The chair of English football’s Independent Regulator has said he will resign if there is political interference in any future investigation into Manchester City as a result of widespread impropriety.
City have been found guilty on over 100 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules by an independent commission.
The club have appealed and deny any wrongdoing, but face a severe sanction unless they overturn the verdict.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has come under criticism for his comments saying he would be “really concerned” if City’s Abu Dhabi owners left the club following the verdict.
Downing Street subsequently had to backtrack, insisting no one was “above the rules”.
Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to June 2026, has since published all of his dealings with the City hierarchy.
But the case poses a delicate balancing act for the UK government in preserving its longstanding ties with the Emirates without interfering in the independence of the disciplinary action against City.
The club’s owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan is vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
The Football Regulator has the power to disqualify and remove club owners and senior executives and force the sale of clubs.
“Our independence is absolute, and my independence personally is absolute,” Independent Regulator chair David Kogan said on Tuesday.
“I made it very clear in an interview last year that if we (experience) any form of political interference on the way we operate, it is going to result in my resigning from this role, and I stand by that completely.”
Kogan has also warned that the English game is on the “edge of financial disaster” despite booming revenues.
The Regulator’s first “State of the Game” report found that while English football generated 9 billion pounds ($12 billion) in revenue last season, 94 per cent of clubs in the top five divisions were loss-making.
Thirty-two clubs could not survive more than 30 days without owner funding, while 17 would make a loss even if their players played for free.
Kogan added English club football was simultaneously the “richest, best and most deeply competitive in the world while also standing on the edge of financial disaster”.
The report forecasts total debt in English football would rise above 5 billion pounds by the end of this season, and that net transfer debt was approximately 3.4 billion pounds.
“Everyone needs to take into account the fact that nothing is ever forever,” said Kogan.
‘Alarm call’
England’s Football Supporters’ Association said the report was “an alarm call for English men’s professional football that must precipitate real and lasting change”.
UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Football fans for years have lived with the anxiety of knowing their club could be one bad owner or poor month away from ruin.
“This report doesn’t just validate that anxiety; it has blown the doors off the game with the most stark uncovering of the state of football club finances in England today.”
Kogan is set to be interviewed by the House of Commons’ culture, media and sport committee next month.
Committee chair Caroline Dinenage, an MP for the main opposition Conservative Party, said: “The IFR is right; the financial risk embedded in English club football can no longer be ignored. They’ve framed the issue; now they need to show us what they’ve got.”
