The Guardian view on regulating football: the right game plan | Editorial

The government’s white paper on football governance is a significant step in the right direction

When a fan-led review, chaired by the former sports minister Tracey Crouch, explored ways to redistribute football income to non-Premier League clubs, the indignant chief executive of Leeds United, Angus Kinnear, denounced the project as akin to “Maoist collective agriculturalism”. Pace Mr Kinnear, as the upper reaches of the national game risk becoming a private playground for American hedge funds and sportswashing states, a more collectivist mindset in football is exactly what is required.

The publication of this week’s football white paper – which draws heavily on the Crouch review’s proposals – is a landmark moment, and a step in that direction. The most eye-catching part of the plan is the creation of the first independent regulator of men’s football in England, charged with protecting the integrity and sustainability of the game at all levels. After three decades in which English football’s elite clubs have moved into a different orbit from the rest, and a laissez-faire ownership culture has opened the door to unscrupulous buyers, this is overdue.

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