Legal Advisor - The Independent Football Regulator

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been established to protect and promote the sustainability of English football, for the benefit of fans and the local communities football clubs serve.

The IFR will help improve financial sustainability of clubs, ensure resilience across the leagues, and safeguard the heritage of English football. It will operate a licensing regime; set corporate governance standards and monitor, protect, and promote financial resilience. It will also enforce compliance with requirements on financial regulation, club ownership and directors, fan engagement, and heritage protection.

The IFR will also have powers to prohibit clubs from joining competitions that are not fair or meritocratic, or that threaten the heritage or sustainability of English football.

The Legal Team

The IFR’s legal team plays a core role in advising and supporting all areas of our functions.

This work will include advising, amongst other issues, on the IFR’s powers and obligations, current and future consultation exercises, the legal risks attaching to different regulatory strategies and approaches, regulatory investigations and enforcement, litigation and appeals, the IFR’s decision-making obligations, corporate governance and wider public law issues.

The Role

The IFR is looking to add an additional lawyer with significant corporate law experience to add to/compliment the existing expertise within the IFR’s legal function. The team currently comprises 8 lawyers with a range of public, regulatory, commercial and litigation skills/backgrounds.

The role will be based in our Manchester office.

Essential Requirements

Post qualification experience advising on corporate law matters including the following:

Complex corporate ownership structures.
Mergers and acquisitions/investments including in a multi-jurisdictional setting.
Corporate governance and decision-making processes.
General corporate advisory work, including advising on the Companies Act 2006.
The ability to work effectively in a wider team and build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients and others.
Have a track record of picking up new and complex areas of legal work quickly and providing context-appropriate corporate advice in high-profile and fast-moving situations.
The ability to effectively managing legal risk, providing sound legal direction, leadership and oversight to ensure quality outcomes.
Creative thinking and excellent judgement to deliver authoritative and credible legal advice, at pace, to facilitate practical solutions.