Free webinar: Independent Football Regulator Licensing - What Clubs Must Build Before Applying
The licensing regime is no longer a proposal. The IFR published its final rules and guidance on 1 July 2026, and the provisional licence application window opens on 1 November 2026, closing on 26 February 2027. Every club in the top five tiers must hold a licence to compete from the 2027/28 season.
What separates clubs now is not whether they know the regime is coming. It is whether the governance, financial and compliance frameworks behind an application would actually withstand scrutiny. This session is a practical walk through what an application demands, where clubs are most often falling short, and what a credible path to readiness looks like from here.
Who should join this webinar?
This is written for the people who will own the application inside a club. It assumes working familiarity with the regime, and stays focused on execution rather than introduction.
Club owners and board members
CEOs and CFOs
Compliance officers and club secretaries
Sporting directors and legal teams
During this webinar, we will look at:
Part 1 - The IFR explained: The Football Governance Act, the powers of the regulator, the shape of the licensing framework, and the timelines that now govern every regulated club.
Part 2 - What an application actually looks like: A walk through the structure of a real application, across governance, financial sustainability, risk management, ownership, fan engagement and compliance, and what the regulator expects under each heading.
Part 3 - Governance and financial sustainability: A deeper look at board structure, committees, risk oversight, financial forecasting and stress testing, with worked examples.
Part 4 - Risk management and compliance frameworks: The documents that do the heavy lifting: the risk register, risk appetite framework, incident management, compliance monitoring plan and regulatory obligations register. This is usually the point at which clubs grasp the true scale of the work.
Part 5 - Emerging AML requirements for football: The UK direction of travel, the EU AML package and AMLA, and the money laundering risks specific to football. Clubs and agents come into scope of the EU regime from 10 July 2029, and the runway to prepare is shorter than it looks.
Part 6 - Live gap assessment demonstration: A fictional Championship club scored against governance, financial sustainability, risk management and compliance, and the readiness figure that results.
On this session you will gain:
A clear understanding of IFR licensing expectations
A checklist of the documents and frameworks your club should have in place
A read on the compliance gaps most commonly found inside clubs
A practical roadmap for becoming IFR-ready
A self-assessment framework to measure your club against regulatory expectations
Every attendee receives our IFR readiness gap analysis template. It is the same self-assessment framework we demonstrate live in the session, so you can score your own club across governance, financial sustainability, risk management and compliance the moment the webinar ends.
The Details
Format Live online webinar
Duration 60 minutes
Cost Free to attend
Date 27 August 2026, 10:00-11:00
Panelists for this session
Isabel Lemes - Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
Jonathan Greenstein - Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
ABOUT LAGOM SPORTS COMPLIANCE
Lagom Sports Compliance is the first specialist governance, risk, compliance and anti-financial crime consultancy built exclusively for professional football. We help clubs and agents meet the IFR licensing regime, UEFA financial sustainability rules and the incoming EU anti-money laundering framework through a single, joined-up approach.
Explore how Lagom Sports Compliance can assist your club with IFR licensing support today.
Want to learn more about the IFR? Read our guide here.