Regulator chair says Manchester City could face forced sale if verdict stands

Independent Football Regulator chair David Kogan has said the watchdog could require Manchester City's owners to sell if the club is ultimately found to have been run improperly. The Guardian reported his comments from The Rest Is Football podcast, where he stressed that it was too early to decide what action, if any, the regulator should take while City's appeal remains unresolved.

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An independent commission found that City had circumvented Premier League rules through commercial arrangements that inflated revenue or reduced costs by more than £900m across nine seasons, according to the report. The commission also found that the club had sought to obstruct the league's investigation. Those findings are being challenged: City have appealed, arguing that the verdict is unsafe and contains material mistakes involving law, principle and fact.

Kogan said the regulator's powers would allow it to require an owner to leave a club where it judged the way the club was operated to be unacceptable. Asked whether an owner could decline to sell, he said they could not. However, he did not announce an investigation into City or a decision to seek a change of ownership, distinguishing the regulator's powers from any eventual decision to use them.

The chair said the outstanding questions would need to be answered before the regulator decided whether to undertake its own inquiry. Only after that process could it reach conclusions about possible action. His comments therefore leave both an investigation and any ownership intervention undecided, rather than establishing that a sale will follow the commission's findings.

City's majority shareholder is Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment vehicle owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The Guardian also reported that Kogan had previously promised to resign if political interference affected any regulator investigation into the club, amid concerns about potential diplomatic repercussions for the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.

Separately, the Financial Reporting Council is reviewing the commission's findings. In a letter to the House of Commons business, innovation, science and trade committee, the accounting watchdog said it had taken the matter under regulatory consideration on 30 September. It is making initial enquiries to determine whether grounds exist for a formal investigation; the report did not describe those enquiries as an already-opened formal probe.