FOOTBALL REGULATOR SAYS IT CAN FORCE MANCHESTER CITY OWNER TO SELL

The Independent Football Regulator can require Sheikh Mansour to sell Manchester City if it concludes that he has run the club improperly, its chair David Kogan said. Asked whether an owner could refuse to sell, Kogan told The Rest Is Football podcast: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.” His comments followed an independent commission’s finding that Manchester City had circumvented Premier League financial rules. Manchester City has consistently denied wrongdoing and has appealed against the commission’s verdict.

The commission found that Manchester City used commercial arrangements it described as “sham” deals over nine seasons. It found that the arrangements inflated revenue or reduced costs by more than £900 million. The commission also found that the club made “concerted efforts” to “stop and frustrate” the Premier League’s investigation into those arrangements. Kogan said the regulator could ask an owner to step away if it believed they had run a club in a way that was neither “fit, fair or done with propriety”.

Kogan said it was premature to discuss action against Manchester City while the club’s appeal remained outstanding. He said the regulator would consider whether to mount its own investigation after the questions raised by the case had been answered. He declined to make a judgement about what the regulator might conclude or do before that decision. Kogan has pledged to resign if political interference affects any regulator investigation into Manchester City, amid concerns that such an inquiry could become a diplomatic issue between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.