How the Government plans to reform football in wake of European Super League climbdown

The European Super League drama is over – but the story of football reform has only just begun.

What’s the story?

What began on Sunday as an attempt by six English football clubs to break away to play solely with their European rivals has become an all-out war by ministers on avaricious club owners and their apparent disregard for fans.

Boris Johnson, along with Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, Prince William and a litany of MPs came out to criticise the Super League plan, which would have meant the beginning of a whole new football tournament for the richest clubs, and an end to the Premier League as we know it.

So angered were ministers that they promised that if footballing bodies couldn’t put a stop to it with the “full backing” of Government, then Mr Johnson would wade in with a “legislative bomb” to try and end the ESL with law.

In the event, that wasn’t necessary. On Tuesday night the six English clubs, led by Chelsea, withdrew from the league and it decided to "reshape the project" without them.

But what remains is the Government’s commitment to a “root and branch” review of football in the UK, led by the former sports minister Tracey Crouch.

Now the immediate threat of the end of football as we know it has passed, there is less pressure on that review, and Ms Crouch will have time to consider what reforms could be made to the structure and governance of football in the UK to democratise the sport.

Mr Dowden yesterday vowed that the Government’s review would “make sure this never happens again”.

“The whole ESL move shows how out of touch these owners are. They have completely misjudged the strength of feeling from fans, players and the whole country,” he said.

“Football is for the fans.”

Looking back

The football shakeup has its roots in the 2019 Tory manifesto, which promised to embark on a “fan-led” review of the sport following a series of farcical episodes, including the near-collapse of Bolton Wanderers in May 2019 and the asset stripping of Blackpool FC by Owen Oyston, a convicted rapist, and his son Karl over the previous decade.

The Conservative Party is not a natural champion of football, but the Government had spent years under pressure from Damian Collins, a Tory MP who chaired the sport and culture select committee, who was pushing for an Ofcom-style statutory football regulator that would have more power than the FA.

Since then, the party’s sporting acumen has been improved significantly by Ms Crouch (named by one insider as “the number one ruling authority in the Tory party” on football) and Elena Narozanski, a former special adviser to Michael Gove and Team England boxer who now works in Downing Street.

Tory party officials used the 2019 election campaign to convince Mr Johnson - who prefers the rugby - that reforming football was a vote winner, and the policy was written into the manifesto by Rachel Wolf, a former colleague of Ms Narozanski at the lobbying firm Public First.

On a visit to Cheadle during the election campaign, the Prime Minister (below) took part in a penalty shoot-out with the local under-10s girls’ team. He conceded several goals before explaining to reporters that a “fan-led review” of the sport was vital.

Insiders say the policy was originally intended to deal with the problem of “dodgy” self-interested owners who saw clubs as cash cows rather than community hubs - but no one had anticipated that six of England’s finest would break away.

On Monday Mr Dowden said the review was supposed to begin after the return of football at the end of the pandemic, but had been brought forward because of the Super League plans.

“It's taken this pretty horrid announcement from the ESL over the last couple days for us to bring this back into focus,” a source close to the policy told the Refresher.

Anything else?

Ms Crouch’s review will now proceed in the knowledge that fans overwhelmingly support reform.

Polling by YouGov this week showed 79 per cent of fans opposed the creation of the Super League, and photos of fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge to celebrate Chelsea’s departure from the cabal on Tuesday show the strength of their feeling.

If anything, the ESL announcement has widened the scope of any review, and means that all options for reform are on the table.

A statutory regulator - Mr Collins’ hobby horse - is still in the frame. A putative “OfBall” could have the power to veto businessmen purchasing football clubs where it does not believe fans’ interests are being protected.

The Football Association - which governs English football - has always pushed back against the idea of another regulator. But this week’s events and the strong opposition of its president, the Duke of Cambridge, to the ESL may have shifted bosses’ focus.

Another option is a radical German model called 50+1, where fans have majority voting rights on club boards.

It seems unlikely that a Conservative government would go down the route of redistributing private property to fans - but some proportion of fan ownership could be considered when clubs change hands in the future.

A key advantage for Mr Johnson is that his former deputy Cabinet Secretary, Helen MacNamara, left the Government earlier this year to become second-in-command at the Premier League, with a focus on policy.

Her close relationship with ministers will be a key tool in securing the support of the most senior league in England of any recommendations the review makes.

When she left office in January, Ms MacNamara told the advisory committee on business appointments, which gives advice on former civil servants’ lobbying activities, that she understood she could not take part in direct lobbying of the Government.

Before she takes up the job she is also subject to a three-month delay to prevent sensitive information being passed to private bodies. That ends next month.

The Refresher take

Ministers will breathe a sigh of relief that there was no need for a “legislative bomb” to end the Super League plans - allowing the Government to talk tough without the need to see through complex new regulations of the clubs to protect fans.

But the ESL debacle has thrown serious weight behind the issue of football reform, and will widen the scope of Ms Crouch’s review.

Despite the division and acrimony that remains from this week’s attempted split, football survives. And it may come out better in the long term.

This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free.