Charity watchdog investigates football club

A charity watchdog has launched an investigation into a football club in Leicestershire.

The Charity Commission said concerns arose after Lutterworth Athletic Football Club became "repeatedly non-compliant with its filing duties" and the charity entered the regulator's "double‑defaulter class inquiry in 2024" after failing to file its 2022 and 2023 accounts.

After those accounts were eventually submitted during the inquiry, the charity has since defaulted again, and its 2024 accounts remain "significantly overdue", the commission said.

The regulator said it had now launched a standalone statutory inquiry into the charity after bank analysis identified a "number of additional concerns".

The Charity Commission said Lutterworth Athletic Football Club were registered as a charity in 2017 to promote "community participation in healthy recreation for the benefit of people in Lutterworth", mostly through local community football.

The watchdog said the upcoming inquiry would examine the extent to which the trustees were complying or had complied with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the charity.

The inquiry will also investigate whether there has been any unauthorised private benefit to the trustees or connected parties including whether conflicts of interest have been "properly managed".

The Charity Commission said the scope of the inquiry might be extended if "additional regulatory issues emerge".

The BBC has contacted Lutterworth Athletic Football Club for a comment.

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