1Ownership
Who owns and controls the club?
We trace the companies, rights and people behind the club, then write the ownership account your personnel statement rests on.
Ready for the regulator
We prepare your club's Independent Football Regulator licence application with you: ownership, funding, governance and fans, ready for your board to sign.
For clubs in the top five divisions in 2026/27, the provisional application window runs 2 November 2026 to 26 February 2027. Promoted clubs have a separate route.
2Funding
Is the money there, and when?
We line up every source of funding against your cash forecast, season by season, and show where a gap needs a decision.
3Governance
Who decides, and where is it recorded?
We set out the board's powers, committees, conflicts and minutes so every decision leaves a clear trail.
4Fans
How are supporters heard?
We plan the consultation, record what fans said and show what changed because of it, or why it didn't.
5The deadline
The clock is already running
Applications open on 2 November 2026 and close on 26 February 2027. The earlier the work starts, the less of it gets rewritten.
Talk through your applicationThe hard part is rarely one missing file. Forecasts, owner rights, board decisions and fan views have to agree with each other. Pick the situation that sounds most like yours.
Bring the real club picture together.
We take on
We work across departments, identify what can be reused, and draft the ownership, governance and fan material the application needs.
Your club brings
Access to current accounts, rights records, board papers and supporter-engagement records, with people who can confirm what is current.
Where it gets you
A club-specific document plan and the first substantive drafts.
Every engagement is built from the same seven, shaped around what your club already has. Pick a shirt to see what each one involves and what stays with your club.
Application documents
Do the narratives, numbers, personnel and approvals tell one accurate story?
What we prepare
A question-by-question IFR document index, drafted governance/funding/fan narrative and personnel-statement support, reconciled to finance and legal inputs, with an approval set for the club.
What's inside
- Annex A question and required answer
- Club fact owner and document version
- Draft response and unresolved question
- Named review, approval and final version
Your club and advisers
The club provides facts, finance forecasts and authorised signature; qualified advisers approve their specialist inputs. The club submits through the IFR portal.
What you end up with
Documents the club can review, sign and explain to the regulator.
The published IFR requirements, the records that usually sit behind each one, and what we would prepare. Treat it as a starting map: your club's actual plan is agreed with you.
Application answer · IFR guidance
Start with the right applicant
What the IFR asks
The form identifies the legal applicant, competition entity and application contact.
Records to check
- Company and league records
- Registered details and authorised contact
What Elite prepares
Read source: IFR provisional licence application guidance · Annex A §1 ↗We check the named entity and contact against the group structure and supporting records before the form is prepared.
A public guide to the IFR's published requirements, not a checklist tailored to your club. We scope the exact document plan with your team.
Your people supply the facts, your advisers make the specialist calls and your directors sign. We carry the work in between and make sure it lines up.
Read what's already there
We start from the accounts, minutes, rights records and fan feedback you already hold. Whatever is approved and current gets reused; the rest becomes a short list of analysis and drafting.
Draft it and put it to work
We write the papers, run the risk workshop and set up the board and fan routines, so they are in use before the regulator asks to see them.
Get it signed off
We reconcile the drafts with your lawyers and accountants, take the final set to your decision-makers and keep a clean record for the years after licensing.
Your starting point, your timing and what's worrying you. We'll come back to talk through the application, the documents to gather first and a proposed scope.
No confidential files at this stage, please. A short description is plenty.