18th April 2021. Manchester United are hosting Burnley at Old Trafford. The first half is a 45 minutes synonymous with Sean Dyche’s side; they frustrated United and went into the changing rooms at 0-0.
But during Burnley’s tenacious first half performance, a story breaks that would’ve seen the Clarets never brawl with the big boys ever again.
The half time analysis is enveloped by the news of a European Super League being proposed by the ‘Big Six’ English clubs.
Roy Keane and Micah Richards are disgusted by this development and Gary Neville, for the first time of many, calls for an independent regulator to prevent ideas like the ESL coming to fruition.
Seven months on from the Super League debacle and there is now serious action materializing to save football from itself. Former Sports minister and Conservative MP Tracey Crouch announced on November 24 that she will be chairman of a fan led review to call for an independent football regulator.
This body would be able to run a licensing system, in which clubs would have to prove they are financially viable and properly run. It would also hold the power to withdraw licences if clubs attempted to join breakaway competitions.
This is a plan that’s been in the governments waterworks for an extended period, with the Conservative government committing to holding a review after the collapse of Bury back in 2019 and those plans being accelerated recently after the failed Super League launch and Newcastle’s recent takeover by Saudi investors.
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Earlier today in Parliament, culture secretary Nadine Dorris says she welcomed the review and claimed the government would now work on a lawful response which would present next spring.
But the question remains whether this regulator has the power to create real change in the shape of English football.
There are obviously no guarantees when it comes to the IREF, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
With Premier League parachute payments potentially being more equally shared across EFL clubs, it may prevent the tragic scenes we saw with Bury, Bolton and now Derby.
But with all drastic proposals, there comes opposition; Simon Jordan this afternoon voiced his concerns with the IREF on TalkSport.
There is also the dilemma of toughening the ‘fit and proper person’ test for eager investors in clubs that the IREF proposes. What are the parameters for the test? What may initially look good on paper may not be good in practice.
For example, when Melvyn Morris took over Derby in 2015 he would’ve passed the test with flying colours after generating his fortune through backing the firm King and being a local of the area, but after gambling on promotion to the Premier League, he’s now left the club in dire peril. History could still very much repeat itself even with the IREF in place.
On the issue of owner injections, the cash that often causes competitive lop-sidedness but equally keeps a number of clubs alive, the Crouch review argues that it should be proportionate to a club’s current finances, a solution that will benefit bigger clubs, but only if they have the money in the bank.
So the monopolisation of top flight football will still be an obstacle, except now it’s even more difficult for the smaller Premier League clubs to receive greater investment due to the harsher ‘proper person’ tests.
It appears that the Premier League bouncers have allowed Newcastle into the ‘Big Six’ party, but then restricted the entrance immediately after to anyone else.
And even the fellow party members were furious about Newcastle’s controversial entrance, which led to the resignation of Premier League Chairman Gary Hoffman.
Neville’s outcry all those months ago for an IREF-like body were justified for the well-being of English football and it’s well on its way to becoming a reality, but the finer details of the politics still need to be ironed out to create real change.
