Free ODSE Training for Football's Current and Future Senior Managers: What You Need to Know
Senior managers at football clubs can now be personally investigated, fined or disqualified under the Independent Football Regulator’s ODSE regime. Lagom Sports Compliance is running a free training session on 20 October to explain exactly what current and future senior managers need to know to stay compliant. Jonny Greenstein, Managing Director, Lagom Sports Compliance explains.
Since May 2026, anyone who owns, sits on the board of, or holds a senior executive role at a professional football club in England’s top five divisions has come under one of the most significant personal accountability regimes British sport has ever seen.
It is called ODSE, short for Owners, Directors and Senior Executives, and it is the Independent Football Regulator’s replacement for football’s old owners’ and directors’ test. The name change matters. ODSE is broader than its predecessor, and its consequences fall on individuals, not just clubs.
Who actually needs to worry about this?
The regime applies to anyone the IFR designates as holding a Senior Management Function, or SMF, at a regulated club. That includes the obvious roles: owners, main board directors, chief executives and chief financial officers. It also extends further than many clubs expect. Club secretaries, compliance officers, sporting directors and other senior roles can fall into scope depending on the influence and responsibility the role actually carries, not the job title attached to it. A number of clubs have already discovered that individuals they had not considered senior management in the traditional sense are SMFs in the IFR’s eyes, and vice versa.
What does the test actually involve?
An SMF holder has to satisfy the IFR on honesty and integrity, financial soundness and, in some cases, source of wealth. Crucially, this is not a one-off check completed on appointment and then forgotten. Anyone holding an SMF role has an ongoing duty to notify the IFR of a material change relevant to their suitability for as long as they hold the position, whether that is a change in personal financial circumstances, a new legal or regulatory matter, or something else the individual reasonably considers relevant.
What happens if it goes wrong?
This is the part that tends to focus minds once people understand it properly. An SMF holder found unsuitable, or who fails to meet their ongoing obligations, can face a public censure naming them individually, a fixed financial penalty of the higher of 10% of their remuneration or £75,000, and a separate daily penalty of the higher of 10% of daily remuneration or £25,000 for every day an infringement continues. Because fixed and daily penalties can be combined, there is no single overall cap on what an individual might ultimately be required to pay.
Beyond fines, the IFR can refuse or withdraw approval, direct a person’s removal from office, restrict what they are permitted to do at the club, and disqualify them from being an officer of any IFR regulated club, potentially indefinitely. For the most serious conduct, such as destroying, falsifying or concealing information required by the regulator, individuals can also face prosecution, with an unlimited fine and up to two years’ imprisonment on indictment.
None of this requires a club to have done anything wrong as an organisation. These are personal sanctions against the individual.
Why free training, and why now
Given how new the ODSE regime is, and how much of it turns on governance practice rather than paperwork alone, many current and prospective senior managers have not yet had a proper opportunity to understand exactly what is expected of them, or how to build the evidence trail a regulator will eventually want to see. Boards, HR teams and the individuals themselves are often working this out as they go.
That is the gap Lagom Sports Compliance, the governance, risk, compliance and anti financial crime consultancy built exclusively for professional football, set out to close with a free training session open to anyone currently in, or being considered for, a Senior Management Function.
The next session, ODSE Training: The Executive Governance Masterclass, runs on 20 October from 10:00 to 11:30, live online. It is free to attend and open to owners, board members, CEOs, CFOs, compliance officers, club secretaries, sporting directors and legal teams. Over 90 minutes, the session covers the ODSE framework and what it actually requires in practice, how to distinguish governance responsibility from day-to-day operational management, how to identify the operational risks that carry genuine regulatory exposure, and how to build a compliance culture with a working speak-up mechanism, backed by a live Q&A and a takeaway toolkit of governance templates and diagnostics. Bespoke in-house versions are also available for clubs that want to work through the material with their own board and senior team.
Beyond ODSE, Lagom Sports Compliance also supports clubs directly with their IFR operating licence applications, and works with senior managers, boards and HR teams specifically on the ODSE side, helping them map exactly who in the organisation is in scope, prepare individuals for the fitness and suitability test, and build the ongoing material change notification process that keeps people compliant for as long as they hold the role, not just at the point of appointment.
Book the free ODSE training session, 20 October, 10:00–11:30: luma.com/xpt7agfv
More on Lagom’s ODSE training: lagomsportscompliance.com/odse-training
Image: Open AI
