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England have been warned that they could be excluded from Euro 2028 – a tournament the country is co-hosting – as UEFA has concerns over the implantation of an independent football regulator.
The plan to bring in the regulator was announced by the previous government last year and a bill to establish the new body was reintroduced in July.
The idea, according to the government, is for an independent regulator to help protect clubs and ensure their financial sustainability.
However, UEFA has voiced concerns over the level of government interference, saying this contradicts one of their ‘fundamental requirements’.
UEFA has threatened punishment for this which includes excluding England from forthcoming tournaments.
General secretary of UEFA, Theodore Theodoridis, wrote in a letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, reported by the BBC: ‘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.’
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport statement read: ‘The Football Governance Bill will establish a new Independent Football Regulator that will put fans back at the heart of the game, and tackle fundamental governance problems to ensure that English football is sustainable for the benefit of the clubs’ communities going forward.’
The risk level of England actually being excluded from Euro 2028 is thought to be very low, but it is clearly a threat on the radar of the Football Association.
FA head of football operations, David Newton, told MPs in May: ‘Uefa and Fifa have statutes of their own, which basically prevent state interference in the running of football and football competitions.
‘We have worked closely with Uefa and Fifa, and with the DCMS… They have been taken through where we have got to.
‘Although we have not had a definitive view as such, it is reasonably clear that a tightness of the bill relating to football governance is not likely to present huge or significant problems, subject to any changes that may occur.
‘However, anything wider would increase the risk of Fifa or Uefa intervention. That is obviously a place we do not want to be, because of the sanctions that may flow, in theory, from that.’
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