A meeting with the C.O.O of the Shadow Independent Football Regulator

[BurnleyFC ISA]

This evening, we were very pleased to meet the Interim Chief Operating Officer of the Shadow Independent Football Regulator, Martyn Henderson (O.B.E), alongside some members of the Clarets Trust.

We had a lengthy discussion with Martyn and we are very grateful to him for sharing his time and expertise.

Moving forwards, the meeting has given us the confidence that democratic, independent and fan-led associations such as BFC ISA, will feed strongly into the consultation on how representative engagement should be defined.

We would now love to hear your thoughts.

Positive fan engagement is of significant importance to us!

UTC


PS. Please do get involved with BFC ISA if you’re keen. Join us today!

[BurnleyFC ISA]

Bringing this back up as it very quickly dropped down the messageboard in and amongst all the incomings and outgoings yesterday.

[Orangebernard]

That’s very positive news from BFCISA. I believe that the Football Regulator is putting fan engagement right at the forefront of their mandate in order to protect football clubs as community assets and preserve their unique heritage.

[BurnleyFC ISA]

That’s very positive news from BFCISA. I believe that the Football Regulator is putting fan engagement right at the forefront of their mandate in order to protect football clubs as community assets and preserve their unique heritage.

We were impressed and encouraged.

[aggi]

I was surprised to read that they are already employing 50 people or so as part of the Shadow Independent Football Regulator. Obviously planning on hitting the ground running, and a bigger department than I expected.

[Orangebernard]

It does sound like the IFR will have genuine powers including removing owners, directors and senior staff from football clubs if they are threatening the existence of a club. Hopefully this will avoid the situations like at Bury and Morecambe.

[Big Vinny K]

It does sound like the IFR will have genuine powers including removing owners, directors and senior staff from football clubs if they are threatening the existence of a club. Hopefully this will avoid the situations like at Bury and Morecambe.

Possibly would have avoided Morecambe situation - not sure about Bury. In both of these clubs situations the financial damage was already done and the regulator will be in very complex situation trying to remove owners or directors etc.What will that achieve if they are massively in debt and losing money and there isn’t anyone prepared to buy the club and take on the liabilities ?

A better role for the regulator would be to be more involved at the outset when a club is taken over and a far more robust process for looking at the background and structure of those wanting to buy a club. The guy at Bury would never have got in - and there would be other cases too. You would think there would be some kind of ongoing role for them to play too where they have some kind of oversight of how clubs are being run so that they can intervene somehow before it’s too much of a mess to do anything. Situations like Morecambe, Bury and others don’t just happen overnight - there are plenty of warning signs along the way as those close to these clubs will be aware of and highlighting to each other.