Football regulator holds 'absolute power' to force Man City sale if guilty verdict stands

The Independent Football Regulator holds the power to force Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour to sell the club if the Premier League’s guilty verdict against them is ultimately upheld, the watchdog’s chair David Kogan has confirmed.

Kogan made the remarks after an independent commission found City guilty of setting up “sham” commercial arrangements to inflate revenues or reduce costs by more than £900 million across nine seasons. The commission also concluded the club made “concerted efforts” to “stop and frustrate” the Premier League’s investigation into those arrangements. City have since lodged an appeal against the verdict.

“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. When asked whether an owner could refuse to divest, he was unequivocal: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”

Kogan was careful to stress that any regulatory action remains premature while the appeal process is ongoing. “I am not going to get pushed into making any judgement 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,” he said, adding that pre-empting that process “would be a colossal mistake.”

The IFR chair has previously pledged to resign should there be any political interference in a potential investigation, a commitment made amid concerns that the case could develop into a diplomatic flashpoint between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, given Sheikh Mansour’s ties to Abu Dhabi.

On the pitch, City have won their opening seven Premier League matches this season and sit three points clear of defending champions Arsenal at the top of the table — a stark contrast to the legal and regulatory uncertainty surrounding the club off it.