The Football Pitches’ new referee: How the Independent Football Regulator is changing the game

Law Debenture was pleased to host the second Independent Football Regulator (IFR) compliance workshop for football executives. Following the first workshop at the University of Liverpool, the event was held at our London office and was hosted by Fideo Global in partnership with LawDeb and LCP.  

Below are the key takeaways: 

Why does football need this? 

The evening opened with a keynote from Miguel Delaney, Chief Football Writer at The Independent. Miguel set the tone immediately as he argued that football is no longer just about what happens on the pitch. Governance failures, ownership disputes, and financial collapses aren’t just behind-the-scenes issues anymore. They shape results, fan experiences and how the public thinks about clubs. 

The core argument was straightforward but important. The game has become too commercially powerful and structurally complex to govern itself. The media coverage of ownership and governance failures over the past decade have played a part in building the political case for an independent regulator. Transparency and accountability, he said, are no longer optional for English football clubs. The question now is how clubs respond.  

Theory to Boardroom 

Following Miguel’s scene-setting, guests listened to a thought-provoking panel discussion chaired by Matthew Phillips from Reed Smith. The session explored what the IFR’s arrival means for club executives in practice, where the biggest gaps between regulatory expectations and clubs realistically sit currently, and what “good governance” looks like at a football club day to day. The panel brought together perspectives from key governance arenas; Dominic Thompson from Marsh speaking on the risk management implications for clubs, Aaryaman Banerji from LCP offering insight on the governance challenge the new regime presents, and Joanna Jenkins from LawDeb giving her perspective as a Company Secretary working with other regulated entities.  

Guests were then invited to consider three fictional governance scenarios. Scenarios included a board that had fractured along ownership lines, a CEO operating well beyond their delegated authority, and an owner funding failure that had left players and staff not being paid on time.  Each of the scenarios were considered by reference to the anticipated requirements of the new regulatory regime to be supervised by the Independent Football Regulator (the IFR).  

A commonality ran through all the scenarios: these were not dramatic disasters or one-off crises. They were gradual. A slow loss of accountability, failure of board function and lack of financial transparency. So, by the time the problems became visible, options had run out. 

The participants discussed and worked through these scenarios in real time and answers were not always straightforward. It highlighted how applying the legal requirements within the IFR’s new regulatory regime and balancing them with the operational and reputational considerations can be very complex.  

What comes next: 

The IFR is not going to run football day to day. It is going to set principles-based standards and intervene early where risks emerge. Clubs that are building and embedding governance into how they operate and not just how they report to the regulator will be in a fundamentally different position to those that treat the licence application as a one-off exercise. 

The requirements that will arise on the opening of the November licensing window are likely to arrive sooner than many clubs expect. The clubs of greatest concern are not necessarily those with the most significant financial pressures, but rather those where the board does not play a significant role in the governance of the club and where accountability remains inconsistent.  

There has historically been little requirement to demonstrate governance practices externally, especially in a structured or formalised way. The new IFR compliance means this will have to change. 

For more information on LawDeb’s Football Governance offering, visit our webpage or contact sportgovernance@lawdeb.com.