England 'could face Euros ban' over regulator plan

Norman_Conquest

Norman_Conquest

Well-known member
Uefa has warned ministers that England could be excluded from the European Championship it is co-hosting in 2028 over "concerns" that a planned independent football regulator could lead to "government interference" in the sport.

A bill to establish a body to oversee the top five tiers of the men's game in England was reintroduced in July.

The UK government has said the football watchdog will "protect clubs" by "ensuring their financial sustainability".

But in a letter sent to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and seen by BBC Sport, Uefa general secretary Theodore Theodoridis wrote: "We do have concerns remaining... as normally football regulation should be managed by the national federation.

"One particular area of concern stems from one of Uefa's fundamental requirements, which is that there should be no government interference in the running of football.

"We have specific rules that guard against this in order to guarantee the autonomy of sport and fairness of sporting competition; the ultimate sanction for which would be excluding the federation from Uefa and teams from competition."

The FA's exclusion from Uefa could also prevent English clubs - as well as the country’s national teams - from competing in European competitions. But a Uefa source suggested that officials did not expect it to reach that stage.


www.bbc.co.uk

Uefa warns England could be banned from Euro 2028 over regulator concerns

Uefa warns ministers that England could be excluded from Euro 2028 over "concerns" that an independent football regulator could mean "government interference".
www.bbc.co.uk
 
The_Big_Woodowski said:
Why does this not apply to Newcastle, Man City (group of clubs) , PSG who are all owned by governments
Click to expand...
Because it's about the national association of any given country not being controlled by the government of the country where the national association is located, it's not about who runs a club team.

It's the national association's job to oversee the governance of the clubs within the country. FIFA can't control every single club in every single country in the world, that would be totally unmanageable.
 
Liamo said:
It's the national association's job to oversee the governance of the clubs within the country. FIFA can't control every single club in every single country in the world, that would be totally unmanageable.
Click to expand...
In that case this is surely a non-story as the legislation's only looking to ensure financial security of clubs in the leagues and not control the FA.
 
Last edited:
atypical_boro said:
There’s no one else to host it is there??
Click to expand...
Doesn't the OP mean the team could be banned from playing in a tournament they're co-hosting?
There was news earlier in the week about the stadium in NI not being available as the government have pulled funding of the refurbishment.
www.bbc.com

Casement Park: 'Significant risk' stadium won't be built for Euro 2028

NI secretary says there is "a significant risk that it would not be built in time" for Euro 2028.
www.bbc.com
 
This is the relevant paragraph for me.

"While the initial intent of the IFR is to oversee the long-term financial sustainability of clubs and heritage assets, there is always a risk that, once established, the IFR may expand its mandate beyond these areas."

Basically, “don’t break the rules in future” even though we’ve probably got no intention of doing so.

A non story.
 
Liamo said:
Because it's about the national association of any given country not being controlled by the government of the country where the national association is located, it's not about who runs a club team.

It's the national association's job to oversee the governance of the clubs within the country. FIFA can't control every single club in every single country in the world, that would be totally unmanageable.
Click to expand...

Same principle for me just a different level of game.

External control of a club by national government then why can they compete in UEFA competitions. They have absolute control of that club

UEFA also had a rule that clubs could not compete in same competition with same owners. This has been softened this year for the city group.

But if a government wants to ensure that the game is protected for sustainable because our FA a pretty much spineless, this is now frowned upon.

My guess is the greedy 6 are lobbying UEFA/FIFA and probably paying for it to cause an issue and get rid of something they do t want as it will benefit the majority and not there self interests to destroy the game and take as big a share of the pie as possible
 
They always threaten it, threatened Greece with the same after their 2004 win saying they wouldn't be able to defend their title. Always seems a bit suspicious to me any fear of regulation / investigation.
 
Centralscrutinizer said:
Best bit is that Newcastle are only owned by the Saudis because our government "put a word in" for them 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
That’s a huge point isn’t it. The only time we are pretty sure the government leaned on a football-based regulator to get it to change its mind when it was inclined to apoly its rules was this. So remind me again, why is it football-based regulator bad, but a government regulator good? Their track record is more suggestible than the Premier League’s. (And don’t try to pin it all on Boris, Chi Onwurah was their chief cheerleader, this is party agnostic.)
 
RedAsABeetroot said:
In that case this is surely a non-story as the legislation's only looking to ensure financial security of clubs in the leagues and not control the FA.
Click to expand...
It’s potentially arrogating to a government quango powers to regulate aspects of the governance of football in this country, which FIFA and UEFA rules say should be the business of the national Association. So it’s certainly capable of falling foul of those rules.

I’m still in the “this is a non-story” camp for now though. At most it’s a reminder to the government that they shouldn’t be doing what they have no intention of doing anyway.
 
RedAsABeetroot said:
Doesn't the OP mean the team could be banned from playing in a tournament they're co-hosting?
There was news earlier in the week about the stadium in NI not being available as the government have pulled funding of the refurbishment.
www.bbc.com

Casement Park: 'Significant risk' stadium won't be built for Euro 2028

NI secretary says there is "a significant risk that it would not be built in time" for Euro 2028.
www.bbc.com
Click to expand...
I think “refurbishment” understates it a bit. It’s a rebuild. The place is derelict and hasn’t been used for a number of years. Its only virtue is that it was a big enough site to build a stadium that exceeds the UEFA minimum, which Windsor Park isn’t. In the present economic climate, redeveloping either to 30,000+ would be a total waste of money though and a purely political gesture. Not even Northern Ireland football never mind Antrim Gaelic or Linfield FC domestically need such a stadium. Can’t criticise Starmer for binning this vanity project.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top