Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has dismissed concerns that the incoming football regulator’s effectiveness will be inhibited by more modest public sector pay.
Recruitment for the regulator’s first chair is under way but fears have been raised that the calibre of candidate could be restricted by the salary of £130,000 for the part-time role.
While still more than triple the UK’s average wage, it is dwarfed by pay commanded by CEOs and indeed many of the leading football executives they will be scrutinising.
Having advertised the post in October, Nandy said that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had now drawn up a shortlist of leading candidates.
“I think there’ll be no shortage of people who want to do this. If you look across the country, people absolutely love this game,” she said.
“So I don’t think there’ll be a problem with people applying and I don’t think that the salary is an issue. I think 130 grand is more than reasonable.
“I also think that the people who come forward to do this will have a passion around it. I’m looking for somebody who really does care about putting fans back at the heart of this game.
“It’s got to be someone who can command the confidence of the widest range of people. The regulator is going to have to be somebody who can not only go from room to room and have those conversations but can bring people together.
“I think that person is out there, I absolutely do. We’re advertising at the moment for the chair. We’ve done a shortlisting process.
“Getting that position right will be really important because that person will obviously play the critical role in appointing the regulator itself.”
Nandy conceded that progress in establishing the football regulator had been slowed by forensic scrutiny of the Football Governance Bill in parliament.
“We’re moving at pace but obviously the slight complication is that the bill has been slightly bogged down in the House of Lords,” she told the Athletic FC podcast.
“We want to get that moving and we want to make sure that we can get the regulator in place as soon as possible. I think fans have waited too long for this.”