Fair Game Index 2024: Celtic top, with Spurs named No 1 in England

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR were today named as England’s best-run football club, according to the Fair Game Index, the organisation’s most comprehensive analysis of men’s professional football ever produced.  

Joining Spurs in the top 10 were four more Premier League clubs – with Manchester United placing second – and five clubs from Football League, with League One Cambridge United leading this contingent as the third-placed team overall and the best club in the EFL. 

Although Premier League teams generally performed well in the Index, no English club was able to deny Celtic being ranked the No 1 club on the Index. 

About the Fair Game index 

The Fair Game Index, originally collated in January 2023, was the first attempt to systematically answer the question of what a well-run club looks like and how football can identify and reward these clubs.  

Now in its third iteration, the Index has significantly expanded in terms of the number of clubs assessed and the amount of data analysed. In 2023, it examined the 92 clubs from the top four divisions in the men’s game in England. This year, 206 fall under the spotlight, with the National League, the National League North and the National League South, and the top four divisions in Scotland now included. 

This year, the number of touchpoints clubs are rated on has increased from 80 to 226. These are spread across four broad areas: financial sustainability; good governance; equality and ethical standards; and fan and community engagement – all measures expected to be part of the remit of the new independent football regulator.  

The full report and information on each team can be viewed here. 

Strong Performance from the Premier League  

Tottenham Hotspur emerged as England’s best-run club, with an overall score of 68.2 out of 100, as four other Premier League clubs made the top 10 – Manchester United (second overall), Brentford (fourth), Fulham (seventh) and Liverpool (tenth).  

With Premier League teams making up half of the top 20 best-run clubs in England, a clear pattern has emerged that rewards the governance structures and commitment to equality and ethical standards often seen in top tier clubs. 

Standout lower league clubs 

League One club Cambridge United beat all clubs outside of the Premier League to be the third best-run club in the country, with Norwich City fifth, Swansea City sixth, AFC Wimbledon eighth and Exeter City ninth.  

Financial sustainability remains a challenge  

Of the six clubs to score more than 30 out of 40 on financial sustainability metrics, none are in the Premier League and only Plymouth Argyle represent the Championship.  

Conversely, the top 10 clubs for financial sustainability in Scotland all come from the Scottish Premier League. Scottish champions Celtic were the overall highest-ranked team across England and Scotland. 

Football on an equal footing? 

The Index shows there is significant work to be done on equality and ethical standards, with only 16 of the top 164 clubs in England scoring 10 or more out of 20, and just one in Scotland – Celtic. 

More positively, fan and community engagement scores clearly show that fan-owned clubs and those with fan representation on the Board score highly. Football League and National League clubs led the way in this area, with AFC Wimbledon, Tonbridge Angels, Scarborough Athletic, Exeter City, Chester and Bath City all comfortably outscoring their Premier League counterparts. 

Demonstrating how a football club can make positive changes towards a sustainable future for fans, Blackpool emerged from the challenges of the Oyston ownership era to score more than seven out of 10 on fan engagement. 

Niall Couper, CEO of Fair Game, said:

“Football is far from perfect but with the likelihood of an incoming football regulator there is a real chance to change it for the better.   

“To deliver real and meaningful change we need to understand the problems. We’ve designed the Fair Game Index to do exactly that and help reshape the game we love. 

“It is the most comprehensive analysis yet of what it means to be a well-run club, and we’re calling on the authorities, the Football Regulator and football’s governing bodies to work with us.”

Couper added:

“This year, several overall themes have emerged: financial sustainability goes hand in hand with good governance and fan engagement; football’s financial flow is undermining sustainability; and equality and ethical standards are on average treated as lip service.  

“In short, football in England needs a truly independent regulator that can oversee good governance, re-shape football’s financial flow, and ensure issues around equality and ethics get the support and respect they deserve.  

“In Scotland, the authorities have the chance to learn from England, not repeat their mistakes, and build a stronger future for the game north of the border.” 

Tottenham Hotspur Chairman, Daniel Levy, said:

“As a Club that prides itself on good governance - with a key focus on sustainability and engagement with stakeholders and communities - we are delighted to have been recognised as England’s best-run club by the Fair Game Index.

“This ranking further demonstrates the huge strides that are being made off the pitch, with our world-class stadium and innovative partnerships enabling sustainable, recurring investment into our football operations to ensure we remain competitive on the pitch and challenge major honours.

“We welcome Fair Game’s work in highlighting the important role we can all play in operating sustainably to ensure our clubs remain at the heart of our local communities and for fans to enjoy for many generations to come.”

Alex Tunbridge, CEO of Cambridge United, said:

“We are beyond proud to have been recognised by the Fair Game Index as the best-run club in the EFL The award is true recognition of the hard work by countless people at every level of the club over recent years. 

“We are trying to raise our level in every area of the club, on and off the pitch, and we all know there is even more hard work ahead. It is getting much tougher to compete financially at every level of the game but we are determined to keep modernising and developing the club in a sustainable way. Cambridge is a special, thriving, fast-growing city and we want to play the fullest part we can in its future success story.” 

The 2024 Fair Game Index explained: 

After analysing over 80 publicly-available data points in the 2023 Fair Game Index, this year experts at Fair Game looked at 226 touchpoints across the four pillars, calling for clubs at all levels to strive for best practice in their operations 

Each club is then scored out of 100, with 40 points coming from financial sustainability metrics, 30 coming from governance measures, 20 for equality standards, and 10 for fan engagement. This score provides a comprehensive measure of how well-run a club is, with a detailed report outlining the winners and losers in each division. 

The 2024 Index looks at the top seven divisions in the English men’s football pyramid and the top four in Scotland - a total of 206 clubs. The clubs have then measured against 226 different touchpoints spread across four different strands: Financial Sustainability, Good Governance, Equality and Ethical Standards, and Fan & Community Engagement. 

Fair Game’s strength is based on extensive research. In each of the four strands, we have worked closely with clubs, supporters' groups, leading academics and industry experts to analyse the issues and identify measurable and meaningful touchpoints. In some cases, this has already led to published research notably on Owners and Directors Test, Environmental Sustainability, Good Governance, Gender Inequality, and football’s failed financial flow.  

So what is included in the strands? 

• Financial Sustainability includes 38 touchpoints and includes measures such as accounting, debt, ticket pricing and sponsorship.  

• Good Governance draws on 55 different metrics and covers areas such as board structure, accountability and transparency.  

• Equality and Ethical Standards has the most touchpoints - 106 - and covers a very broad range of topics from ethics to sexism, and from environmental impact to racism. 

• Fan and Community Engagement has 30 touchpoints, including fan representation and community investment.