Authorities split on how best to govern women's football following Carney review

There is a split among football's authorities about how best to govern women's football in England, with plans still up in the air following Karen Carney's review, which was published a fortnight ago.

The FA is pushing hard for the women's game to come under the jurisdiction of the soon-to-be-established men's regulator - the Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF).

But the Government is thought to be reluctant to allow that to happen because it would mark a fundamental change to its plans for the future of the men's game and it would also require new legislation that would inevitably cause further delays.

There is already frustration throughout football that the Fan Led Review, published in November 2021, still hasn't seen any material change to how the game is run. The Government White Paper on the future of football was published six months ago, but is still going through Parliament.

Carney's Review was non-specific in how best women's football should be regulated in the future. It suggested that, while lessons could be learned from the new men's regulator, "NewCo" - the new company that will be set up to run the Women's Super League - should have a governance role in its capacity as competition organisers.

But that system has already been deemed by the Fan Led Review as unsuitable in the men's game, where the Premier League and EFL have had financial oversight of clubs. That is where the demand for independent regulation first came from.

"This does not mean that learnings cannot be taken from the failures of other sports, or that independent regulation should be taken off the table in perpetuity," the Carney Review said.

"Rather that the women's game should be given the opportunity to incentivise investment....particularly when governance structures of NewCo are yet to be defined."

But others disagree with Carney, and think the women's game must come under the jurisdiction of the IREF.

"It's ridiculous to think that Arsenal's men's team, for example, would come under the jurisdiction of the new regulator but Arsenal's women's team would not," one official has told us. "They are owned and run by the same club."

Concerns have been raised by a number of senior officials, who have spoken in confidence to Sky Sports News, about the scope of the new IREF and whether it will be able to enforce change.

For a start, political interference in football is banned as a principle by FIFA and so the new regulator - which will run independently of the UK Government and football's existing authorities - will nevertheless have to work within strict limits.

No 'special case' can be made for football; the IREF will still have to operate within the bounds of business law.

And so, for example, when it comes to rooting out unsuitable club owners there are fears that the regulator will have no more power than the Premier League and EFL currently do, via their existing Owners and Directors tests.

Even though the IREF is likely to require all clubs to operate under a new license, it will not, for example, be able to force an individual to sell the club they own, even if that owner is banned from being a director because of financial wrongdoing.

Women's Super League fixtures 2023/24

Chelsea will begin the defence of their Women's Super League title at home to Tottenham at Stamford Bridge, live on Sky Sports, on Sunday October 1.

Emma Hayes' side are aiming to win a fifth successive WSL title following their double-winning campaign last term - and will be hoping to get off to a flying start in front of a bumper west London crowd, with kick-off at 5.30pm.

Earlier in the day, Manchester United will begin the new season with a trip to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa, kick-off at 12.30pm. Arsenal will use the Emirates Stadium on the opening weekend with a home game against Liverpool, with kick-off at 2pm.

Manchester City travel to West Ham, while Everton vs Brighton and Bristol City vs Leicester complete the line-up for the first Sunday of the campaign.