Brighton and Hove Albion only Premier League club ready for regulator
Brighton and Hove Albion are the only club in the Premier League or Championship rated “regulator ready” by a damning new study.
The research by lobby group Fair Game paints a dire picture of English football’s finances, suggesting almost half of clubs in the top four leagues are “running on empty”.
It comes ahead of the full launch of the Independent Football Regulator, which is expected by December after it is weaned off the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Brighton bounce
The Fair Game Index says just four full-time clubs are what it describes as “regulator ready”, with Brighton joined by League One AFC Wimbledon, League Two Cambridge United and National League Carlisle United.
Outside of full-time clubs, National League South’s Bath City was the only team to meet the criteria.
Fair Game described the findings as “a huge wake-up call for the football industry” with a “potential financial doomsday scenario as almost half of the clubs across the top four leagues are running on empty” – 43 clubs have less than one month’s cash reserves in the bank.
Regulator wake-up call
Chief of the campaign group Niall Couper said that the report “blows doubts out of the water” about football’s need for a regulator.
“Financial recklessness is rife,” he added, “good governance is a rarity, and matters concerning ethics and environment rarely reach the boardroom.”
The report calls out nine clubs – Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Plymouth Argyle, Swansea City, Exeter City, Rochdale and Chester – for making good progress on previous years, while 13 further clubs were acknowledged as meeting a minimum grading standard.
The Independent Football Regulator last week unveiled its first piece of proposed policy, which would see a revamped Owners, Directors and Senior Executives’ Test potentially resulting in the imprisonment of the sport’s bad bosses.