Football Governance Act 2025: Statutory Guidance
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)
Today I am updating the House to confirm that, following Royal Assent of the Football Governance Act 2025 in July, the Government have laid before Parliament a draft of the statutory guidance on the meaning of “Significant Influence or Control” under schedule 1 to the Act. As per the Act, the draft guidance is laid in Parliament for 40 days, during which either House may resolve not to approve it. If no such resolution is made, the Secretary of State may publish the guidance.
As set out in the Act, the independent football regulator will operate a new suitability and approval regime for owners, directors and senior executives of regulated clubs. The guidance supports the schedule 1 definition of an “owner” by providing interpretative detail on “significant influence and control.” Its purpose is to help ensure that fans can identify the real persons exercising control of their clubs, notwithstanding any opaque or complex ownership structures. This will give fans the much-needed transparency they deserve.
In developing the draft, we have drawn on the approach used in the Companies Act “Persons with Significant Control” regime, to ensure that we are aligned with current precedent. We have included industry-specific examples, which have been tested with the football industry to make the concept more tangible for all who will have to interpret it, especially clubs, and to ensure that the guidance is suited to the regulated industry.
In both Houses, we committed to laying this draft guidance before clubs are required to identify their owners in their personnel statements. Laying the draft now delivers on that commitment and provides clarity for clubs in advance of the regime for testing owners commencing.
The laying of this draft guidance is a key step in implementing the Football Governance Act 2025. This delivers the Government’s election promises to combat poor governance and financial mismanagement of football clubs in this country, and to put fans back at the heart of English football.
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