“Football is at a crossroads and it’s time to fix the game from the ground up”
Introduction
AFC Wimbledon and the Dons Trust strongly support the proposal to create a football regulator and we urge Parliament to adopt the strongest model of regulation.
We believe that the fundamental problem that needs to be fixed is the financial flow in the game. It is undeniable that English football has huge amounts of money, but this is almost exclusively concentrated among Premier League clubs and those who receive parachute payments. The race to achieve these riches has led to over half of the 92 clubs in the English league system being technically insolvent and reliance being placed on state and oligarch ownership and gambling sponsorship.
The Bill can also address other issues, such as:
- Ensure proposals to move, rename or change the colours of clubs cannot be taken without fan approval
- Ensuring that a regulator and their staff are free of vested interests
- Ensure that environmental sustainability is taken into account
- Ensure that improving equality is given more than lip service
- Ensure that there is adequate financial support given to clubs which want to make improvements
- Improve the owners and directors test
- Improve player welfare.
Money in Football
The English League (from Premier League to League Two) is the richest in world football and the Premier League is the richest top division anywhere. It has been described as the goose that laid the golden egg. However, even this league is unsustainable and relies on oligarch and state funding as well as gambling advertising – both legal and apparently illegal.
The primary area of spending is player wages, with players on half a million pounds a week not unknown. Whilst we do not begrudge the right of anyone to seek to get the best contract for themselves, this can only be done in a financially sustainable way. A large number of clubs – particularly at Championship level, spend more on player wages than they receive in income.
Over half (58%) of the 92 clubs in the top four divisions are technically insolvent. They rely on rich benefactors to sustain their operations. As we have seen over the past decades, clubs do go bust and leave a trail of debt behind them. Football rules mean that debts to players and other ‘football related parties’ have to be paid first, often leaving trade debtors and the local communities with nothing.
According to Deloitte[1], Premier League clubs reported an aggregate pre-tax loss for the fifth consecutive year (£685m in 2022/23, a 14% increase year-on-year).
Whilst gambling is licensed and legal in the UK, and a number of legal and legitimate firms sponsor leagues and clubs, there are a plethora of allegedly illegal gambling sites putting money into English football. As the investigative website Josimar[2] has claimed, clubs have recently signed deals with companies which appear to hold no valid licence and which target gamblers in countries where sports betting is illegal.
Whilst we do not deny the right of clubs to seek sponsorship from legal gambling sites, AFC Wimbledon has a policy of not accepting gambling advertising. The only gambling site whose name appears in our ground or on our shirts relates to the EFL sponsor SkyBet which we are contractually obliged to carry in return for our place in the league.
UEFA and Kicking English teams out of international competitions
It has been claimed that UEFA, the European football regulator, views the introduction of an English football regulator as government interference in the sport and might seek to deny English clubs or the English team entry to international competitions as a result.
This is not the case.
Whilst UEFA (and FIFA) have had their own financial and corruption-related concerns in the past, they have confirmed that they do not view the introduction of a regulator in England and Wales, as currently proposed, to be a problem.
Fair Game
AFC Wimbledon is a club which supports FairGame, the campaign to get a strong and independent football regulator.
We support FairGame’s briefing[3] on the state of the current Bill and the additional changes which are needed to make it as strong as possible.
EFL
We support the EFL’s belief that member clubs should be financially resilient through appropriate controls and should be playing for sporting jeopardy not financial catastrophe.
Source: https://www.efl.com/news/2024/october/23/efl-statement–/
The cost of the regulator
Some opponents of the bill claim that it is a waste of money. These claims do not appear to hold water.
The three main parties all stood in the 2024 general election on a manifesto to introduce a football regulator. The previous government’s own bill on this subject fell when the general election was called.
The regulator will not be a waste of money. It will be funded by football and the initial spending by the government will be recouped.
It is true to say that the current Bill goes further than that proposed by the former government. We respectfully disagree with moves to limit the power of the regulator, but do not accept that the status quo can be maintained.
What fans can do
As the Bill enters the House of Commons (it started in the House of Lords), the first thing to do is to write to your MP. It only takes a few minutes and you can help change football for good. Forever. Many of them are already supportive of our views, but it helps them to see the strength of support. You can write to MP Name, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or email firstname.lastname@parliament.uk
If you do not know the name of your MP, you can enter your postcode here to find out.
(This is the link – https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP)
We will also be publishing more ways to get involved over the coming weeks.
[1] https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/services/financial-advisory/research/annual-review-of-football-finance-premier-league-clubs.html
[2] https://josimarfootball.com/2025/02/06/strangelove-how-premier-league-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-illegal-gambling-and-money-laundering/
[3] https://www.fairgameuk.org/football-governance-bill