Supporters welcome news of fresh talks to discuss regulator north of the border

The Scottish Government will host a roundtable debate in May on whether an independent regulator is required in Scottish football after the Football Governance Bill was introduced to the UK parliament yesterday.

The notion of a regulator north of the border was discussed at Holyrood earlier this year and, on the back of the latest developments in Westminster, the Scottish Football Supporters Association (SFSA) has welcomed the next set of formal talks on the matter on May 8, which will involve stakeholders across the game.

“With regulation of the governance and finance of English football moving apace, the need and opportunity to achieve proper independent scrutiny of how the game is run and owned in Scotland has added urgency,” said SFSA chief executive Stuart Murphy. “While the set-up of Scottish football is much smaller than in England, the principle behind the call for regulation is the same. The paying public in Scotland needs and deserves proper transparency and accountability for our national game. We are open to the form this might take, up to and including statutory regulation. But the days of football in Scotland marking its own homework are over. The debate is now about how – not whether – such independent scrutiny should happen.”

The SFSA’S statement came on the back of communication from the Scottish Professional Football League earlier yesterday, revealing that the SPFL board has agreed an “action plan” to address findings from an independent governance review carried out by auditors Henderson Loggie.

Six Scottish Premiership clubs – Rangers, Aberdeen, St Mirren, Motherwell, St Johnstone, and Livingston – last month criticised the game’ s governing body following the publication of the 58- page review, with the sextet drafting a letter expressing “serious concerns” and questioning the “independence and transparency” of the report. The SPFL then hit back at a “number of factual inaccuracies” within the letter, which led to a board meeting at Hampden yesterday.