The Football Governance Bill (the Bill) introduces new requirements aimed at improving diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) within professional English football leagues.
Much of the Bill focuses on improving regulation around ownership of clubs from a financial perspective but, for some eagle-eyed employment specialists, the supplementary impacts relating to DEI have not gone unnoticed. The Bill reinforces that clubs should be proactive, transparent and accountable in their diversity and inclusion efforts. The DEI parts of the Bill acknowledge the well-known inequalities in football governance and leadership, and seek to address gaps in ethnic and gender representation. The Bill would establish a new independent regulator, ensuring clubs adopt genuine, impactful measures rather than performative commitments.
The Bill would cover clubs in the top five tiers of English men’s football only.
How does the Bill seek to address DEI?
- Transparency and reporting: The Bill would require football clubs to publish details of their DEI efforts and this would form part of the “Mandatory Licence Conditions” for regulated clubs. This will ensure greater transparency about how clubs are addressing DEI within their organisations.
- We have already seen gender pay gap reporting requirements become mandatory for large UK employers. It is difficult to tell whether this has contributed to a reduction in the gender pay gap. Office of National Statistics figures suggest a small reduction in the gender pay gap from the introduction of reporting obligations, but not huge changes. Mandatory reporting does mean there is no hiding from the statistics. It also provides for clubs to self-reflect on DEI in a way that they may not have thought about if they were not required to publish details of their DEI efforts. Many clubs will want to show to the public that they are being proactive in this respect.
- Independent regulation: The establishment of the independent football regulator (IFR) would mean an external eye on DEI. The IFR would publish the corporate governance statement of each regulated club, which would contain the club’s statement on what action it is taking to improve DEI. The IFR would also oversee diversity policies, through the preparation of a code of practice about the corporate governance of regulated clubs, which would include approaches on DEI. The aim is to ensure clubs take meaningful action rather than just meeting minimum reporting obligations. Having an independent regulator provides for more accountability. With accountability, clubs should be more likely to take action.
Will it help?
The optimists among us hope that the Bill would help to reduce the disparities in leadership representation. Studies cited in discussions around the Bill during its inception highlighted the significant disparities within professional football, particularly concerning minority ethnic representation in managerial and executive roles. For instance, a study found that in 2022 approximately 43% of Premier League players are Black, yet only 4.4% hold management positions and just 1.6% serve in leadership or ownership roles. We do not expect that the figures are dramatically different in 2025. There is a similar story regarding women in leadership positions within football.
The Bill represents a step in the right direction by embedding DEI accountability into club governance. However, its impact will depend on whether:
- regulations translate into real action rather than just box-ticking exercises;
- clubs genuinely commit to senior-level diversity rather than treating targets as symbolic; and
- future amendments strengthen DEI enforcement.
If these factors align, the Bill could help shift the culture towards a more inclusive football industry. However, without strict enforcement, progress may be slower and uneven across clubs and leagues in English football. The Bill focuses primarily on governance, financial oversight and fairness, rather than directly addressing systemic barriers to diversity in hiring decisions, coaching pathways and ownership structures. A shift in culture will require industry-wide effort, not just regulatory pressure. This may be tricky given football has historically been slow to embrace systemic changes.
