on football clubs, the owners and officers of football clubs and the organisers of football competitions;

(e) Part 6 provides a mechanism whereby the IFR can make an order requiring the organiser of a football competition to distribute revenue received by that organiser;

(f) Parts 7 and 8 make provision about the investigation and enforcement powers of the IFR;

(g) Part 9 makes provision about reviews of and appeals from decisions of the IFR;

(h) Part 10 makes general provision, including about the disclosure of information by and to the IFR.

(3) For the purposes of this section, English football is sustainable if it—

(a) continues to serve the interests of fans of regulated clubs, and

(b) continues to contribute to the economic or social well-being of the local communities with which regulated clubs are associated.

(4) For the meanings of “English football”, “regulated club” and for other key terms used in this Act, see section 2.

Key definitions

2

(1) In this Act—

“club” or “football club” means a body that operates a team;

“competition”, in relation to football, means a league (or a division of a league), a cup, a tournament or any other competition;

“competition organiser” means a body that organises a competition;

“English football” means all regulated clubs and all specified competitions, taken together;

“football” means association football;

“the IFR” means the Independent Football Regulator;

“licensed club” means a club that holds an operating licence;

“operating licence” means a provisional operating licence or a full operating licence (see section 15);

“regulated club” means a club that operates a relevant team (whether or not the club is a licensed club);

“relevant team” means a team that is entered into, is a member of, or participates in a specified competition;

“specified competition” means a competition specified in regulations under subsection (3);

“specified competition organiser” means a body that organises a specified competition;

“team” means a football team.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, a club “operates” a team if it is responsible for the team’s entry into, membership of, or participation in a competition.

(3) The Secretary of State may by regulations specify a competition; but the Secretary of State may not specify a competition unless the teams that are entered into it, or that are members of it, or that participate in it are exclusively or predominantly English teams.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), a team is an “English team” if the ground at which the team customarily plays its home matches is in England.

(5) Before making regulations under subsection (3) the Secretary of State—

(a) must assess whether it would be appropriate to exercise the power and, if so, how,

(b) in carrying out the assessment, must consult—

(i) the IFR,

(ii) the Football Association, and

(iii) any other persons the Secretary of State considers appropriate, and

(6) Subsection (5) does not apply in respect of the first regulations made under subsection (3).

(7) Sections 3, 4, 26, 56, 67 and 92 define other terms used in this Act.

Meaning of “owner” etc

3

(1) In this Act, references to an “owner” of a club are to be construed in accordance with Schedule 1.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, a club’s “ultimate owner” is—

(a) where the club has only one owner, that owner;

(b) where the club has more than one owner and one owner exercises a higher degree of influence or control over the activities of the club than any other owner, that owner;

(c) in any other case, each owner of the club who exercises a degree of influence or control over the activities of the club that—

(i) is the same as another owner, and

(ii) where there are other owners, is a higher degree of influence or control than any other owner.

Meanings of “officer” and “senior manager” etc

4

(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person is an “officer” of a club if—

(a) the person is a senior manager of the club, or

(b) in any other case, the following table identifies the person as an officer of the club—

Where the club is—	the person is an officer of the club if—
a company	the person is a director of the company
a body corporate other than a company	the person is an officer of the body whose functions correspond to those of a director of a company
a partnership	in relation to a limited partnership, the person is a general partner as defined by section 3 of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907; in relation to any other partnership, the person is a member of the partnership
an unincorporated body other than a partnership	the person is an officer of the body or a member of the body’s governing body

(2) For the purposes of this Act, a person is also an “officer” of a club if the person—

(a) purports to act as an officer of the club (within the meaning of subsection (1)), or

(b) is a person in accordance with whose directions, instructions, guidance or advice an officer of the club (within the meaning of subsection (1) or paragraph (a)) is accustomed to act.

(3) But a person is not to be regarded as an officer of a club by virtue of subsection (2)(b) by reason only that an officer of the club (within the meaning of subsection (1) or (2)(a)) acts—

(a) on advice given by that person in a professional capacity;

(b) in accordance with instructions, a direction, guidance or advice given by that person in the exercise of a function conferred by or under an enactment;

(c) in accordance with guidance or advice given by that person in their capacity as a Minister of the Crown (within the meaning of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975).

(4) For the purposes of this Act, a person is a “senior manager” of a club if, in relation to the carrying on of the club’s activities, the person carries out a senior management function specified, or of a description specified, for the purposes of this section.

(5) For the purposes of this Act—

(a) a function is a “senior management function” in relation to the carrying on of a club’s activities if—

(i) the function requires a person carrying out the function to be responsible for managing one or more aspects of the club’s affairs, and

(ii) those aspects are such that the way in which they are managed could give rise to serious consequences for the club;

(b) the reference in paragraph (a)(i) to managing one or more aspects of a club’s affairs includes taking, or participating in the taking of, decisions about how one or more aspects of those affairs should be carried on.

(6) In this section, “specified” means specified by the IFR in rules.

(7) This section is subject to section 42 (9) (persons appointed as officers by the IFR not to be treated as officers for the purposes of this Act).

Part 2 — The Independent Football Regulator

The Independent Football Regulator

Establishment of the IFR

5

(1) A body corporate called the Independent Football Regulator is established.

(2) Schedule 2 contains further provision about the IFR.

The IFR’s objectives

6

The IFR’s objectives are—

(a) to protect and promote the financial soundness of regulated clubs (referred to in this Act as “the club financial soundness objective”);

(b) to protect and promote the financial resilience of English football (referred to in this Act as “the systemic financial resilience objective”);

The IFR’s general duties etc

7

(1) The IFR must, so far as reasonably practicable, exercise its functions under this Act in a way that—

(a) is compatible with the purpose of this Act (see section 1), and

(b) advances one or more of the IFR’s objectives (see section 6).

(2) The IFR must have regard to the desirability of exercising those functions in a way that avoids any—

(a) effects on the sporting competitiveness of any regulated club against another regulated club;

(b) adverse effects on the competitiveness of regulated clubs against other clubs;

(3) In exercising those functions, the IFR must also have regard to the following (so far as they are relevant to the exercise of those functions)—

(a) its regulatory principles (see section 8);

(b) its most recent state of the game report (see section 10);

(d) any guidance published by it (see section 12);

(e) any guidance published by the Secretary of State (see section 13).

(4) The IFR must keep under review the extent to which persons are complying with obligations imposed on them under or by virtue of this Act.

The IFR’s regulatory principles

8

The IFR’s regulatory principles are that—

(a) it should use its resources in the most efficient, expedient and economic way;

(b) it should, so far as reasonably practicable, co-operate, and proactively and constructively engage, with—

(i) persons on whom it may impose requirements or restrictions, namely clubs, owners, senior managers and other officers of clubs, and competition organisers, and

(ii) other persons who may be affected by its decisions, including players and fans;

(c) it should, before it imposes any requirement or restriction on a person, have regard to whether the requirement or restriction is necessary and whether a similar outcome could be achieved by less burdensome means;

(d) any requirement or restriction imposed by it on a person should be proportionate to the benefits which are expected to result from that requirement or restriction;

(e) it should act in a way that has regard to the specific context of football and the fact that clubs are subject to rules, requirements and restrictions imposed by competition organisers by virtue of teams operated by those clubs being entered into, being members of, or participating in competitions organised by those organisers;

(f) it should act consistently (subject to it recognising the differences between clubs and competitions and the differences between the circumstances affecting clubs and competitions);

(g) it should act in a way that recognises the responsibilities of owners, senior managers and other officers of clubs in relation to the requirements placed on clubs under or by virtue of this Act;

(h) it should act as transparently as reasonably practicable.

Transfer schemes

9

Schedule 3 contains provision about schemes for the transfer of staff and property, rights and liabilities to the IFR.

Reports, statements and guidance

State of the game report

10

(1) The IFR must prepare and publish a report (a “state of the game report”) on the state of English football so far as relevant to the exercise of the IFR’s functions under this Act.

(2) A state of the game report must include—

(a) an overview of the main issues that the IFR considers to be affecting English football,

(b) an assessment of whether any feature, or combination of features, of English football jeopardises, or risks jeopardising, the IFR’s ability to advance one or more of its objectives, and

(c) information about any other matters relating to the state of English football, so far as relevant to the exercise of the IFR’s functions under this Act, that the IFR considers appropriate.

(3) The first state of the game report must be published as soon as reasonably practicable and in any event no later than the end of the period of 18 months beginning with the day on which the first regulations made under section 2 (3) come into force.

(4) Each subsequent state of the game report must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which the previous report is published.

(5) Before publishing a state of the game report, the IFR must—

(a) publish a notice—

(i) stating that it intends to prepare a report, and

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