Football regulator may have popular support but many will be disappointed
The Independent Football Regulator will not be the panacea for all of the English game’s ills that some are hoping for, says Ed Warner.
To a stimulating conference titled “The Independent Football Regulator: challenge or opportunity?” There I found myself a minority voice in an echo chamber of regulatory advocates.
An opening poll of the hundred or so delegates, conducted by the hosts at consultants LCP, revealed 84 per cent to believe the creation of the IFR a good or somewhat good thing. Just 8 per cent, including yours truly, deemed it bad.
Three hours of high-spirited discussion barely shifted the overall balance of opinion, nor alleviated my own scepticism. I did, though, conclude that the football regulator’s greatest challenge will be the unrealistic expectations of those within the sport and sitting in the stands who cleave to command economy beliefs.
Conference exit poll results: 61 per cent thought the IFR a good thing, seven per cent a bad idea, 28 per cent had mixed views and four per cent remained unsure.
As the IFR’s general counsel David Riley eloquently made clear to the audience, its powers might appear draconian to some, but its remit is narrow.
Yes, it will require clubs to demonstrate that they have credible financial plans with resources to match, as well as owners devoid of criminal links. But those expecting a material shift in the division of financial power within football will be sorely disappointed.
The IFR has highlighted its backstop powers to ensure an agreement in the long-running negotiations between the Premier League and the EFL about the broadcast revenue that flows down the football pyramid from the top division. This includes the thorny issue of parachute payments. An end to the dispute has to be a good thing.
First, though, we await a State of the Game report from the regulator that won’t be concluded until next year. That will be six years on from both the failed European Super League initiative and Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review that triggered the creation of the IFR. Such slow turning of the wheels is just one reason why I’m against the whole regulatory movement.
Nor will the football regulator be able to stop ambitious owners, whipped along by eager fans, from going off-plan and overreaching themselves. Such is the nature of the free market that is professional football and which has served the English game so well in the global tussle for commercial income and player talent.
Individual clubs’ fortunes will always wax and wane, in part reflecting their changing financial circumstances. Very few will disappear entirely – the oft-cited Bury an exception to the rule – such is the allure of the game to those seeing bankruptcies and attendant points deductions as attractive entry points into the great dreamworld that is football.
If you want to save owners from their own financial folly, try going down the American route. Close leagues and impose salary caps. Just remember the NFL, NBA and MLB have no credible global competition.
Stifle English football’s free market and watch the rest of the world seize its riches and its talent. My bet is the whole pyramid would be poorer for it.
January: sick and tired
What the lucrative American model wouldn’t do is improve head coach job security much. Profit or loss making, the on-field stakes are the same.
This year’s customary Black Monday at the end of the regular NFL season fell on 5 January and saw four of the 18 franchises who failed to make the play-offs sack their head coach. Four more heads have rolled since, making a total of 10 departures since the season began.
So far in 2025-26, there have been six changes of manager in the Premier League. Others teeter, whether of their own apparent volition (Oliver Glasner?) or due to the wrath of fans (Thomas Frank).
I was much taken by the sanity in Frank’s version of “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” at his press conference on Monday:
“The reality is one in five normally don’t like you, no matter what you do. One in five love you, no matter what you do. Both of them probably biased either way too much. Then there’s the three in five that if you behave well, be respectful, do your best, normally that’s the way.”
World in motion
MPs created the IFR. A cohort of these same politicians this month signed an early day motion calling for the United States to be banned from sporting competition as punishment for the seizing of Venezuela’s president.
They specifically call on Fifa to ban the US from the World Cup – a competition principally hosted by the United States this summer. Nothing better to do of an early morning I guess!
Blinking marvellous
The Australian Open has been lauded for its new million-dollar, single-point tennis challenge which was the highlight of its “week minus one” activities ahead of the Grand Slam.
It helped, of course, that a qualifier scooped the prize having seen off Jannik Sinner en route. Cue parochial fretting about Wimbledon’s physical barriers to expanding to a three-week tennis jamboree in order to compete with the other Slams.
Leaving aside questions about whether the Million Dollar One Point Slam proves a durable attraction, there can be no doubt other sports will be furiously exploring equivalent curtain-raiser TV fodder. Here’s my suggestions to stick in the brainstorms:
- One-phase-a-side rugby. Team gaining most territory wins. Pro team of only 10 v 15 amateurs.
- One over cricket. Pro team limited to four outfielders and allowed only one stump to aim at.
- 7 (pro) x 11 (amateur) football. No keeper in the pro team. First goal wins.
- Nearest-the-pin single-hole golf. Amateur tee 50 yards closer than pro tee.
- Single dart challenge with the amateurs’ oche closer than the pro one.
- Pressure shot basketball. You stay in until you miss. Shots get progressively further from the basket.
- Staggered distance athletics sprints. Ditto swimming and velodrome cycling. Staggers based on lifetime personal bests. (Check out the iconic Gallipoli movie for an example – it comes about 20 minutes in. “Hurl me down the track. As fast as a leopard.”)
Message me with other suggestions and I’ll publish any that light my ticket-buying fire next week.
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com