Keir Starmer insists football bill is priority for Labour during Bristol Rovers visit

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that, should Labour win power in next month's general election, his government would pass the pending football governance bill "as quickly as is practicable". The calling of the general election for July 4 halted the process of pushing the bill through parliament, which means it will have to be picked up by the next government if it is to be passed.

Following the Fan Led Review of Football Governance, the UK government confirmed in 2022 that it would legislate to form a new independent regulator in English football in order to ensure that the football pyramid remains sustainable with big issues such as the demise of Bury FC in 2019 or the proposed European Super League that six Premier League clubs initially joined in 2021.

Sir Keir Starmer made the comments during a visit to Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium on Monday afternoon (June 17) alongside Bristol Central Labour candidate Thangam Debbonaire. His visit was an opportunity for him to highlight Labour’s plans to reform football governance and put fans front and centre of the future of English football.

He was adamant that passing the bill is a priority should he become the country's next Prime Minister. Speaking to Bristol Live he said: "As quickly as is practicable [passing the bill].We're committed to it. We've committed to it from very early on when Tracey Crouch first did her review before there was legislation so we've long believed in the independent regulator. We had got quite a long way with the bill as it was with amendments down.

"Some of the clubs are already talking to us about how there needs to be some tweaks to that so we just need to listen to that but we're committed to doing this because football is so important.

"We will do it. We're going to do it as soon as we can and obviously we've put a lot of work into the bill as it was but it fell so we'll pick that up."

Back in March the Premier League shelved plans to agree a new £900million funding package for EFL clubs, which both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers are part of, as they prioritised sorting their own spending rules ahead of helping clubs further down the pyramid.

Asked about how an independent regulator would be able to ensure that doesn't happen again, Mr Starmer added: "It's really important that those deals go through because for clubs like Bristol Rovers and other clubs, it's vital that they get that support. We need to look at the role of the regulator in that. The ascribed role at the moment doesn't have a back stop so we need to look at that.

"It is vital that those deals go through. Things like a breakaway league will impact on that which is why we've been very clear on no breakaway. But also we need that support pyramid because we all understand how vital that is for clubs and we want to make sure that, yes the Premier League continues to be the best league in the world, but also that throughout football we've got the support for the clubs that are viable so that they can get the staff and the infrastructure that they need and of course for bringing young people through."