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Part 1 · Section 3 of 10
How the system works
What football's bodies cannot decide
A system built on consent reaches only those who consented, and only the questions the law lets them hand over. By the end of this section you can name the ones that belong somewhere else.
In one screen
Which questions belong somewhere else entirely?
Statutory employment rights, crime, tax and people who never agreed to the Rules all sit outside the system.
The statutory regulator answers to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and must be told before the League sanctions a club. International matters go through UEFA, FIFA and CAS.
Can the Rules take away employment rights?
No. Any agreement is void so far as it tries to exclude the Employment Rights Act 1996 or “to preclude a person from bringing any proceedings under this Act before an employment tribunal”, save for tightly defined settlement agreements (s.203). “All disputes” in the Rules does not turn a club employee’s statutory claim into a League arbitration.
What about crime, tax and outsiders?
They sit outside. HMRC and prosecutors never signed the Rules, so a Commission’s findings do not bind them. Whether tax is owed, or a crime committed, is for HMRC, the tax tribunals and the criminal courts, on their own evidence and their own standards. (That follows from how the arbitration agreement works; it is the course’s analysis, not a quoted rule.)
Outsiders likewise. Someone who is not a party may use the League’s arbitration only if “sufficiently affected by the outcome of the dispute that it is right and proper for them to have standing” (X.6Outsiders and Section X2022/23: X.6, p.144 ↗2026/27: X.6, p.163 ↗“sufficiently affected by the outcome of the dispute that it is right and proper for them to have standing” (2022/23)A non-party can use Section X only if sufficiently affected.All rules, both editions →, Handbook 2022/23).
Where does the statutory regulator fit?
Beside the League, with one duty that reaches into its discipline. The Football Governance Act 2025 gave the top five tiers of men’s football a regulator whose powers come from Parliament. Its decisions go to an internal review, then on appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and on a point of law to the Court of Appeal (s.84).
The duty: a competition organiser must tell the regulator “before a penalty, sanction or other requirement” is imposed on a club for breaking a relevant rule, and must consult it before materially changing a relevant rule (s.55). That duty has applied since 5 May 2026, with no exception for cases already running (Commencement No. 3 Regulations 2026, reg. 2).
Check yourself
A Commission is about to deduct points in a case begun in 2023. Must the League do anything first?
And the international route?
It runs through UEFA, not the League. UEFA’s statutes send appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, as in CAS 2020/A/6785. League disputes cannot follow: Rule X.2.4 excludes “any other system or mode of arbitration”.
The courts hold clubs to that. When West Ham tried to take a 2008 football arbitration award to CAS, the High Court stopped it: the award was final, with no arbitral appeal (Sheffield United v West Ham [2008] EWHC 2855 (Comm), as reported in a chambers case note).
As at 2026-10-07. Rules are cited by Premier League Handbook edition and rule number; decisions and judgments by date and paragraph; commentary is attributed and never stated as the law. probative.io is a research and investigations practice, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice; nothing here is a view on any particular matter.