From 1 October 2026, the right to work scheme will extend beyond traditional employment relationships, bringing more people within scope of right to work checks. This means that sports clubs may, in some cases, have compliance responsibilities even where they are unaware that a particular individual is carrying out work for them. Read on to learn more.
For a summary of what’s changing, see our previous article: Preventing illegal working and right to work checks: what changes from 1 October 2026.
Why should the sports organisations care about the changes?
The sports sector is significantly affected by the expanded regime because of the way work is structured. Most clubs will have a combination of:
- Long-term employees engaged in a traditional employment relationship such as players and managers;
- Project-based engagements including match day operations, tournament staffing, pre-season tours;
- Layered supply chains such as catering, security, stewarding, hospitality;
- Corporate hire and other events operations; and
- A high proportion of freelance, agency and casual workers.
As a result, the expanded scheme has the potential to affect not only immigration and employment compliance, but also the way services are procured, managed and documented contractually.
Until now, right to work checks have been primarily an HR and recruitment issue. The obligation sat with direct employers (in the truest sense of the word): if you hired someone under a contract of employment, you needed to check their right to work before they started and again before any relevant expiry date.
From 1 October, that changes in two important ways.
First, the definition of ‘employer’ is becoming much wider. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 broadens who counts as an ‘employer’ for right to work purposes well beyond traditional employment relationships. It now covers engagements under worker's contracts (e.g. non-employee zero-hours workers), individual sub-contractors and online matching services. This means many more businesses will need to carry out right to work checks directly on the individuals they engage.
Second, a new ‘extended liability’ regime reaches into supply chains and subcontracting arrangements. Where a business is contracted to provide services to a third party and subcontracts delivery (fully or partly) to another employer, it may be treated as ‘employing’ any individual who personally carries out the work – even if it has no direct relationship with that individual.
The penalties are serious: up to £60,000 per illegal worker for a repeat breach, potential criminal liability carrying up to five years' imprisonment, and reputational consequences including potential publication as a non-compliant employer.
Which work relationships are caught by the new right to work scheme?
The new expanded right to work scheme applies to employers (under the wider definition) who employ individuals to carry out work in the UK. This is broken down in the draft Employer’s guide to right to work checks into three types of work arrangement.
To see who is exempt from the expanded illegal working regime, see ‘Who is NOT caught?’ in our previous article.
Continue to the heading ‘How does extended liability impact the sports sector?’ to see how the new extended liability provisions may make a professional sports club liable where the person carrying out the work lacks the right to work in the UK.
A traditional contract of employment
A professional sports club will be treated as a direct employer and responsible for performing a right to work check on a person who is employed under a contract of employment for the duration of their engagement. Examples include players, Head Coach, and Head of Medical Services.
A worker’s contract
A worker’s contract is defined as a contract under which an individual undertakes to perform work or services personally for another person, where that person is not a client or customer of a profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual.
Example
A matchday announcer engaged on a regular basis by a club. The announcer isn’t an employee, and their contract has no right of substitution. They may be working under a worker’s contract, and if so, the club is responsible for completing a right to work check.
Individual sub-contractors
An individual sub-contractor is defined as an individual who has entered into a contract with a person to provide work or services, where that person has itself contracted with a third party to provide or arrange for the provision of the work or services, but the individual has not contracted directly with that third party.
Example
A club contracts to organise and deliver promotional events for a sponsor. The club engages individuals as freelance event hosts to run the events. The freelancers have no contract with the sponsor and perform the work as individual subcontractors to the club. The club is responsible for performing right to work checks on the freelancers.
How does a direct employer defend themselves against liability for a civil penalty?
By performing a compliant right to work check before the work starts. The engaging employer can use a manual document check, the Home Office online service, or a registered Right to Work DVSP. If the individual cannot provide evidence of their right to work, the employer may, in certain circumstances, be able to verify their status through the Employer Checking Service.
Evidence must be retained for the duration of the engagement plus two years.
How does extended liability impact the sports sector?
The new legislation introduces three scenarios in which liability for illegal working can extend beyond the direct employer of an individual worker. The practical consequence is that certain subcontracts and supplier agreements will need to contain specific written terms before work starts, or the upstream business risks losing its statutory excuse against extended liability (explained further below).
1. Subcontracting delivery of services
Where a business is under a contract to provide work or services to a third party, and enters into a contract with another “employer” to provide or arrange workers to carry out that work, the upstream business may have extended liability for an illegal working civil penalty in respect of any individual who personally provides the work or services in the supply chain – even though it has no direct relationship with that individual.
Example
A football club enters into a contract with a corporate client to deliver a hospitality event at its stadium. To fulfil that contract, the club engages a catering company to provide the catering service including serving staff. The catering company engages the individuals as their employees.
The catering company is the direct employer and is responsible for carrying out right to work checks on the individuals it engages. However, because the club is under a contract to provide services to the corporate client and has contracted with the catering company to provide catering services, the club may be caught by the extended liability provisions.
This means the club could face liability for a civil penalty if any of the supplied individuals are found to be working illegally. To establish a statutory excuse against extended liability, the club must comply with the prescribed requirements before the work commences, including having appropriate contractual terms and conditions in place (a written statement) and identity verification systems.
2. Substitution controls
If a club engages an ‘individual sub-contractor’ under a contract that permits substitution – i.e. allows another person to carry out the work in their place – the club may have extended liability for an illegal working civil penalty in respect of the substitute as well as the worker it has directly engaged.
Example
A corporate client hires a suite at the club's stadium for a series of matchday hospitality events. As part of the hire package, the club is contractually responsible for providing catering services. To deliver the catering, the club engages a freelance chef as an individual subcontractor. The contract permits the chef to substitute another individual to carry out the work in their place.
Ahead of one of the events, the chef is unavailable and arranges for a colleague to attend and deliver the catering service in their place. Because the club's contract with the chef permits substitution, the club may be treated as the employer of any individual who personally carries out the work, including the substitute. The club may therefore face liability for a civil penalty if the substitute is found to be working illegally.
The club's lack of awareness of the substitution would not, by itself, establish a statutory excuse. The Home Office will consider whether the prescribed substitution controls and identity verification systems were in place and operating effectively in practice.
How does a business establish a statutory excuse against extended liability?
For clubs caught by the extended liability provisions, establishing a statutory excuse requires compliance with three prescribed requirements where the relevant contractual arrangements were entered into on or after 1 October 2026:
- Written contractual terms – specific prescribed terms must be in your contract with the downstream supplier.
- Substitution controls – where the contractual arrangements with a worker permit substitution, you must have processes in place to control this, including to ensure any substitute's right to work is checked before they start.
- Identity verification – you must maintain proportionate systems to ensure the individual doing the work is the same person whose right to work was checked.
Those with a keen eye will note that the initial draft employer’s guide to right to work checks published on 16 July 2026 required compliance with the prescribed requirements where the employment commenced on or after 1 October 2026. This would have required existing commercial contracts to be updated, not just new ones. This is no longer the case according to the updated draft guidance published on 11 September 2026, which confirms that extended liability only applies where the relevant contractual arrangements were entered into on or after 1 October 2026.
This still means that template contracts will need to be issued in a compliant format from this date for a statutory excuse to be established.
What should sports organisations be doing now?
Based on the draft employer’s guide to right to work checks and draft code of practice on preventing illegal working, you should:
- Review your existing right to work arrangements, policies and processes for compliance. This will help ensure a smoother transition to the expanded illegal working regime.
- Map your subcontracting arrangements. Identify where your club is contracted to provide services to a third party and then subcontracts delivery.
- Prioritise high-volume or high-risk supplier relationships – particularly those involving individuals rather than large corporate suppliers with established compliance programmes.
- Review and update contracts to include the prescribed terms in readiness for 1 October 2026.
- Agree template clauses for standard supplier and subcontractor agreements that can be rolled out at scale.
- Coordinate across teams. This is not just an HR or immigration issue. Procurement, legal, business affairs, operations and contract management all need to understand the new requirements.
- Take legal advice, particularly for complex supply chains arrangements involving substitution, freelancer and consultant engagements, and any situation where it is not clear whether an arrangement falls inside or outside scope. The boundary between a genuine business-to-business services arrangement and an engagement that is "in substance" personal service is fact-sensitive and may require careful analysis.
Need more help?
If you'd like to receive email updates on developments in this area, you can sign up here.
We can help with an assessment of how your business may be impacted, including making recommendations; training options to ensure compliance with your duties; mock right to work audit; and a toolkit of guides and resources. Get in touch for more information on the options.
