David Kogan said the Independent Football Regulator has “absolute power” to force Manchester City’s owners to sell if the club is ultimately found to have run improperly. The chair’s comments give the new regulator a reach that could, in the right case, reach the ownership of one of English football’s most scrutinised clubs.
David Kogan and Manchester City
Kogan said: “We have the power to ask an owner to step away from a club if we believe that they run a club in a way that is neither fit, fair or done with propriety.” He also said: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”
Those remarks were made on The Rest Is Football. They put a sharp edge on a regulator that has not yet had to use its full authority in a high-profile case.
Premier League charges and appeal
Manchester City have appealed against the Premier League’s charges. An independent commission found that the club set up “sham” commercial arrangements to inflate revenues or reduce costs by over £900m over a nine-season period.
The same commission found that Manchester City made “concerted efforts” to “stop and frustrate” the Premier League’s investigation into those arrangements. Abu Dhabi United Group, which owns Manchester City, is majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
IFR, FRC and the next step
Kogan said it would be a “colossal mistake” to pre-empt whether the Independent Football Regulator would investigate Manchester City. He said he is not going to make any judgment until those questions have been answered, and only then would the IFR decide whether to mount its own investigation and reach a conclusion.
The Financial Reporting Council assumed “regulatory consideration” of the matter on 30 September. It is examining the independent commission’s findings and making “preliminary enquiries” to establish whether there were grounds for a formal investigation.
For Manchester City, that leaves the appeal as the immediate test. For the IFR, the more important question is whether Kogan’s broad power stays theoretical or turns into an ownership-ordering tool if the club is eventually found to have crossed the line.
