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The Football Governance Act was passed into law on 21 July 2025. This follows a long period of debate amongst legislators, regulators, clubs, fans and other market stakeholders about the future of English football, in particular in relation to financial sustainability, corporate governance and transparency. The Act reflects an admirable legislative attempt to give effect to those principles, but the extent to which they can operate together in practice remains to be seen. The dispute resolution mechanisms available under the Act also raise interesting questions about the limits of the Independent Football Regulator’s powers, as well as the interplay between its decision-making functions and the courts’ oversight of the public law and antitrust issues arising from the Act’s new regulatory regime.

Welcome to the Corporate Briefing, where we review the latest developments in UK corporate law that you need to know about. In this month’s issue we discuss: Takeover Panel consultation and new practice statements The proposed amendments to the Takeover Code clarify how the mandatory offer requirements apply to a company with a dual class share structure when a shareholder’s percentage of voting is increased on certain trigger events. New rules for the public offers and admissions to trading regime The FCA has published the final rules for admissions to trading on a regulated market or a multilateral trading facility (“MTF”). The new rules will come into force on 19 January 2026 with transitional provisions. Draft regulations for new reporting requirements on payment practices and performance The government has published draft reporting requirements for large companies on payment practices and performance which will apply for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026. NSI: exclusion of reorganisations and proposed changes to sensitive areas The government is proposing to exclude certain internal reorganisations and appointments of insolvency office-holders from the NSI regime and is consulting on changes to the sensitive areas that are subject to mandatory notification. FCA Primary Market Bulletin 56 This edition of the FCA newsletter for primary market participants looks at, among other things, its use of data and technology to monitor directors’ dealings. Digitisation Taskforce – final report July 2025 The latest report sets out key steps for removing paper share certificates and improving the current intermediated system of share ownership so investors can more effectively exercise their rights. Updated guidance – filing accounts with Companies House In the future all accounts must be filed at Companies House using commercial software. The web and paper filing options will be discontinued. Listed companies and filing information with the National Storage Mechanism (NSM) From 3 November 2025 the FCA will require more comprehensive legal entity identifier ("LEI”) reporting for issuers and other persons submitting regulated information. The aim is to enhance the functionality of the NSM by making it easier to find information about issuers.

In CCC v AAC [2025] HKCFI 2987[1], Sir William Blair[2], sitting as Deputy High Court Judge in the Hong Kong Court of First Instance (“Court”), rejected a borrower’s challenge to the enforcement of an arbitral award in favour of a moneylender. In doing so, the Court made some interesting observations in respect of certain procedural aspect of the case, in particular relating to the importance of giving proper notice of the arbitration.

Our employment law update for July covers cases about legal principles tribunals must consider when analysing the ‘substantial adverse impact’ in disability claims, the difficulties in selecting discrimination comparators, and what to do when a party to tribunal litigation receives privileged documents. We also have a general news round-up covering the latest developments in the Employment Rights Bill (including NDAs), a new development in the regulation of post-termination non-competes, and a survey on hybrid working.