The Independent Football Regulator has published its first report into the state of English football, and it has told the top league to agree to a deal to redistribute cash to those lower down. If it doesn’t, it will force them to do so. 

The report’s statistics are sobering. Some 32 clubs could not survive a month if their owners pulled extra funding and 94 per cent of clubs in the top five divisions lost money last season. The regulator blames the widening gap between the Premier League and the rest: a Premier League club typically earns around nine times as much as a Championship side does, up from 2.7 times in 1992. This, the report says, has led to more reckless spending and mismanagement by clubs, resulting in financial crises. But are the report’s proposals really necessary, and, if so, will they actually work?

The collapse of Bury and Macclesfield Town in 2019 and 2020, respectively, spurred the creation of the regulator. Both clubs faced years of financial troubles before eventually running out of money. It spurred the then Tory government to start a fan-led review and then Keir Starmer to promise regulation in the 2024 Labour manifesto. It’s with that in mind that the regulator is seeking to stop clubs from going bust.

But are Bury and........

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