The Football Governance Bill has completed its passage through the House of Lords and has gone through the Committee Stage in The House of Commons. It now proceeds to the Report Stage and Third Reading.

Hopefully it will be passed and become The Football Governance Act later this year. When the Bill becomes the Football Governance Act it will create the office of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR).

At the recent Football Supporters Association AGM a presentation was given by the Interim Chief Operating Officer of the "shadow" office of the IFR - Martyn Henderson. His job is to set up a transition team comprising legal, economic, regulatory and policy experts so that, when the IFR is established legally, it can hit the ground running.

Scope

Martyn began by reminding attendees of the scope of the IFR:

It will cover all clubs (116) in the top five leagues (Premier, Championship, Leagues 1 and 2 and The National League.)

It will cover financial regulation; a (strengthened) owners and directors test; a corporate governance code; protection of club heritage (stadium, badge, kit colours); fan engagement requirements and financial distribution.  It has no role in sporting matters such as match scheduling, VAR.

Implementation

Martyn described the role having a shadow team in place as being "to build an agile, skilled and efficient organisation that can deliver a world class regulatory regime for football"

What the regulator will mean for fans

Fan engagement requirements will be a condition of club licences and that a club will have to have "adequate and effective" means by which it regularly consults its fans and takes their views into account when making  decisions on relevant matters which are defined as:

the club's strategic direction and objectives
the club's business priorities
operational and match day issues - including ticket pricing
the club's heritage items
the club's plans relating to fan engagement

There will be an extensive consultation process including fan surveys to get things right

All in all we as football fans should expect stronger fan engagement provisions in place, better protection for club heritage items and a more  sustainable pyramid with fans closer to the heart of the game"