Impact assessment

Fact sheet - investigations, enforcement, and appeals

Updated 25 March 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Approach to enforcement

The Football Governance Bill will give the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) powers to operate an enforcement regime, including information gathering powers, investigatory powers and powers to impose sanctions for non-compliance with relevant requirements.

If an individual or body fails to comply with certain relevant requirements placed on them by the IFR (or directly by the Bill), they commit a “relevant infringement”. The IFR can take enforcement action against an individual or body who commits a relevant infringement, fails to comply with an information requirement or commits an information offence (e.g. concealing, falsifying, or destroying relevant information).

The IFR’s default approach to enforcement should be to work cooperatively with clubs to steer them to remain compliant or to return them to compliance. However, should this be ineffective, or in more serious cases, the IFR will have a range of enforcement actions that it may take. These include civil and criminal sanctions (depending on the circumstances).

Information and investigations

The IFR will have a general power to request information for the purposes of exercising its functions. In addition, the IFR will also be able to appoint an ‘expert reporter’ to report back on specific matters in relation to a club. For example, this might be to look into a specific issue, or more generally into the club’s circumstances and operations.

The IFR will also have the power to initiate an investigation if it has reasonable grounds for suspecting that an infringement has been committed. The IFR’s investigatory powers include a power to enter business premises under a warrant for the purpose of accessing information relevant to an investigation, and a power to interview any person on matters relevant to an investigation.

The Bill also enables the IFR to receive information from, and share information with, various public and private bodies, including industry bodies, other regulators and law enforcement. We expect this to supplement the IFR’s information gathering and investigatory powers by enabling the IFR to develop a wider knowledge base to get a clearer picture of any concerns. 

Enforcement

Enforcement notices

Before the IFR takes enforcement action, it must give the person concerned a warning notice. The person concerned will be given a period in which to make representations to the IFR. 

Following this, the IFR must determine whether to take action and give the person concerned a decision notice, which informs the person concerned about the action the IFR is taking and the reason for that action.

Sanctions

The IFR will have the power to impose a range of sanctions on individuals and bodies who commit relevant infringements, fail to comply with an information requirement or commit an information offence (including clubs and competition organisers). 

Sanctions will include financial penalties (for clubs and competition organisers these would be up to a maximum of 10% of the body’s annual revenue), and censure statements that ‘name and shame’ the person. 

In extreme cases of persistent and aggravated non-compliance, the IFR will be able to suspend or revoke a club’s licence. The IFR will not be able to impose sporting sanctions on clubs, such as points deductions or transfer bans.           

Individual liability

The IFR will also have powers to take enforcement action against certain individuals at clubs. 

As well as enforcing against owners and directors in relation to suitability tests, the IFR will be able to hold senior managers who undertake ‘senior management functions’ liable for the club’s non-compliance in certain circumstances. 

The IFR will specify these senior management functions, and nominate which individuals within the club carry out each one as part of the club’s personnel statement (which the IFR would approve). If a club fails to comply with a requirement related to an area for which a senior manager is responsible, the IFR will be able to apply financial penalties and issue censure statements against the individual.

Urgent directions

As part of enforcement action, the IFR will have the power to issue an urgent direction requiring a person who has committed a relevant infringement to take or cease an action to bring the infringement to an end. 

The IFR may only issue an urgent direction where the infringement is ongoing and jeopardises (or immediately risks jeopardising) the IFR’s ability to advance one or more of its objectives. The IFR may apply to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for an injunction if an urgent direction is not complied with.

Enforcement decision makers

Most enforcement decisions will be taken by a group of experts constituted from the IFR’s Expert Panel. 

The Expert Panel will be appointed by the Chief Executive Officer of the IFR and consist of individuals with a range of appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience to make decisions of technical judgement. These individuals would be separate to the Board, and the Panel will exercise its functions independently of the Board. 

Certain more significant enforcement decisions cannot be delegated to the Expert Panel and can only be made by a committee of the IFR’s Board, such as the decision to suspend or revoke an operating licence.

Appeals

Directly affected parties will be able to contest the IFR’s decisions. Clubs, individuals and relevant other bodies will be able to seek an internal review of a reviewable decision by the IFR, and will also be able to bring an appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

Internal reviews

The IFR would review a decision again and decide whether to uphold, amend or reverse the original decision. 

In most cases, the review will be conducted by a committee of the IFR’s Expert Panel, but in a few cases it will be by a committee of the Board of the IFR. In either scenario, the decision would be reviewed by different individuals than those who made the original decision. 

The internal review function will provide a swifter and less costly option for a directly affected party to contest a decision, and to receive a ‘second decision’, rather than immediately pursuing litigation. 

For most decisions, seeking an internal review is a pre-condition of appealing to the CAT, but for those decisions that will be decided by the CAT on the merits (see below) seeking an internal review prior to appealing to the CAT is optional.

Appeals to the Competition Appeal Tribunal

Where a decision is appealed to the CAT, only a subset will be reviewed on the merits. These are the most punitive decisions with the most potentially significant implications on a person’s rights, such as revoking an operating licence. 

All other decisions will be reviewed on judicial review principles.