January 22 – The UK’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy has called out the conservative party for seeking to “wreck” the football regulator bill, which has been designed to bring a degree of oversight to the top five professional tiers of English football.

Nandy (pictured) said that some Conservative party members sitting in the House of Lords are “intent on wrecking” the Football Governance Bill by having it delayed “for years to come”.  The conservatives are the opposition party to Nandy’s ruling Labour party.

Last October, the legislation, which will establish the first independent regulator in England, was reintroduced to Parliament and is working its way through the House of Lords, the second tier of the parliamentary process before it is passed into legislation.

Nandy pointed out that it was the previous Tory government that undertook the governance review, but that the bill could be derailed years by amendments proposed by the Tories.

“I want to deliver a hard message to those on the Conservative frontbench who are intent on wrecking the bill,” said Nandy in a speech at the Houses of Parliament. “I want to say to the handful of peers who have decided to take that approach: ‘What you are doing is killing off the hopes and dreams and inheritance of supporters.’

“I would remind them that it was a Tory government which commissioned the fan-led review [into football governance] and it was Labour and the Tories who put the commitment to continue these reforms in their manifestos. We will not rest until we make good on that promise to fans. This is what people voted for and nothing less than what fans deserve. Change is coming and nobody will stand in its way.”

One of the amendments proposes to reclassify the legislation as a ‘hybrid bill’, which would require consultation with the clubs.

A hybrid bill is deemed to target specific private interests. The regulator bill was introduced at a key time for English football, on the heels of an attempted breakaway European Super League and the financial mismanagement of numerous clubs within both the Premier League and the EFL.

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