The Football Governance Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations bring into force specified provisions of the Football Governance Act 2025 (c. 21) (“ the Act ”) on 1st July 2026. They are the fourth set of commencement regulations made under the Act.

Regulation 2(1)(a) brings into force a number of provisions in Part 5 of the Act (duties on clubs and competition organisers etc) which will prevent regulated clubs from making changes to key elements of their heritage without taking steps to obtain the views of their fans.

Regulations 2(1)(b), (c) and 2 bring into force provisions of Part 7 and Schedule 7 so far as they relate to the duties brought into force by regulation 2(1)(a).

Regulation 2(1)(c) will commence the relevant part of Schedule 7 in order for section 48(4)(c) of the Act, which is commenced by regulation (2)(1)(a)(ii), to have legal effect.

An impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument as a full impact assessment was published in relation to the provisions in the Football Governance Bill. That impact assessment can be obtained online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/football-governance-bill-2024-supporting-documents or by writing to the Department for Culture Media and Sport, 100 Parliament Street, SW1A 2BQ, London, United Kingdom.