Football Governance Act 2025

96 Review of Act

(1) The Secretary of State must—

(a) carry out a review of the operation and effect of this Act,

(b) set out the conclusions of the review in a report,

(c) publish the report, and

(d) lay a copy of the report before Parliament.

(2) The report must be published before the end of the period of five years beginning with the day on which section 15 comes fully into force.

(3) The report must, in particular—

(a) assess the extent to which the objectives intended to be achieved by this Act have been achieved,

(b) assess whether those objectives remain appropriate and, if so, the extent to which they could be achieved more effectively in any other way (for example if the IFR could delegate its functions to persons other than those listed in paragraph 18(1) of Schedule 2),

(c) assess the impact of this Act and the IFR’s actions on football in England and Wales,

(d) assess the interaction between this Act and the rules, requirements and restrictions imposed by competition organisers and whether that interaction is appropriate, and

(e) assess whether the appropriate competitions are specified under section 2(3), including whether a competition that is not specified should be specified.

(4) In carrying out the review, the Secretary of State must have regard to—

(a) the purpose of the Act (see section 1);

(b) the IFR’s objectives (see section 6);

(c) the IFR’s general duties (see section 7);

(d) the IFR’s regulatory principles (see section 8);

(e) any state of the game report published by the IFR (see section 10);

(f) any annual report submitted to the Secretary of State by the IFR (see section 14).

(5) Before publishing the report, the Secretary of State must prepare a draft report and consult the following about the draft report—

(a) the IFR,

(b) the Football Association,

(c) each specified competition organiser, and

(d) such other persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.