Cambridge United have been awarded Gold status in the annual Fair Game Index…
Cambridge United were today (10 September) acknowledged for their performance off the field after picking up a Gold award from this year’s annual Fair Game Index…
The comprehensive report from football campaign group Fair Game has recognised the work of everyone at the club with this award.
The club are just one five to be given Gold status by the organisation, and finished top of Fair Game’s ‘Fan Engagement’ category.
The goal of this year’s Index, now in its fourth year, is to identify which clubs in the country are ‘regulator ready’ with the impending introduction of the new Independent Football Regulator, following the recent passing of the Football Governance Act 2025.
The Index analyses all the clubs in the top seven divisions of the English men’s professional game – 164 clubs in total – across eight sets of criteria.
These eight areas were: Financial Sustainability; Governance; Transparency; Fan Engagement; Ethics; Diversity; Environment; and Community Engagement.
Each of the criteria covered a range of different issues and were developed following extensive research and numerous conversations with the then Shadow Regulator to provide a best approximation of the standards required for football clubs in a new regulatory regime.
It took Fair Game’s team of 15 researchers four months to gather all the data, accumulating a total of 22,000 datapoints.
Analysis showed that that the club particularly excelled in fan engagement, governance and finance.
CEO Alex Tunbridge said, ‘We are pleased to have been recognised in this year’s Fair Game Index for the way in which the club operates. To receive a Gold award is a great achievement and reflective of the hard work of so many people at every level of the club.
“With the introduction of the Independent Football Regulator forthcoming, we are in a strong position for the next era of the game.”
Fair Game CEO Niall Couper added, “Football is on the cusp of a huge change. For the first time fan engagement, financial sustainability and good governance will be embedded in the culture of our national Game. And Cambridge United are real trailblazers. Huge credit must go to all the staff at the club.
“Our data shows the club are real leaders when it comes to fan engagement. Cambridge finished top in our analysis in fan engagement – beating all the clubs in the Premier League and the Championship. This is a club that is doing things the right way off the pitch.
“At Fair Game we believe that clubs like Cambridge should be rewarded and we are campaigning hard for a new financial distribution model that does exactly that.”
Under the Fair Game Index, clubs awarded Gold status are deemed to be ‘Regulator Ready’. Clubs that receive Silver and Bronze awards are recognised as excelling in certain aspects but have room for improvement in other areas to achieve Gold status.
In total, just 27 clubs from the 164 have been awarded any status – with only five receiving gold.
- Gold - Brighton & Hove Albion, Cambridge United, AFC Wimbledon, Carlisle United, Bath City.
- Silver - Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Plymouth Argyle, Swansea City, Exeter City, Rochdale, Chester City.
- Bronze - Arsenal, Brentford, Liverpool, West Ham United, Burnley, Luton Town, Norwich City, Watford, Lincoln City, Chesterfield, Forest Green Rovers, Darlington FC, Maidstone United.
The aim of the Football Governance Act is to improve the financial sustainability of football clubs, ensure financial resilience across the leagues and safeguard the heritage of English football, and the Fair Game Index provides a clear snapshot of the significant progress required by many clubs across the country to make this a reality.
