EY leader touted as inaugural boss of new football regulator
As the laboured effort to regulate England’s increasingly vulnerable football pyramid draws to its conclusion, talk has turned to who should head the new watchdog. Reports have emerged linking a senior EY professional with the top job – with Richard Monks understood to be a leading contender.
The greater the wealth English football’s top table has attracted, the more pressure its historic clubs have been placed under to succeed in the Premier League. With multiple storied institutions having folded in recent years – thanks in part to over-spending owners gambling on reaching the lucrative top tier – and other top-flight teams having been purchased by sovereign wealth funds as a means of sports washing (and allegedly flouting financial fair play to do so), the fan-led Crouch report commissioned by the last government eventually recommended the sport needed an independent regulator.
Premier League owners – who critics say are essentially their own regulators – remain hostile to the idea, which some have gone as far to paint as “Maoism”. This pressure led the plan to be shelved by the last Conservative administration – but proved popular enough with fans for the Labour government to revive it after coming to office in 2024.
The long-discussed plans have since been reintroduced to Parliament, with "strengthened" legislation to establish an independent football regulator for the elite men’s game in England including "new powers" including over the Premier League’s controversial multi-million pound ‘parachute payments’ that are given to relegated clubs. The Football Governance Bill, which became law in July 2025, and will also require clubs to “provide effective engagement" with fans on changes to ticket prices, and any proposals to relocate home grounds, among other matters which the organisation will be able to enforce.
With the ombudsman finally taking shape, discussion is now beginning around who will head the ombudsman. According to initial reports from Sky News, football industry executives have “circulated rumours” in recent weeks that the new chief executive office was “likely to emerge from the professional services sector” – an industry many of them are well acquainted with – and a name soon emerged: Richard Monks.
Possible appointments
A partner at EY, focusing on financial regulation, Monks previously spent 18 years at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority. The EY partner is understood to have held talks with David Kogan, the government’s preferred choice for the watchdog’s chairmanship.
The final decision on both Monks and Kogan’s appointments is still up in the air, however. Kogan’s position as chair has yet to be confirmed due to allegations of former donations to the Labour Party – something which William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, is investigating. In the weeks waiting for the resulting report, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has delegated the final decision on Kogan’s appointment to Sports Minister Stephanie Peacock.
While it is unclear if other candidates are being considered for the CEO role, meanwhile, some have suggested appointing someone from a Big Four firm may undermine the football regulator before it is even launched. PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY are the four largest auditors in the UK, and do the accounts for many clubs in the English top flight – with Monks’ firm EY auditing 2024/25 champions Liverpool.
KPMG fulfil the same role for Chelsea, BDO for Manchester City, PwC for Manchester United, Deloitte for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Amid this, the Big Four have been cited alongside growing concerns that ‘creative accounting’ is being used to help top clubs find ways around financial rules.
According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, accounting teams are often at the mercy of club owners who bend the rules in pursuit of victory. While there is currently “no indication that auditors have been guilty of any wrongdoing”, has previously said that some of the loopholes currently being signed off are legitimate, but don’t pass the “smell test”.
As a result, the appointment of a partner with one of the quartet has faced criticism, which fans voicing concerns about the regulator’s independence and impartiality, given EY’s prior involvement in advising football clubs.
