This article aims to explain what third party ownership in football is and the regulatory rules that are relevant to any Premier League (PL) and Football League (FL) club. FIFA, the PL and the Football Association (FA) have all recently amended their rules and regulations governing this contentious and topical issue.

The PL and FA rules on TPPO were amended in time for the 2008/09 and 2009/10 season respectively. Before 2008 in the PL and 2009 in the FL, third party player ownership (TPPO) was regulated through a generic material influence clause. This forbid any entity having the ability to affect the behaviour of a PL or FA-affiliated club. The new rules from the 2008/9 and 2009/10 seasons now appear to prohibit a third party owner, without the consent of the FA, having any economic rights in a player registered to a PL or FA-affiliated club. See section E for the debate about whether the FA rules apply especially to FL clubs.

The FL rules make no express reference to TPPO. Only the provisions relating to dual interests may be seen as regulating a third party owners’ ability to own the economic rights of more than one FL player. However, in contrast to the FA and PL rules the current guidance from the FL suggests that in certain instances TPPO is permitted