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Economics
Matthew Lesh quoted in The i
25 March 2024
In the Media
IEA research referenced in The Scottish Daily Mail
26 March 2024
Uncategorized
20 January 2026
Len Shackleton writes for The Times
IEA Editorial and Research Fellow Len Shackleton has written for The Times on plans to introduce a football regulator.
Len wrote:
“I had rather hoped that the plan to impose an independent regulator on English football had been abandoned but now, two and a half years after Tracey Crouch’s “fan-led review”, we have the Football Governance Bill. This 112-page doorstopper sets out arrangements for licensing clubs, distributing revenues and other “connected purposes”, thus allowing this new quango to spread its tentacles over our entire football ecosystem of professional, semi-professional and junior competitions.
“Why? Normally we regulate sectors where powerful businesses can exploit consumers or suppliers or where there are serious negative externalities such as pollution. Neither applies in football.
“Regulation always has unintended consequences. Most fans will welcome the bill: let’s hope that they won’t regret it. And, by the way, it won’t get rid of VAR.”
Read Len’s full piece here.
Len wrote:
“I had rather hoped that the plan to impose an independent regulator on English football had been abandoned but now, two and a half years after Tracey Crouch’s “fan-led review”, we have the Football Governance Bill. This 112-page doorstopper sets out arrangements for licensing clubs, distributing revenues and other “connected purposes”, thus allowing this new quango to spread its tentacles over our entire football ecosystem of professional, semi-professional and junior competitions.
“Why? Normally we regulate sectors where powerful businesses can exploit consumers or suppliers or where there are serious negative externalities such as pollution. Neither applies in football.
“Regulation always has unintended consequences. Most fans will welcome the bill: let’s hope that they won’t regret it. And, by the way, it won’t get rid of VAR.”
Read Len’s full piece here.
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