Independent regulator blamed for football ‘paralysis’ as Leicester City named

English football has been "driven into the courts" by the prospect of an independent regulator, a top-flight club chairman has clamed.

The Premier League is going through arguably the most heavily litigious period since its foundation in 1992.

Manchester City, champions for the past four seasons, have launched two separate challenges to the league's rules governing commercial deals while also fighting more than 100 charges of breaching its financial rules, which they strenuously deny.

The Premier League is also involved in an arbitration case with Leicester City over an alleged breach of profitability and sustainability rules, while last season Everton and Nottingham Forest were docked points under the same regulations.

However, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says when top-flight clubs meet the mood is "civil" and "collegiate", and instead blamed the creation of an independent regulator for the current "paralysis" in the game.

He told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit: "People make the issues to be so much more than they are. But we do have a problem – that we're constantly told we're not a business, we're a sport. And at the same time we're in court being treated to the nth degree like a business.

"We've got the spectre of a government regulator, as everybody knows, who wants to interfere in all the things we don't want them to interfere with and help with none of the things we actually need help with, it feels.

"(Chief executive) Richard (Masters) does a fantastic job stewarding the Premier League and I think the dynamic of English football has worked outstandingly over the years, the various different gravitational pulls of the EFL, the FA and the Premier League have got to the right answer.

"We're now in a complete paralysis because the Government has this spectre of a regulator. It's paralysed the game, driven it into the courts and I don't think that's good."

Leicester avoided a points deduction from the Premier League after being found to be compliant with profit and sustainability rules in their latest set of accounts. They remain at risk, however, with the Foxes and the league both engaged in arbitration over an issue that centres on the 2022/23 financial year and the club's subsequent relegation to the EFL. The Foxes won a legal case on the basis that the Premier League did not have jurisdiction.

Clubs opted against introducing new financial rules for next season and are instead set to stick with the PSR, with concerns around the impact of the regulator understood to be a key concern for top-flight teams.

The regulator is at the heart of the Football Governance Bill which is working its way through the parliamentary process. The regulator's purpose will not be to set new financial rules to govern Premier League clubs, but instead to license clubs if they meet criteria around financial sustainability and fan accountability.