Lagom Sports Compliance launches free ODSE training for football club owners, directors and senior managers
Specialist football compliance firm Lagom Sports Compliance today launches a programme of free, publicly available executive masterclasses covering the Independent Football Regulator's Owners, Directors and Senior Executives regime, giving every regulated club and its leadership team the knowledge they need to approach the approval process with confidence.
Lagom Sports Compliance, the specialist AML and financial-crime advisory firm built exclusively for professional football, has today launched a free executive masterclass programme designed to support football club owners, directors and senior managers in understanding and navigating the IFR's Owners, Directors and Senior Executives (ODSE) suitability regime.
The ODSE regime, which came into full force on 5 May 2026, requires every person carrying out one of six Specified Senior Management Functions at any of the 116 regulated clubs across the top five tiers of English men's professional football to obtain a prior affirmative suitability determination from the Independent Football Regulator before taking up or continuing in their role. Notification obligations, material change duties and cessation requirements attach from the moment a person is in scope.
Lagom's free training sessions are open to all. They are not a regulatory requirement, there is no obligation on clubs or individuals to complete compliance training, but the firm believes that better-informed executives make better governance decisions, and that the industry's long-term resilience depends on the quality of understanding at board level, not merely the existence of a determination on the IFR's public register.
About the training programme
The ODSE Executive Masterclass covers the framework in full:
what the six Senior Management Functions are and who falls within scope;
the three-part suitability test, honesty and integrity, financial soundness and requisite competence, and what the IFR assesses under each
the application process and timeline, including the 90-day determination window and the 60-day extension for complex cases
ongoing obligations for approved individuals, including material change notification and cessation duties
the 12-week temporary appointment rule; and
the personal liability provisions under Schedule 9 of the Football Governance Act 2025.
Public sessions are delivered live online, run for 90 minutes and include a live Q&A with the Lagom team. Attendance is free and open to any individual at a regulated club. In-house sessions, tailored to a specific club's ownership structure, entities and risk profile, are available on a priced basis.
Sessions will be limited to up to 30 attendees per session.
Full details of the programme and registration for upcoming public sessions are available at lagomsportscompliance.com/odse-training.
“The ODSE regime creates personal obligations for some of the most senior people in English football, and the consequences of getting it wrong such as missing a notification, misunderstanding the scope of an SMF function, or operating without a determination are serious. We are offering this training for free because we think it is important that every owner and senior executive at a regulated club genuinely understands what the regime requires of them, not just what their lawyers have told them to sign. The IFR is operational. This is not preparation for a future regime. It is catch-up on a live one.” -- Jonathan Greenstein, Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
“There is a real gap between clubs that have been through the ODSE application process and clubs that understand it. The determination tells you whether you have been approved. It does not tell you what your ongoing obligations are, what a material change looks like in practice, or what happens if an SMF holder's circumstances change after they have been determined. Those are the questions we get asked most often, and they are the questions this training is designed to answer, in a setting where people can ask them without it feeling like a regulatory exam.” -- Isabel Lemes, Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
Background: the ODSE regime
The Football Governance Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 21 July 2025, established the Independent Football Regulator and the ODSE regime as part of its statutory licensing framework. The six Specified Senior Management Functions are: SMF1 (Chair), SMF2 (Chief Executive), SMF3 (Chief Finance), SMF4 (Chief Operations), SMF5 (Director) and SMF6 (Other Key Decision Maker). The SMF6 function is a catch-all category covering any individual with a significant and continued influence over one or more aspects of a regulated club's activities, regardless of formal job title.
The IFR maintains a public register of all ODSE determinations at footballregulator.org.uk/odse-determinations, updated on a weekly basis. The full licensing application window opens on 1 November 2026, with all 116 regulated clubs required to hold a licence before the start of the 2027/28 season.
For further information on the ODSE regime and what it requires for football clubs, Lagom Sports Compliance has published two detailed guides: the complete ODSE regime overview and a detailed guide to what it means to be an SMF at a football club.
Notes to editors
About Lagom Sports Compliance
Lagom Sports Compliance is a specialist governance, risk, compliance and anti-financial crime advisory firm built exclusively for professional football. The firm advises clubs, agents, leagues and their advisers on compliance across EU Regulation 2024/1624, the Football Governance Act 2025 and IFR licensing regime, and UEFA's 2025 Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations.
Media enquiries
Jonathan Greenstein, Co-founder and Director
Lagom Sports Compliance
www.lagomsportscompliance.com
Free ODSE training registration