England’s 20 top-flight football club owners will be required to sign a nine-point plan designed to maintain the competition’s integrity in a bid to avert any future breakaway threat.
Sky News has learnt that Premier League clubs were on Thursday sent a final draft of a new “Owners’ Charter” that their controlling shareholders will be required to commit to annually or risk facing tough sanctions.
A club executive said that the document would oblige clubs to avow their commitment to the English football pyramid – including promotion, relegation and qualification for cup competitions based on sporting merit – and to acting in good faith and with sporting integrity.
Adhering to the charter would also prevent club owners engaging in the creation of any new tournament format not permitted by the Premier League’s rules – effectively preventing any future bid to establish a European Super League (ESL).
Image: Six Premier League clubs were involved in the ESL plans only to pull out amid a storm of protest from fans
The charter, which will be discussed at a meeting of the Premier League’s 20 “shareholders” next week, comes three months after the six clubs which signed up to the ESL – and then swiftly abandoned it – agreed to pay £20m in a settlement with English football’s top flight.
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The club source said the charter also included pledges to back the English game and support its national teams; to combat discrimination and abuse; to run their clubs in an economically stable and sustainable way; to ensure that the Premier League remained the world’s most-watched domestic football competition; to protect player welfare; and to recognise the power of the 20 clubs as a collective.
They added that signing the document would also require club owners to acknowledge the importance of fans and the local communities in which they exist, as well as agreeing to the assertion that all Premier League clubs possessed “an equal voice”.
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The Premier League said in May that it would introduce an Owners’ Charter, two weeks after Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – and a handful of Europe’s other top clubs – stunned the football world by signing up to a new European Super League.
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A spokeswoman for the Premier League declined to comment on the contents of the new shareholders’ manifesto, but a statement issued after its annual meeting in May said it would be aimed at upholding the “principles” of the competition.
“Clubs… agreed to the principle of an Owners’ Charter, which will reaffirm the values and expectations placed on clubs and their owners.
“These additional rules and regulations are being put in place to ensure the principles of the Premier League and open competition are protected and provide certainty and stability for our clubs and their fans.”
It was unclear on Thursday exactly what form the sanctions for non-compliance would take, but one club executive said they had been told that the charter would require annual attestation by owners.
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Signing the document is expected to become part of the formal Premier League rulebook in due course.
It is expected to gain the backing of the Football Association.
The creation of the charter comes as an independent review of football’s governance commissioned by ministers approaches its conclusion.
Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister who is chairing the inquiry, recommended in July that an independent regulator be set up to oversee the game.
“The short-lived threat of the European Super League jeopardised the future of the English football pyramid,” she wrote in a letter to Oliver Dowden, the then culture secretary.
“While that threat has receded – for now – the dangers facing many clubs across the country are very real with their futures precarious and dependent in most cases on the willingness and continuing ability of owners to fund significant losses.”
In addition to the fines they agreed to pay in June, the six English ESL clubs would also be liable to penalties of more than £20m and 30-point Premier League deductions if they repeated their breakaway bids, under the settlement they reached with the Premier League.
They rapidly abandoned the ESL project amid a huge backlash from rivals, fans and politicians.
Only financially troubled Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid have yet to formally withdraw from the ESL – although they have been allowed by UEFA to take part in this season’s Champions’ League.
The Premier League-imposed fines were comparable to those imposed by UEFA, which announced a package of “reintegration measures” for the nine clubs who agreed to pull out of the ESL during a torrid 48-hour period at the end of April.
An independent review of the water industry is to recommend sweeping changes to the way the sector is managed, including the potential replacement of Ofwat with a strengthened body combining economic and environmental regulation.
Former Bank of England governor Sir Jon Cunliffe will publish the findings of the Independent Water Commission on Monday, with stakeholders across the industry expecting significant changes to regulation to be at its heart.
The existing regulator Ofwat has been under fire from all sides in recent years amid rising public anger at levels of pollution and the financial management of water companies.
Campaigners and politicians have accused Ofwat of failing to hold water operators to account, while the companies complain that its focus on keeping bills down has prevented appropriate investment in infrastructure.
In an interim report, published in June, Sir Jon identified the presence of multiple regulators with overlapping responsibilities as a key issue facing the industry.
While Ofwat is the economic regulator, the Environment Agency has responsibility for setting pollution standards, alongside the Drinking Water Inspectorate.
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Sir Jon’s final report is expected to include a recommendation that the government consider a new regulator that combines Ofwat’s economic regulatory powers with the water-facing responsibilities currently managed by the EA.
In his interim report, Sir Jon said options for reform ranged from “rationalising” existing regulation to “fundamental, structural options for integrating regulatory remits and functions”.
He is understood to have discussed the implications of fundamental reform with senior figures in industry and government in the last week as he finalised his report.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed is expected to launch a consultation on the proposals following publication of the commission report.
The commission is also expected to recommend a “major shift” in the model of economic regulation, which currently relies on econometric modelling, to a supervisory approach that takes more account of individual company circumstances.
On Monday, the government’s long-awaited review into the UK’s water industry will finally report.
The expectation is that it will recommend sweeping changes – including the abolition of the regulator, Ofwat.
But frustrated customers of the water companies could rightly complain that the process of taking on this failing sector and its regulator has been slow and ineffective.
They may be forgiven for going further and suggesting that how Labour has dealt with water is symbolic of their inability to make an impact across many areas of public life, leaving many of their voters disappointed.
This is an industry that has been visibly and rapidly declining for decades, with the illegal sewage dumping and rotting pipes in stark contrast with the vast salaries and bonuses paid out to their executives.
It doesn’t take a review to see what’s gone wrong. Most informed members of the public could explain what has happened in a matter of minutes.
And yet, despite 14 years in opposition with plenty of time to put together a radical plan, a review is exactly what the government decided on before taking on Ofwat.
Month after month, they were asked if they believed the water industry regulator was fit for purpose despite the obvious disintegration on their watch. Every time the answer was ‘yes’.
As in so many areas of government, Labour, instead of acting, needed someone else to make the decision for them, meaning that it has taken over a year to come to the simple conclusion that the regulator is in fact, not fit for purpose.
As they enter their second year in office, maybe this can provide a lesson they desperately need to learn if they want to turn around their fortunes.
That bold decisions do not require months of review, endless consultations, or outside experts to endlessly analyse the problem.
They just need to get on with it. Voters will thank them.
Sir Jon has said the water industry requires long-term strategic planning and stability in order to make it attractive to “low-risk, low-return investors”.
The water industry has long complained that the current model, in which companies are benchmarked against a notional model operator, and penalised for failing to hit financial and environmental standards, risks a “doom loop”.
Thames Water, currently battling to complete an equity process to avoid falling into special administration, has said the imposition of huge fines for failing to meet pollution standards is one of the reasons it is in financial distress.
Publication of the Independent Commission report comes after the Environment Agency published figures showing that serious pollution incidents increased by 60% in 2024, and as Thames Water imposes a hosepipe ban on 15m customers.
Ofwat, Water UK and the Department for the Environment all declined to comment.
The first Post Office Capture conviction is to be sent to the Court of Appeal, Sky News understands, in a “breakthrough” moment in the IT scandal.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has decided to refer the case of sub-postmistress Patricia Owen, who was convicted in 1998 of theft.
Mrs Owen was found guilty by a jury based on evidence from the faulty IT software Capture, which was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999, before the Horizon Post Office scandal.
Image: Pat Owen, pictured here with her husband David, always maintained her innocence but died in 2003 with a criminal record
It comes after Sky News revealed that a damning report into Capture, which could help overturn criminal convictions, had been unearthed after nearly 30 years.
The decision to refer the first-ever Capture case to the Court of Appeal has been made on the grounds that Mrs Owen’s prosecution was an “abuse of process”.
The development has been described by victims’ lawyer Neil Hudgell as “hugely pivotal”.
“The Court of Appeal don’t receive that many referrals that start at the CCRC, and most get turned away, so it’s a very high bar to even get cases from the CCRC to the Court of Appeal…”
“I think it will be a real shot in the arm to all the other Capture victims who are waiting for their cases to be determined by the CCRC.”
Mr Hudgell described the report found earlier this year – written by computer experts in 1998 and highly critical of Capture – as “significantly tipping the balance”.
Image: Lawyer Neil Hudgell says development is ‘hugely pivotal’
Sky News found that the Post Office knew about the report at the time and continued to prosecute sub-postmasters based on Capture evidence.
Pat Owen always maintained her innocence but died in 2003 with a criminal record before the wider Post Office scandal came to light.
Her daughter Juliet Shardlow said she cried when she heard the news that her mother’s case would be referred to the Court of Appeal.
“I feel angry that she is not here because she died before her time… we will be there – we will be sitting there in that front row.
“I can’t put it into words because it’s still all a shock that we are where we are and that later this year, or next year, we might have what we set out to get… justice for her.”
Image: Juliet Shardlow is seeking justice for her mother
The CCRC is currently investigating 30 cases potentially related to the Capture software system.
Twenty-seven of those cases are now assigned to case review managers and under “active review”, with a further three cases in the preparatory stages.
The CCRC has described a “challenge” over determining “whether cases involved the use of Capture at the time of the alleged offences”.
In a letter written to Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, and seen by Sky News, it said that information the Post Office has provided “does not, in most cases, show whether it was installed and in operation at the time of the alleged offending”.
It also mentioned that the Post Office is reviewing “a significant amount of data which may contain further information”.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “While it is not appropriate for us to comment on specific cases, we have been very concerned about the reported problems relating to the use of the Capture software, and we are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters.
“We are determined that past wrongs are put right and continue to support the government’s work in this area as well as fully co-operate with the Criminal Cases Review Commission.”
The number of most serious water pollution incidents rose by 60% last year, according to data covering England, with three companies responsible for the bulk of them.
The Environment Agency (EA) – under fire for its own oversight of water firms’ pollution performance – said that more than 80% of the 75 instances of pollution in its two most serious categories were the responsibility of Thames Water (33), Southern Water (15) and Yorkshire Water (13).
But the body added it had found “consistently poor performance” across all nine water and wastewater firms in the country – a similar summary to that of 2023.
According to the report, reasons behind the 2024 results included persistent underinvestment in new infrastructure, poor asset maintenance, and reduced resilience due to the impacts of climate change.
The period was dominated by spells of intense rainfall, which overwhelmed storm overflows and resulted in sewage discharges.
The EA reported 2,801 pollution incidents in total during 2024 – a hike of almost a third.
The data was released as a committee of MPs called for regulation of water companies to face a “complete overhaul” amid a lack of public trust and anger over surging bills to pay for long overdue infrastructure improvements.
The Public Accounts Committee said that Ofwat and the EA had failed to secure industry compliance and warned that even the high bill settlements to 2030 would only result in 44% of sewage overflows being overhauled.
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The Independent Water Commission, established by the government last year and led by former Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe, is due to make final recommendations on the regulatory framework next week.
He warned when the interim report was published last month: “There is no simple, single change, no matter how radical, that will deliver the fundamental reset that is needed for the water sector.”
Alan Lovell, the EA’s chair, said: “This report demonstrates continued systemic failure by some companies to meet their environmental targets.
“The water industry must act urgently to prevent pollution from occurring and to respond rapidly when it does.
“We have made significant changes to tighten our regulation of the water industry and ensure companies are held to account.
“With a dedicated larger workforce and increased funding, our officers are uncovering and acting on failures to comply with environmental law.”
A spokesperson for industry group Water UK responded: “While there have been some improvements it is clear that the performance of some companies is not good enough. The Environment Agency is right to highlight underinvestment in infrastructure and maintenance as the major causes of these results.
“Investment in the sector has been suppressed with Ofwat prioritising short -term cuts to people’s water bills over the long-term resilience of the network. This is finally being put right, with a record £104bn investment over the next 5-years to secure our water supplies, support economic growth and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.
“However, fundamental change to regulation is also needed. We hope that the recommendations of the Independent Water Commission next week will ensure the sector continues to get the investment it needs to drive down pollution incidents.”