The Labour government is set to push ahead with the introduction of a regulator to English football, with a new bill likely to be put before parliament in the next month.
Ministers are resuming discussions with stakeholders in the game this week and the intention is to move swiftly to table legislation, sources have told the Guardian.
The Conservative government had begun the process of adopting a bill, only for it to be paused owing to the summer’s general election, and it is understood the Labour party will introduce its own bill, which could be launched first in the House of Lords.
Although some details will be different, and there remains a broad spread of opinion over key issues such as the backstop powers available to the regulator to enforce financial distribution across the football pyramid, the scope of the regulator’s remit is expected to remain the same.
In its election manifesto Labour described its approach to the regulator. “We will reform football governance to protect football clubs across our communities and to give fans a greater say in the way they are run,” the party said. “We will introduce a Football Governance Bill, which will establish an independent regulator to ensure financial sustainability of football clubs in England. We will never allow a closed league of select clubs to be siphoned off from the English football pyramid.”
The bill was announced in the king’s speech and would have been expected to become law over the course of this parliament. However the suggestion that the government is set to move quickly indicates it has settled upon its proposals. The to-and-fro lobbying over the contents of the bill has been a consistent feature and the Premier League has been strongly opposed to many of the aspects of the regulator, warning against “creep” in its responsibilities and arguing that inadvertent consequences could harm the success of the English top flight.
The English Football League has been a consistent supporter of regulation, pointing to the financial risks faced by many of its clubs. This is a sentiment shared by the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan.
“It was a central part of our manifesto and it will be an essential part of my job to deliver on that and to deliver on it without delay,” Nandy said at the time of the king’s speech.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been approached for comment.
