What Is The Fair Game Index?

In April 2021, football fans across England united in protest against the proposed European Super League project backed by the owners of the Premier League's top six clubs (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur) as well as several other European giants. The level of uproar against the plans for a breakaway league — with tens of thousands of supporters protesting in London, Manchester, and Liverpool — caused those involved in the proposals to rapidly back out, and the Super League was dead in the water before it ever started.

Despite the fact that the project unravelled so quickly, this was still a landmark moment in UK football history that shone a light on how easily the very fabric of the country's footballing culture could come under serious threat. It was a moment of mass mobilisation that caused many people to reconsider how power is distributed across the sport, and in the years since there has been a more widespread recognition of the inequalities in football as well an active political effort to drive for independent governance. Different groups have sprung up to try to advance this cause, one of which is Fair Game UK.

What Is Fair Game UK?

Fair Game is an organisation that represents a group of like-minded football clubs dedicated to driving for fairer governance and greater openness and transparency across the English football pyramid. They argue for a fairer distribution of funds across all tiers of the national league structure, and uphold the mantra "that football can be a force for good and is at the heart of the community it serves." Rather than representing a breakaway from the EFL or the Premier League, Fair Game view themselves as a pragmatic body dedicated to "constructive engagement with football clubs and authorities."

According to their website, Fair Game are "led by clubs, supported by experts and backed by politicians. We believe in sustainability, integrity and community. We wish to see football governed with fairness, openness and transparency at its core." These principles have resonated with many supporters who have begun to feel alienated from the sport in recent years due to the changing nature of the relationship between clubs and fans, and the opening of huge gulfs between the richest and the poorest. And a number of professional teams clearly feel the same way.

Which Clubs Are Involved In Fair Game?

Fair Game describe themselves as a "club-led" organisation, a position that is reinforced by the close ties they have developed with clubs across the UK who they regard as being committed to the same values of sustainability, good governance, financial responsibility, fan engagement and community.

The highest-placed club in the football pyramid that is represented by Fair Game is Luton Town. Hailed as one of the best-run clubs in the country, they took a sensible approach to promotion to the Premier League, refusing to break the bank on expensive players and instead putting together a competitive but financially sustainable Premier League survival bid that allowed them to transition back into Championship life in the event of relegation.

In League One, the third tier of the English football pyramid, there are five Fair Game clubs: Bristol Rovers, Cambridge United, Leyton Orient, Lincoln City, and Shrewsbury Town. The fully professional league with the most Fair Game-affiliated clubs is the EFL League Two, in which Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Carlisle United, Chesterfield, Doncaster Rovers, Grimsby Town, Newport County, Swindon Town and Tranmere Rovers are all part of the group. In the National League, Fair Game represents a number of sides including Altrincham, Dorking and Gateshead.

What Is The Fair Game Index?

Since being formed in early 2021, Fair Game "has been laser-focused on developing solutions to the problems football faces," according to CEO Niall Couper, who believes that football's financial flow should be designed to reward well-run clubs. According to Couper, "The culture within the game is broken. Football's financial imbalance has created a gambling culture that puts the very existence of clubs at risk. What was needed was a way to change that culture."

This created a follow-up question: what is a well-run club?

At its core, the Fair Game Index is the organisation's attempt to answer that question, by putting together the most comprehensive analysis of men's professional football clubs the UK has ever seen, examining each club in the top seven divisions of the English football pyramid and the top four divisions in Scotland, spanning a total of 206 clubs. 

The Fair Game Index is a detailed survey of clubs that is published each year and can be examined by fans, journalists, club staff and any other interested parties.

The purpose of the Index is to monitor the sustainability of football clubs by exploring the issues of financial solvency, governance and equality and ethical standards, and fan and community engagement that Fair Game was set up to focus on. Fair Game views their Index as "the starting point for the proposed State of Game Survey for the new independent regulator to assess the health of football." There are a number of different elements of the Index that we'll flesh out in the next section of this article.

How Is The Fair Game Index Put Together?

The Fair Game Index is put together following extensive research, with Fair Game UK conducting their own surveys while also collating information published on a range of subjects including the Owners and Directors Test, Environmental Sustainability, Good Governance, Gender Inequality, and football’s failed financial flow. The organisation enlists knowledgable professionals like UCFB lecturer Adam Davis and director of Goal Assist Joshua Price to help coordinate data collection, while working with clubs, supporters groups, academics and industry experts to analyse the issues and identify what they refer to as 'touchpoints' to rate each club on. 

There are 226 different touch points examined for the Fair Game Index, divided into four main areas of concern:

Financial Sustainability (40 points)

The most heavily weighted strand of the Fair Game Index is Financial Sustainability, which is worth 40% of the overall points available. There are 38 touchpoints included in this category, with measures on issues such as accounting, debt, ticket pricing and sponsorship.

Good Governance (30 points)

Good Governance takes into account more metrics than Financial Sustainability, 55 to be exact. The key concerns here are board structure, accountability and transparency.

Fan and Community Engagement (20 points) 

Fan and Community Engagement covers 30 touchpoints focusing on topics such as fan representation and community investment (many of the 34 Fair Game-affiliated clubs are fan-owned).

Equality and Ethical Standards (10 points)

The category with the greatest number of touchpoints is Equality and Ethical Standards; evidently there is a lot to take into consideration here. In total, the 106 touchpoints cover a range of issues including ethics, sexism, racism, homophobia and the environment impact of clubs.

Ultimately, the Fair Game Index hopes to incentivize clubs to function in a more sustainable and financially responsible way. They maintain that football needs to reward well-run clubs, and the Fair Game Index hopes to spread awareness of this message. Alongside this broad aim, Fair Game UK are campaigning for the scrapping of parachute payments for relegated Premier League sides and the revision of the Football League's current distribution model (which sees Championship clubs get 80% of the Premier League TV money given to the EFL, while League One and League Two get only 12% and 8% respectively).

Will These Issues Be Tackled By The New Independent Regulator In The UK?

Frustratingly for Fair Game UK, the Football Governance Bill first introduced by the previous UK government in March 2024 was unable to pass through parliament before the 2024 General Election was called and parliament was dissolved. However, those who have been campaigning for greater equality and redistribution of wealth in football would have been heartened by the new Labour government's reintroduction of the bill in its King's Speech in July, which set out the party's legislative programme for the new term.

The new government claims they will "protect football clubs" by "ensuring their financial sustainability" — in terms of practicalities, the major change will be to grant powers to a body that is independent from both the government and the football authorities, to oversee clubs in England's top five divisions. It's unclear exactly how this will be managed, but it certainly appears to be a step in the right direction for supporters of the Fair Game UK project. 

According to Niall Couper, "the [King's Speech] commitment to progress a reworked Football Governance Bill… is music to our ears… Football's financial flow is seriously flawed - the gaps between the divisions have been growing wider and wider over the last 20 years. At the moment, for every £1000 given to a Premier League club from the current broadcast deal, just 14p goes to a club in the National League North or South. It is brilliant news to hear the Government is firmly committed to delivering a fairer financial distribution at all levels of the football pyramid."

The 34 clubs represented by Fair Game have very little to worry about here, but owners and executives who have failed to run their clubs in a responsible way may soon have to face up to the consequences. If you'd like to find out more about who might be in trouble and which clubs rank the best and worst on the Fair Game Index, stay tuned — next week, we'll be posting the official list of the most well-run football clubs in the UK, according to the Fair Game Index.