Questions of football finance are starting to be as fascinating as the game itself. This is because the amounts of money involved have grown to extraordinary, mouth-watering levels. There is now so much money at the top of the English game that political controversy is frequent, such as with the takeover of Newcastle by the Saudi government, masquerading as their independent investment branch. Today’s political minefields often seem to have goalposts at both ends. So now, for the first time ever in English football, fans keen to protect its unique, competitive pyramid structure have lobbied successfully for  the appointment of an independent regulator to take charge of the governance of our “national” game, which means so much to so many of us. Once the regulator is up and running we can hope for real change to the current chaotic governance structure, which pits leagues against leagues and clubs against clubs. Right now there is simply too much to gain and too much to lose. Each club is desperately trying to protect its own interests while forgetting that without a healthy and fair structure for all clubs there is no competition. Football as a whole is losing out to the interests of individual clubs, whether it’s a handful of the most wealthy clubs in the Premier League trying to kill the English pyramid so they can earn even more money in a European Super League or a handful of club-owner directors on the National League Board breaking league rules on conflicts of interest by voting to distribute excessive funding to their own clubs. So the regulator is going to have its work cut out.