Bolton Wanderers Supporters' Trust responds to Government's support for English football review

The Bolton Wanderers' Supporters Trust has welcomed today's announcement from the Government to formally support 10 key recommendations to change English football proposed by a fan-led review that promises major changes but has asked for a timetable for when action will be taken.

Tracey Crouch MP has worked with supporter groups to lay out a blueprint for the future of the game, including a focus on sustainability, distribution of wealth and a bid to stop rogue owners. The project followed an outcry over an attempted breakaway European Super League, demise of professional clubs Bury and Macclesfield Town and major struggles in recent years of others including Wanderers and Derby County.

The Government will now set out its full response this afternoon following a statement to the House of Commons by Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston. It will mean substantial change in the background to the operation of all clubs.

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Key strategies being endorsed include the introduction of a new independent regulator, ensuring that football is "sustainable and competitive for the benefit of existing and future fans and the local communities football clubs serve". Each club in National League and above will be required to hold a licence to operate and be subject to various conditions.

The regulator will also oversee finances and manage the amount that owners can inject into clubs based on "the size of a club's existing finances" or if it will "destabilise the long-term sustainability of the wider league".

Owners and potential owners will have to pass new tests "to ensure that only good custodians ... can run these vital assets".