When it comes to protection of our football clubs, this country falls short. If you own a Listed Building, the Government quite rightly legislates to protect it. You can't just tear an old wing down and replace it with a new extension because it's "yours". Some of this country's most famous institutions are football clubs, yet they receive little in the way of protection from hostile owners.

Liverpool were only 24 hours away from administration under former joint owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette while the Glazer's takeover of Manchester United loaded hundreds of millions of debt onto an otherwise debt-free club.

Only a couple of weeks back Newcastle United fans boycotted their game against Spurs in protest at Mike Ashley's regime. This weekend, Blackpool fans invaded the pitch, forcing their side's final game of the season against Huddersfield Town to be abandoned.

Blackpool's owners, the Oystons, have taken to suing their own fans, removing statues of club legends, and texting abusive messages to supporters. In 2011 Blackpool paid a salary of £11m to a company owned by Owen Oyston. The club has loaned £27m to its parent company, Segesta Limited, of which both the Oystons are directors.

The list goes on with examples in previous times at clubs as disparate as Leeds United, Portsmouth, Hereford United, York City, Mansfield Town, Wrexham, and beyond.

Here at the Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) we've lobbied politicians on many issues, most notably that of safe standing, with visits to Parliament and the Welsh National Assembly (the latter securing cross-party support and national attention).

The FSF also sits on the DCMS's Expert Working Group on Football Supporter Ownership and Engagement and has previously given evidence to the Commons Select Committee on Football Governance.

There is cross-party consensus on the need to reform football – see how many of the party's manifestos acknowledge the need for better engagement – and football has been given multiple chances but cannot reform itself due to the inherent internal conflicts of interest.

No-one wants Government to run football but it is clear we do need legislation to kickstart reform and bring good governance to our national sport.

In that spirit we're now trying to engage MPs with a simple message – we want you to legislate to protect clubs from clueless owners and enshrine the rights of fans in relation to engagement with their clubs.

We have outlined proposals for Football Governance Legislation. We want MPs (and parties) to commit to supporting legislation which will kick off the internal reform process in football.

Supporters reached almost 90% of prospective MPs during the election, sending 14,000 messages to 3,500 different candidates demanding that clubs are protected from unscrupulous owners.

• Thanks to the Vote Football website, there's never been an easier way for fans to lobby their MP on these issues, do your bit: http://votefootball.org/

Michael Brunskill is Director of Communications at The Football Supporters Federation