UK government kicks off plan to regulate football

The new UK government may have a lot on its plate but it has still found time for its predecessor’s plan to regulate one of the country’s most obviously successful businesses, football. The Football Governance Bill, introduced in the House of Lords yesterday, is an indirect result of the aborted attempt by six Premier League clubs to join a European super league three years ago. The fans of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur crushed that idea themselves but Boris Johnson’s government decided something must be done and, following a fan-led review, proposed a regulator. The original bill required club owners to “have regard to the foreign and trade policy” of the government, which might have caused British teams to be excluded from international competitions. That clause has been deleted, leaving the regulator with a degree of control over club ownership and the redistribution of some revenues. This hardly seems like a government priority but it will please fans who have endured rogue owners.