How League One Lincoln City are helping to shape the football regulator
Consultation has been one of the hot topics surrounding the introduction of the independent football regulator, although one club at least is trying to ensure that it is not a one-way street.
While much of the discussion has been on what the watchdog will demand of clubs in return for being granted a licence, Lincoln City have been proactive in trying to shape its policies.
The Imps last week welcomed a delegation from the shadow IFR, which is currently staffed by DCMS employees on secondment, after inviting them behind the scenes at the LNER Stadium.
Lincoln City decided to extend an invite to offer an insight into how clubs work day-to-day, and to better understand how the regulator will operate when it passes into law later this year.
“It was an opportunity to meet, engage, talk with each other,” says Lincoln City CEO Liam Scully.
“To share perspective and literally, play by play, walk through what we’re aiming to do, what they’re aiming to do, and just try and see it through the lens of the other side. Hopefully they would agree, but it was time well spent.
“Huge credit to the shadow regulator, they are clearly trying to engage with the football fraternity, majority of them coming from different backgrounds.
“These are ultimately the people who are going to be behind the scenes, the engine behind the organisation. They’ve always been very open about wanting to work with clubs and work with those at the coalface.”
Lincoln take initiative to get ‘regulator-ready’
Lincoln City are well placed to share best practice with the shadow regulator, having been recognised for their good governance and, in particular, their work with supporters.
They are one of only three clubs in the 92-team English professional pyramid to be rated gold standard in an independent fan engagement index published last year.
Scully says they have been working to get “regulator-ready” for more than a year, having seen the direction of travel when the Crouch report was published in 2021.
“When Tracey Crouch wrote her initial white paper, we took the assumption that at some point most of this, if not all of it, would become law,” he adds.
“We always try to be a club that operates as an exemplar across our whole portfolio, and one of the areas we looked at is good governance.
“So we set out on a journey 18 months ago to ensure that we were regulator ready. So that was taking all the policy, some of the known quantities, even though they maybe weren’t law, a lot of the learning, and then working with all the Lincoln City stakeholders.
“The fan advisory board, the supporters’ trust foundation, even elements such as the former players’ association, we basically took an approach to ensure that we were ready and working towards that.
“Hard outcomes, we issued a golden share to the fans that covers heritage items. But it was about, we might as well use this time. It’s coming down the line, so let’s be ready for it.”