Asked what he would do if a politician leaned on him over Manchester City, David Kogan gave a two-word answer: “I would resign.”
The chair of the Independent Football Regulator was speaking less than a fortnight after an independent commission found City had breached Premier League financial rules across nine seasons, using what the panel described as sham contracts to funnel more than £830m of Abu Dhabi money into the club’s football operation between 2009 and 2018. City were found guilty on all but one of the charges — the exception relating to non-cooperation — and have appealed.
Kogan’s intervention followed remarks by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, who said he would be “really concerned” if the case forced Sheikh Mansour’s ownership group out of the club, while insisting he would not get “directly involved in the process”.
“We are independent. That is in the name,” Kogan said. “Any form of political interference on the way we operate is going to result in my resigning from this role and I stand by that completely. We’ve come under absolutely no political pressure whatsoever on this or any other topic. And I don’t expect to in the future.”
He added that the Prime Minister was “entirely entitled to make his own observations on anything”, and that his own independence, and the regulator’s, was “absolute”.
Why the regulator is in the frame at all
The Premier League commission will decide sanctions at a separate hearing, with a fine, a points deduction, expulsion or the stripping of trophies all theoretically available. But the IFR holds a different and arguably heavier instrument: the licence.
From next month the regulator begins issuing licences to clubs across the Premier League, the English Football League and the National League, assessed against financial stability, governance and fan engagement. It also runs its own owners’, directors’ and senior executives’ test — and where it judges a custodian unsuitable, it can require divestment within a set timeframe and appoint a third party to oversee the sale.
Kogan was explicit that the commission’s findings will not be ignored once the appeal is exhausted.
“A verdict once it’s gone through an appeal process will certainly be something that we would clearly be taking into account when looking at awarding a licence or looking at the owners, directors and senior executives,” he said.
That sequencing matters. The IFR is not running a parallel investigation and will not pre-empt the appeal. But a finding of deliberate, decade-long concealment is exactly the material an integrity test is designed to weigh, and City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and the wider Abu Dhabi United Group structure would be assessed against it.
The diplomacy problem
The reason Burnham’s comments carried further than a routine piece of political commentary is that City’s ownership is not a private investment vehicle. Sheikh Mansour is a member of the UAE’s ruling family, and the prospect of a British regulator compelling an Emirati divestment sits uncomfortably close to UK–UAE trade and diplomatic relations.
Burnham has since denied that his reaction downplayed the seriousness of the findings. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded the release of details of his meetings with City figures during his time as mayor, including one in October 2021.
Kogan’s own appointment gives his critics an obvious line of attack. In November 2025 the Commissioner for Public Appointments found that then-culture secretary Lisa Nandy had breached the governance code in selecting him, having failed to declare that Kogan donated to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign. Nandy called the error “unknowing” and said she deeply regretted it; Sir Keir Starmer expressed “sincere regret” to his ethics adviser for signing off the appointment after recusing himself from Football Governance Bill decisions.
Pledging to resign over interference is, in that context, as much a statement about Kogan’s own position as about Westminster’s.
What happens next
Three things now run in parallel:
- City’s appeal against the commission’s verdict, with the sanctions hearing to follow.
- The IFR’s licensing rollout from November, which will eventually require City — like every other club in the top five tiers — to satisfy the regulator.
- The suitability assessment of City’s owners and executives, which Kogan says will only be concluded once the legal process ends.
Kogan wants the case resolved quickly — “I think it’s very important,” he said — and the broader numbers explain why. He has pointed out that 94% of clubs across the three divisions he regulates operate at a loss, and that 73 of 116 could not survive 90 days without owner funding. He is pressing for roughly £180m a year to be redistributed down the pyramid.
A regulator created to stop clubs collapsing finds its first defining test at the richest club in the country — and its chair has staked his job on nobody in government touching it.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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