The Independent Football Regulator and the Football Governance Act 2025: the regulator’s statutory duties, its licensing and owners’ tests, and its first State of the Game report. The Esk has followed statutory regulation from the 2021 fan-led review to the regulator’s first full year.

Start here

1. IFR State of the Game 2026: what the regulator’s first report finds, what it misses, and what boards should do about it (October 2026)
2. The statutory duties of the Independent Football Regulator (June 2026)
3. The Independent Football Regulator (August 2025, the primer)

Licensing and the owners’ test

• Statutory oversight of English football: the IFR licensing proposals
• The IFR’s Owners, Directors & Senior Executives (ODSE) regime
• ODSE regime: the consultation process
• The IFR consults on its State of the Game Report

Comparative and governance context

• Financial and governance regulation across major European football leagues
• Governance structure of association football: integrity, financial regulation and strategic failure
• The 2025 CAS football annual report and the statutory transformation of English governance

Where it began: the fan-led review

• Reform in football: submitting views to the DCMS for the fan-led review (June 2021)
• Response to Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review letter to DCMS (July 2021)

Every article

All articles mentioning the IFR · Regulation & Governance topic · Reform in Football (earlier series)