Leading Premier League clubs have asked the government to block nation states from owning English football teams, with the request potentially forming part of a new regulator’s brief.
The news comes as the government confirmed the imminent arrival of an independent football regulator “when parliamentary time allows”. The latest update comes at the end of a consultation process with stakeholders in the English game. The Guardian understands that some leading top-flight clubs used the consultation period to individually lobby the government on state ownership, a process separate to any Premier League submissions.
Assessing the suitability of prospective owners and directors will be one of the regulator’s key roles. The government said its consultation process had revealed support for an “ethics and integrity” component within any owners’ and directors’ test (ODT) and that “some stakeholders suggest that the ODTs should limit state ownership”.
The Premier League did not mention state ownership when it updated its own ODT this summer and an apparent split between the league and some of its clubs follows the takeover of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
According to the Premier League it received “legally binding guarantees” that the state of Saudi Arabia would not have control over Newcastle United in the event of any deal. Following the dispute between the PGA and PIF-owned LIV Golf in the US, however, legal briefings described PIF as “a sovereign instrumentality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the chair of Newcastle and governor of PIF, as “a sitting minister of the Saudi government”. This revelation led several Premier League teams to believe the guarantees had been breached.
The final terms of the regulator’s new ODT will be confirmed in the coming months. In its briefing paper, the government said: “Regarding the scope of the tests, we recognise the trade-offs involved, and are aware of the range of corporate structures behind clubs, including complex ownership structures, private equity and funds, sovereign wealth funds, and fan-owned clubs. We are designing the legal scope of the tests with these challenges in mind … but, as stated in the white paper, the regulator would not be able to make unilateral judgments that risk straying into foreign policy.”
The government further confirmed the scope of the football regulator’s remit on Thursday. Ensuring suitable owners is to be one of four key responsibilities, the other three being to ensure clubs have appropriate financial resources, protect fan interests and authorise approved competitions. The regulator will also be fully independent of the game and have backstop powers to force financial settlements, with the Premier League and EFL still at odds over redistribution within the game.
Many had hoped that the scope might be extended to include mandatory targets on equality, diversity and inclusion, but the government confirmed that would not be a central part of its role. The chief executive of Kick it Out, Tony Burnett, said it was crucial that EDI considerations formed part of a corporate governance code that club owners will be expected to sign up to under the new regulator.
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“Whilst we welcome the confirmation of the football regulator we reiterate our call for EDI inclusion in the new code for football governance”, he said. “For too long football has not been held to account for the lack of diversity in boardrooms, coaching and refereeing, and the absence of any transparency when it comes to reporting incident and workforce data.”
The imminent arrival of the regulator was also welcomed by the chair of the EFL, Rick Parry. “As a consistent supporter of the independent regulator’s introduction, it is important that delivering financial sustainability for men’s English professional football will be its focus, and we now look forward to seeing legislation introduced to parliament,” he said.
The Premier League said it continued to have regular meetings with government on the regulator and noted that options for how it will be set up remain under review.
