The social and community value of football - Are there any regulatory requirements for football clubs to report against social and environment impacts?

Abstract

It is often claimed that because professional football clubs are at the centre of, integral to and essential for the communities in which they are based, the pattern of regulation affecting them should be different from that which is imposed on other businesses of a similar size. Such claims are used to justify the need for the differential treatment of football clubs in many different contexts from planning and licensing applications, to calls for the more effective regulation of football clubs from supporter groups, to the rule providing for the primacy of football creditors. Despite this claim of difference, however, neither the football authorities, domestic UK law nor EU law require football clubs to submit to any social accounting procedures. The result of this lack of a framework for measuring the social and community impact of a football club is that there is very little evidence that can be relied on by either the governing bodies of football, their constituent member clubs or their fans to justify the differential treatment that is often sought. Further, this lack of evidence makes it almost impossible to justify to clubs why it could be beneficial for them to engage with their communities more proactively than might otherwise be the case