Football review: Tracey Crouch wants £5m of taxpayer money to fund new ‘shadow regulator’ in the next month

Tracey Crouch wants around £5million of taxpayers’ money to form a temporary “shadow regulator” for football in the next month.

The proposal for a new Independent Regulator for English football (IREF), put forward by the former Sports Minister’s fan-led review, has been met with fierce opposition from Premier League executives.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish described the idea of investigating family connections of potential investors as “more like something from North Korea” while Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear compared some of the reforms to China’s Maoist regime that was responsible for killing millions of people.

Answering questions about the review at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee on Tuesday, Crouch stood firm in her convictions, hoping that a temporary IREF will be established as soon as possible and that it is included in the next Queen’s speech, due in the spring.

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“The independent regulator will be funded by football clubs themselves via a levy that is on a sliding scale depending on broadcast income. It would, like all regulators, have the ability to manage its own finances in the future,” Crouch said.

“From a shadow regulatory perspective — because we don’t think these things should wait until legislation is passed — a shadow regulator could be established straight away. The suggestion is the Treasury would start that with its funding from Her Majesty’s Treasury.

“Government has said it needs to look through the detail of the report but I would hope there will be legislation in the forthcoming Queen’s speech to set up the independent regulator.

“If I was to pluck a figure out of the air what I would think is required of the Treasury it would probably be in the region of £5m. Which as we know is not a huge number in the scale of things for the Treasury.”

Crouch added that the figure could be refunded when an official regulator is established. “I do sit here and think it’s perfectly possible for the Treasury to start the process,” she said. “If it wants to do it as a loan, that could be something that happens. We didn’t make those specific points in the report.

“I was minister at the time the Treasury decided to give £5m to China to improve their own grassroots football, so I feel we could possibly have that too.”

A commitment has not yet been sought from the Treasury to fund the shadow regulator and Crouch expects further pushback from Premier League clubs and the game’s authorities, including the FA, Premier League and English Football League. She questions, however, why other sectors are regulated independently and English football is not.

Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow insisted that overregulation and interference would risk “killing the [Premier League] golden goose” while Premier League chief executive Richard Masters shared similar concerns.

But Crouch said: “What we have at the moment is a system subject to vulnerabilities. If you can remove some of those vulnerabilities through better regulation and better financial regulation then it encourages growth and investment in English football, wherever you are in the pyramid. I don’t see this is an attack on the golden goose, I see quite the opposite.

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“We should be clear that regulation happens across most sectors and football has changed from what it was to what it is now, which is really quite complex and big business. Therefore I don’t see why it should be exempt from regulation because it is complex and it’s continuing to grow. You do need to apply some of the rules you see in the business and financial sectors to football.”

Crouch believes an independent regulator would allow major problems – and football is full of them – to be better managed and adjudicated. “In the past when there’s been a problem in football, football looks at it through the lens of football and we’ve been able to step back from that particular lens and that tunnel vision and look at the way other sectors are regulated,” she said.

Crouch is also of the view that if the review’s recommendations are put in place it will prevent club owners lifting teams from their town or city and relocating them elsewhere, as was the case with Wimbledon in English football and has been an issue in American sports.

“For me this is not an a la carte menu, the report is a holistic package of reforms we think sets out a long-term financially sustainable future for English future,” she said. “Part of the package is around the ability of fans to have a say over matters of heritage, so they wouldn’t be able to move around the country like we saw with Wimbledon going to Milton Keynes. This is a holistic package that protects English football.”

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