The Fair Game Index

Using the model

The interactive portal above allows you to assess how every club in the Premier League and the EFL scored across the four criteria of the Fair Game Index:

  • Financial Sustainability;

  • Good Governance;

  • Fan Engagement; and

  • Equality Standards.

Each of the four were central pillars of the original Fan-Led Review.

To get an overall table for each of the top four divisions click on one of the top four buttons. Then clicking on the arrow at the top of each of the columns will allow you to allow you to see the clubs rank in each of the criteria.

To see how this could apply to the finances and to see a more visual dashboard of your club use the Distribution Model button (you can also navigate back to this using the tabs at the bottom of the portal) and then use the right-hand arrow to select a particular division.

You can then vary our “sliders” to see how your club would be affected by a change in the amount the Premier League gives to the pyramid through TV revenues, and you can even introduce a solidarity levy as mooted in the original Fan-Led Review.

The current levels are 12% from the Premier League and 0% solidarity levy. Fair Game and the EFL recommend 25%, the Fan-Led Review mooted a solidarity transfer levy of 10% and Fair Game supports this.

The club finance page also allows you to click on a “Fair Game Index” button so you can see a dashboard of how your club scores on each of the criteria.

How the money could be distributed

Central to the distribution model is the total pot available.

The Premier League, the three divisions of the English Football League and the three divisions of the National Legue receive a total of £3.19bn from TV revenues. Currently 12% of that total amount goes to clubs below the Premier League. The EFL is calling for this to be raised to 25%.

In addition, the Fan-Led Review suggested the introduction of a solidarity levy. The levy is an effective stamp duty on transfers between Premier League clubs and Premier League Clubs and overseas’ clubs. The combined total of these transfers for the Summer 2022 and January 2023 transfer windows was £2.752bn. The Review suggested introducing the levy at 10%.

The Index allows the user to vary those levels to see how it would affect the football ecosystem.

The Index is heavily reliant on clubs reporting their accounts to Companies House in time. The following eight clubs had not filed their accounts when we went to press and their scores will have suffered accordingly. In the spirit of transparency, any data not publicly available is given a zero score. The eight clubs are: Sheffield Wednesday, Mansfield town, Scunthorpe United, Crawley Town, Hartlepool United, AFC Newport County, Huddersfield Town, and Derby County.

 

Definitions

Baseline funding

This figure is the same in each division. Below the Premier League, it is calculated as 10% of the total amount of the broadcast pot multiplied by the divisional coefficient (0.5 for Championship; 0.25 League One; 0.13 League Two; 0.6 National League; 0.3 National League South; and 0.3 National League North). And then divided by the number of teams in that division

 

Fair Game Index Funding

This is an individual amount based on how well the club scored on the Fair Game Index and what division they are in. Of the total pot, 75% is distributed according to the Fair Game Index.

 

Total Club funding

This is the baseline funding added to the Fair Game Index funding.

Current funding 2022/23

The is the total amount of money that club received from the overall TV pot in the 2022/23 season.

 

Funding Differential

This is the difference between the Total Club Funding in this model and the current funding for 2022/23.

 

Fair Game recommended funding

This is the amount clubs would receive if the amount given to the pyramid was set at 25% and a Solidarity Levy was introduced at 10%.