English Football Regulation and What is Needed In Scotland

Date: 13th July 2025

(Photo: GOV UK)

Introduction

 

ENGLISH FOOTBALL REGULATION AND WHAT IS NEEDED IN SCOTLAND

 

Earlier this week, MPs at Westminster voted to take the Football Governance Bill into law, establishing an independent regulator to oversee the men’s game in England’s top five divisions. This is the largest change to the running of football in the modern era. But what, if anything, does that mean for the efforts to achieve something similar in Scotland, and why does this matter?

 

Before addressing those questions, we should first send huge congratulations to our friends in the Football Supporters Association. FSA are the representative fans’ body for football in England and Wales. They were important allies when we were setting up the SFSA here in Scotland in 2015. It is the FSA’s efforts, and that of supporters from a host of clubs, which have led to this Bill (now an Act) and formal regulation of the game down south. It shows exactly what coordinated fan-power can achieve.

 

The momentum for change in England came because of serious concerns about the way vast billions at the top of the game were seriously skewing its development and mired in allegations of misuse, misallocation and misappropriation.  The tipping point came when twelve clubs formally announced that they would be forming a European Super League in April 2021.

 

The explosion of grassroots protest and swift action by the FSA and others soon turned into huge political momentum. The then Tory government was compelled to act, or at least to seem as if they were acting. To her credit, the former UK Minister for Sport and Civil Society, Tracy Crouch, also took the issue far more seriously than her political overseers were expecting. There was cross-party agreement on the need for change. That made a big difference.

 

Resistance to the idea of independent regulation was initially entrenched from the football authorities in England. No surprise there. But, in the end, all-party support and considerable pressure from fans and the public paid off. To cut a long and complex story short, the new Labour government reintroduced the bill in July 2024 and it was finally passed almost exactly a year later .

 

Now the process of implementation begins. In reality the story as just begun again, and the stakes remain high. The provisions of the new legislation cover financial regulation, owner and director suitability, corporate governance, heritage, fan engagement, and enforcement and sanctions. Will it work? How will it work? All eyes will now be on those crucial questions.

 

Correspondingly, independent scrutiny of the finance, governance and conduct of football in Scotland is something we in SFSA have also been pursuing for over three years now. Other than the scale and nature of the game here, the main difference so far has been gaining the involvement and support of government. That has still to be achieved. But we are determined to keep moving forward, with support throughout the game and across the political spectrum.

 

So what has happened in Scotland to date, and where are we? Right now, the Scottish Government seem reluctant to move in the same direction as in England, and unsurprisingly some within the football authorities have argued against regulation. But the momentum towards reform remains, and we believe it will ultimately prove irresistible. When reform was first mooted in England, many scoffed. Now it has happened.

 

Our case is simple. As down south, fans in Scotland have for too long been marginalised or ignored in key decisions about the future of our game. Recent clubs in crisis, like Dumbarton, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton Accies, are only the latest examples of lack of genuine oversight, accountability and transparency in the way the game is owned, financed and governed.

 

If Scottish football is to sustain itself and move forward, and if trust is to be built with customers (that is with us, the supporters) and with investors (whether private, cooperative or public) then we need independent scrutiny – with the backstop being formal, statutorily enforceable regulation.

 

Ultimately, reform in this direction is in everyone’s interest. It is crucial to underpinning the refinancing of football at every level, and to what needs to happen in relation to development, youth football, women’s football, community engagement and many other areas where there is an opportunity to move from survival or crisis towards flourishing and growing.

 

That was one of the key conclusions of our 2023 report, Rebuilding Scottish Football, published after wide consultation with fans and stakeholders across the game. This eventually led to a lively members’ debate in the Scottish Parliament last year, initiated by Ben MacPherson MSP. There was clearly a strong cross-party mood for change. A ‘roundtable’ was established by the Scottish Government to broker conversation between parliamentarians, the football authorities, supporters (SFSA is represented there) and others involved across the game.

 

So far, we have to report, the nettle of independent regulation or scrutiny has not been grasped. If anything, it is still being avoided. As in England, there are vested interests stacked against it. But the story is far from over. The idea that scrutiny doesn’t matter because the financial holdings and deployments in our game are tiny compared to those at play at the billionaire level in England is plain wrong. It is a block on progress, accountability and far better patterns of decision-making and ownership across Scottish football.

 

In the next part of this article, we will explore what needs to happen in Scotland with regard to agenda-changing independent scrutiny, where the objections lie and how they can be countered, and what pathways exist for moving forward with essential reforms to finance, governance and conduct in a credible, feasible way.

 

English football has finally faced up to the need for public scrutiny of a public facing cultural industry. The same needs to happen in Scotland, in a way that is appropriate to our distinctive situation as a footballing nation. It’s time we put fans and communities first in running and future of our game.

 

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Simon Barrow is a co-founder and former chair of the Scottish Football Supporters Association. He continues to act as a consultant and was editor and a co-author of Rebuilding Scottish Football. He is a public policy specialist and regularly attends the Cross-Party Group on the Future of Football in Scotland at Holyrood.

 

 

 

 

 

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