Mere weeks after the Euros heartbreak, a fresh Premier League season kicks off this weekend.

Many among us will be greeting the football season with burgeoning excitement. But there’s also many for whom the annual curtain raiser brings about feelings of apathy and dread. If you’re in the latter camp and looking for crumbs of comfort, I’d recommend watching Mitchell & Webb’s football sketch on YouTube that parodies the constant, dizzying TV coverage every Saturday.

I’m often asked what football team I support and it can be a bit difficult to admit I don’t have one. Growing up, I was more into music than ever being on a sports field or at a ground. An eclectic taste ranging from country to classical music (with a fair bit of cheese thrown in!) was a passion that led to a career in local radio which started when I was still at college.

Whether you love or loathe sport, what the past 17 months of the pandemic have reinforced is how games are not the same in empty stadiums, confined to a TV channel or live stream. I know from speaking with fans of Exeter City, Exmouth Town, Sidmouth Town and Ottery St Mary how just simply being back in the ground for good comes as a massive relief.

Football clubs really do play such a pivotal role at the beating heart of communities in Devon both at professional and amateur levels, often relying on volunteers going above and beyond to keep it all running.

Each club had acute financial pressures resulting from the pandemic as fundraising, ticket and bar receipts dried up. I’m pleased the government stepped in with support packages that went directly to non-league clubs who tend to rely most on these forms of regular matchday income.

Going forward, there’s a growing recognition – spearheaded by campaign groups such as Fair Game UK – that football needs to give supporters more of a chance to have their say in how their club is run. We are blessed that our local clubs are run well by all accounts. The biggest, Exeter City, was named as the best club for fan engagement across the top four tiers of English football for the second year running.

With the support of local businesses, Exmouth Town FC’s official supporters arm – Mufftown Casuals – have just built a new turnstile block, resurfaced the car park for new disabled parking, renovated the beer garden, and made a water-gathering project to conserve rainwater for use on the pitch.

Such fan engagement is not universal in the country. The failed breakaway European Super League of so-called elite clubs led the PM to announce a root-and-branch fan-led review of football governance that will report in the autumn. It will cover the financial sustainability of the men’s and women’s game, financial flows through the pyramid, governance regulation and the merits of an independent regulator.

Politically, we can’t stand idly by.

I know football means a lot to so many, and we should celebrate what it provides to our area. With this review, the government, clubs and fans now have a real opportunity to carefully look at how football governance must keep evolving if it is to keep pace with the challenges of the modern game.