Premier League must reflect, football can’t be left to govern itself

After Helen MacNamara’s involvement in the lockdown parties scandal, Tony Evans argues that there must now be outside regulation

The Premier League is under pressure to accept outside regulation (Getty)

A fit and proper test? Before the Premier League begins to scrutinise potential club owners, the organisation needs to take a hard look at itself.

Helen MacNamara, the league’s chief policy and corporate affairs officer, was this week named as one of the 20 people fined for attending parties in Downing Street and Whitehall during the Covid-19 lockdown two years ago. MacNamara was the Cabinet Office’s director general for propriety and ethics. She provided a karaoke machine for a gathering that was described as “raucous” and involved a drunken scuffle.

Although MacNamara was a civil servant and not an elected official, she was close to the rancid heart of Westminster where those in power set the Covid-19 rules but did not adhere to them. The Premier League employed her because of her contacts at 10 Downing Street. It was thought that her influence would be useful in attempts to block the recommendations of Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review of football governance, specifically the creation of an independent regulator for the game.