MANCHESTER, England – England’s new football regulator has the power to order a club owner to sell and could launch its own investigation once Manchester City’s appeal against a verdict that it committed 114 breaches of Premier League financial rules is resolved, its chair David Kogan said.

Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, said it would assess the conduct of owners and senior club officials against its own tests and had the authority to remove an owner if they failed to meet them.

“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,” Kogan told The Rest Is Football podcast.

Asked by co-host Alastair Campbell whether an owner could refuse, Kogan said: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”

The Independent Football Regulator was established in July 2025 to safeguard the financial sustainability of English football, with powers to oversee club owners and directors and intervene when clubs are at financial risk.

The regulator’s powers have come into focus amid Manchester City’s appeal against the verdict.

Kogan said the regulator would wait for that process to play out before deciding whether to mount a separate investigation.

“I am not going to get pushed into making any judgment on this until we’ve seen all of those questions being answered, and then we will have to decide whether we’re going to mount our own investigation and come to a conclusion on that and what we’re going to do,” he said.

“And pre-empting that would be a colossal mistake.”

Kogan said the regulator’s role differed from the league’s because its focus would be on the individuals running clubs rather than imposing sporting sanctions on the clubs themselves.

“We would judge against the tests of ownership and senior directors and executives. We would judge the actions of those individuals,” he said.

“We’re not there, we can’t, unlike the Premier League, who obviously can take action against the club in terms of fines or points deduction or whatever it may be.”

Kogan also said the regulator could not automatically prevent a state-backed takeover of an English club under the legislation establishing it.

“That legislation does not allow for us to block something just because it’s a Norwegian sovereign fund, as an example,” he said.

“But we’re bound very much by the way the legislation has been written, which doesn’t preclude that from happening.”

Premier League-EFL deal

In the wide-ranging interview with Gary Lineker and Campbell, Kogan also revealed details of proposals aimed at resolving the long-running dispute over the distribution of money between the Premier League and English Football League.

“The Premier League is now talking about more than doubling the amount it pays every year in what are known as solidarity payments, money flowing down to the other (lower) leagues,” Kogan said.

Under the proposed arrangement, parachute payments to clubs relegated from the Premier League would be reduced while funding flowing into the Championship would increase substantially, Kogan said.

He said the changes would narrow the financial gap between relegated clubs receiving parachute payments and their Championship rivals, making the division more competitive.

Kogan also questioned the amount being spent on agents, saying fees had surpassed £500 million (S$854 million).

“Agents’ fees are ridiculous. Over £500 million. It’s half a billion pounds,” he said. “Hell, I’d much prefer to see it being spent on players.”

Kogan said another concern was the amount clubs owed one another, which he put at billions of pounds, adding that transfer debt was rising dramatically. REUTERS