Who governs English football, and on what authority

What are “the Rules”?

The Premier League’s own rule-book. The League publishes it each season as a Handbook, and everything this course says about a Commission or an Appeal BoardThe panel that hears an appeal from a Premier League Commission: three members, chaired by someone who has held judicial office. It reviews the evidence the Commission heard. is read out of it. The text we rely on is the 2022/23 Handbook, the edition in force when the League referred the City charges in February 2023, set beside the 2026/27 Handbook, published on 31 July 2026. That is the newest edition we found on 7 October 2026. The clubs can amend the Rules at any shareholders’ meeting, so a rule quoted here is a rule as it stood in a named season. Full entry in the glossary.

Rule numbers are easy to misread. A letter and a number, such as W.45Burden and standard of proof2022/23: W.45, p.139 ↗2026/27: W.58, p.157 ↗“The Board shall have the burden of proving the complaint. The standard of proof shall be on a balance of probabilities.” (2022/23)The Board must prove its case, more likely than not.All rules, both editions → or X.4The five grounds of Section X review2022/23: X.4, p.144 ↗2026/27: X.4, p.163 ↗“the only grounds for review of a decision of a Commission or Appeal Board by way of arbitration” (2022/23)Outside jurisdiction; fraud, malice or bad faith; serious procedural error; perverse reading of the law; a decision no reasonable body could reach.All rules, both editions →, name the Section and the rule inside it: W.45 is Rule 45 of Section WThe disciplinary part of the Premier League's Rules: inquiries, Commissions, sanctions and appeals. (Disciplinary), X.4 is Rule 4 of Section XThe arbitration part of the Premier League's Rules. It reviews a disciplinary decision on five narrow grounds, not as a second appeal. (Arbitration). The Handbook says so in its own definition of “Rules” (A.1.203What “the Rules” are, and how a rule number reads2022/23: A.1.203, p.53 ↗2026/27: A.1.262, p.55 ↗“a letter and a number following a reference to a Rule identifies the Section in which it is comprised and its number within that Section” (2022/23)The Rules are the League's rules as they stand for the time being. W.45 means Rule 45 of Section W.All rules, both editions →). The numbers move when rules are added, so the same rule can be W.67 in one season and W.81 in another. Section 2 is about exactly that. How to read a rule number.

Who owns the Premier League?

Its clubs do. The League is a company limited by shares, and each member club holds one. The Football Association (the FA) holds a single special share, without whose consent certain changes cannot be made (Articles 4 and 5, Handbook 2022/23). A Board runs the company and operates the Rules, under the policy the clubs set in General Meeting (Article 20.2).

The clubs also write the Rules. They amend them at shareholders’ meetings, and the Rules carry on “from year to year subject to amendments” (Leicester City award, 19 May 2025, para 11). The people being governed make the rules that govern them.

The Rules are a contract

Joining the League is signing a contract. Rule B.14Membership is a contract with the League and between the clubs2022/23: B.14, p.57 ↗2026/27: B.14, p.61 ↗“Membership of the League shall constitute an agreement between the League and Club” (2026/27)Joining binds each club, with the League and with every other club, to the Laws of the Game, FA rules, the Articles, the Rules and FIFA and UEFA statutes.All rules, both editions →says membership is an agreement, between the League and each club and between the clubs themselves, to be bound by seven things: the Laws of the Game, the FA’s rules, the League’s Articles, the Rules, the statutes and regulations of FIFA, those of UEFA, and the regulations of the Professional Football Compensation Committee. Rule X.2Everything goes to arbitration, and nowhere else2022/23: X.2, p.144 ↗2026/27: X.2, p.163 ↗“that no other system or mode of arbitration will be invoked to resolve any such dispute” (2022/23)All disputes between the League, clubs and club directors go to arbitration in England, under English law; no other arbitration system (so not CAS).All rules, both editions → adds that every dispute goes to arbitration in England, under English law, and to no other forum (X.2.1 to X.2.4; Arbitration Act 1996, s.5).

Everything a football body can do flows from that agreement. A Commission can fine a club or take away its points because the club agreed to rules that say so. Over anyone who did not agree, it has no power at all.

Who sits in judgment? The Judicial Panel

The name is misleading. The Judicial Panel is not a panel of judges, and it is not part of the court system. It is a list of people, mostly lawyers, that the clubs voted into being on 6 February 2020, and from which the League’s own disciplinary bodies are drawn. Its rules are Appendix 13 to the Rules, and nobody can change them without the clubs’ approval at a General Meeting (paragraph 17).

Two safeguards and one exception matter. The safeguards: each person appointed signs a statement of impartiality, and a party can object within two working days (W.26Objecting to a panel member2022/23: W.26, p.138 ↗2026/27: W.30, p.155 ↗“it must raise such objection within two Working Days of the relevant appointment(s)” (2022/23)Each appointee signs a statement of impartiality; a party has two working days to object.All rules, both editions →, W.68). The exception: the Chair may, “in his/her absolute discretion”, appoint someone from outside the Panel for a particular case, though the Rule says this is expected “only in exceptional circumstances” (W.84Appointing someone from outside the Panel2022/23: W.84, p.143 ↗2026/27: W.107, p.162 ↗“will exercise this power only in exceptional circumstances” (2022/23)The Chair may appoint a non-member for a particular case, expected only exceptionally.All rules, both editions →). Who appoints and who pays are the first facts any challenge to a tribunal’s independence looks at.

A Commission is the Panel member group that hears a complaint at first instance. An Appeal Board hears the appeal from it. Neither is a court: each has only the power the clubs gave it, and only over those who agreed. Section 4 shows a Commission at work, with real examples of who has sat on one; Section 5 does the same for an Appeal BoardThe panel that hears an appeal from a Premier League Commission: three members, chaired by someone who has held judicial office. It reviews the evidence the Commission heard..

Who else has a say?

Four more bodies sit around the League, and they are easy to confuse. Taken in turn:

• The Football Association (the FA) is the governing body of the game in England. It holds the League’s special share and has its own rules, which clubs agree to be bound by (B.14.2), and its own arbitration clause; the Court of Appeal read the two clauses side by side in Fulham v Richards [2011] EWCA Civ 855. It is a private body whose power comes from contract.It also has a disciplinary power of its own. The FA may act against any “Participant”, a term that covers clubs, their directors, players, managers and FA-registered agents, for “Misconduct”, and misconduct includes a breach of “the rules or regulations of an Affiliated Association or Competition” (FA Rules 2026/27, Rules A2 and E1.5). So one set of facts can engage two rule-books. In July 2026 the FA fined Chelsea £10 million after the club admitted 74 breaches of the FA’s rules on agents, intermediaries and third-party investment; on appeal, a suspended points deduction was replaced by a suspended two-window registration ban. The League had separately fined the club £10.75 million under its own rules after the same self-report (FA, 31 July 2026; League, 16 March 2026). The FA said it was “continuing to investigate individual misconduct arising out of this case”.
• UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) organises the European club competitions, and FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is the international body. Premier League clubs have agreed to be bound by both bodies’ statutes (B.14.5, B.14.6). UEFA and FIFA are explained in the glossary.
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in Lausanne, is a private arbitration body, not a state court. Appeals against UEFA decisions go there (CAS 2020/A/6785). A League dispute cannot: X.2.4 shuts that door.
• The Independent Football Regulator is the statutory regulator of English football, and it is not the FA. Parliament created it in the Football Governance Act 2025, so its power comes from statute, not from the clubs’ contract. Its decisions are appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and from there to the Court of Appeal on a point of law (s.84).

The courts stand furthest back. They will not judicially review a private sports body: the Court of Appeal refused in R v Jockey Club, ex p. Aga Khan [1992] EWCA Civ 7, quoting the earlier holding that the FA is “a domestic body whose powers arise from and duties exist in private law only”. What the courts can do instead is the subject of Section 6.

Who gives each body its authority? Is it all “what the clubs agreed”?

Very nearly. Follow the chain and each link is a contract or a vote of the clubs:

1. The clubs agree. Joining the League is agreeing to the Rules, with the League and with each other, and to send every dispute to arbitration (B.14, X.2).
2. The company runs it. The League's Board manages the company and operates the Rules (Article 20.2). Its directors are appointed by Resolution of the clubs and endorsed by the FA (Article 19.3).
3. The Rules give the Board its tools. Section W lets the Board inquire, choose a route and prosecute (W.1, W.3, W.23).
4. The clubs created the deciders. The Judicial Panel exists because the clubs voted for it on 6 February 2020; they appoint its Chair, who picks every Commission and Appeal Board (Appendix 13; W.19, W.63).

The state supplies the walls around that box. The Arbitration Act 1996 makes the clubs’ arbitration agreement enforceable, stays court claims that ignore it and lets the High Court supervise the arbitration (Section 6). The general law still applies: statutory employment rights, competition law and the courts’ control of unreasonable restraints (Section 3 and Section 8). And since 2025 Parliament has added a statutory regulator alongside it, below.

So yes: the League, through its clubs, set up these bodies as its own way of deciding disputes, and it pays the people who sit (Appendix 13, paras 14 to 15), while barring anyone tied to the League or a club from sitting (para 6). The current Judicial PanelThe pool from which Premier League Commissions and Appeal Boards are drawn, created by the clubs in 2020. The clubs appoint its Chair. dates from 2020. When City challenged the earlier arrangements as not independent enough, the Court of Appeal observed that the complaint “appears to have led to a change in the Rules” ([2021] EWCA Civ 1110).

Why can’t a Premier League dispute go to CAS?

Because CAS hears only what the parties have agreed to send it, and the clubs have agreed the opposite. Rule X.2.4 says “no other system or mode of arbitration” will be used for League disputes (X.2Everything goes to arbitration, and nowhere else2022/23: X.2, p.144 ↗2026/27: X.2, p.163 ↗“that no other system or mode of arbitration will be invoked to resolve any such dispute” (2022/23)All disputes between the League, clubs and club directors go to arbitration in England, under English law; no other arbitration system (so not CAS).All rules, both editions →). UEFA’s own statutes point the same way: national associations must send disputes “of national dimension” to an independent national arbitral tribunal (Article 60), and CAS is not competent to deal with an award issued by such a tribunal in a national dispute (Article 63(1bis)(c)) (UEFA Statutes, Edition 2026).

A Premier League club playing in a UEFA competition is in two systems at once. For League matters it is bound by the Rules and Section XThe arbitration part of the Premier League's Rules. It reviews a disciplinary decision on five narrow grounds, not as a second appeal.. For UEFA matters it has confirmed, on entering the competition, that it accepts UEFA’s statutes and CAS’s jurisdiction (Article 59(3)), and a UEFA decision can be challenged only at CAS (Article 62). That is how City’s 2020 case, about UEFA’s rules, reached CAS (CAS 2020/A/6785).

A CAS award binds the parties to that arbitration. UEFA’s statutes call it “final and binding”, subject to an appeal “in accordance with applicable rules” and to public-policy challenges to recognition or enforcement (Article 63(3)). On the merits CAS applies UEFA’s rules and then Swiss law, and since the 2026 edition the seat can be Lausanne or Dublin (Article 63(2)).

The statutory regulator: since when, and what has it said?

The Independent Football Regulator was created by theFootball Governance Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 21 July 2025. The Act is coming into force in stages; the duty on a competition organiser to notify the regulator before sanctioning a club for a relevant rule (s.55) has applied since 5 May 2026 (Commencement No. 3 Regulations 2026).

The disciplinary case itself remains a matter between the club and the League under their contract. On 30 September 2026 the regulator’s chair said it can assess the suitability of owners, directors and executives and will use those powers “where appropriate”, but that “as the proceedings remain ongoing between Manchester City and the Premier League we will await further developments” (IFR statement).

The cascade, in one picture

English football has three separate sources of power and one body standing back from all of them. The picture shows where each body’s authority comes from and in what order it passes down. The table underneath says the same in words.

A court and a football body, side by side