Bath City FC named as one of top 5 clubs in England in Fair Game Index

Bath City were today acknowledged for their performance off the field after picking up a gold award from this year’s annual Fair Game Index.

It is a remarkable achievement as the Index looked at the top 164 men’s professional clubs in the English football pyramid and only five picked up the elite Gold Award – Brighton, Cambridge, Carlisle, AFC Wimbledon and ourselves.

The comprehensive report from football campaign group Fair Game has recognised the work of everyone at the club with this award.

Bath City’s Chair David MacDonagh said: “We are immensely proud to be one of only five clubs in England to receive the Gold Award from Fair Game. It is a testament to all the hard work that so many people have put into the club since we became community owned in 2017. We know that our club is a true gem and has so much potential to do even better. This award will spur us on to keep delivering for our community and progressing on and off the pitch.”

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 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.

Fair Game CEO Niall Couper said:

“This represents a huge achievement for everyone at Bath City. They have eclipsed nearly every club in the Premier League and are the only side in the National League South side to scoop a gold award. This is a club that is doing things the right way off the pitch. Clubs like Bath City should be rewarded in a new financial distribution model – and for the first time the new regulator will have the powers to do exactly that. In the meantime, everyone at Fair Game is proud to champion Bath City. Well done.”

Wera Hobhouse. Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, also sent her congratulations: “I have been to Bath City many times over the years and know first-hand what a fantastic community asset the club is. I also understand that running a football club presents many challenges and that Bath City relies on almost entirely on volunteers to keep it going, so I’d like to congratulate everyone at the club in achieving this prestigious award. It is another reason for the people of Bath to be proud of the city and I hope many will be encouraged to go to support the Romans this season.”

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.