Fans want veto right over new competitions

Fans of Manchester United, Liverpool and the Premier League’s other “Big Six” clubs could be given the power to veto the launch of any new Super League as part of changes to the way the English game is run.

The Government’s independent fan-led review of football governance, set to be published tomorrow, is expected to recommend concrete measures for preventing a repeat of April’s doomed plot by Europe’s biggest teams to form a lucrative breakaway competition.

But the long-awaited report by the review panel, chaired by Tracey Crouch MP, is not expected to propose banning the kind of takeover that led to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund seizing a controlling stake in Newcastle United.

The report was being finalised yesterday but will largely firm up the interim findings sent to the Government by Crouch, a former sports minister, in July. Those included formally recommending the introduction of an “Independent Regulator for English Football” with powers to police club ownership, as well as outlining plans to grant supporters a “golden share” in teams, giving them a veto over the sale of a club’s stadium and changes to their name, badge and kit colours.

The interim findings were clear about the need for a similar veto when it came to clubs entering new competitions, but did not specify whether this power should lie with the regulator, fans or both.

The Daily Telegraph has been told supporters’ groups from the Big Six have been lobbying the review panel to be granted such a veto after they played a key role in the collapse of the Super League less than 48 hours after its launch. The fiasco was the final straw for the Government, which had pledged in its 2019 general election manifesto to commission a fan-led review of the game, over accusations it was unfit to regulate itself effectively.