Manchester City owners could be forced to sell club if guilty verdict upheld, says regulator

Manchester City‘s owners could be forced to sell the club if the guilty verdict against them is upheld, according to the head of the new football watchdog.

David Kogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator, said the body would have “absolute power” to force a sale if City are ultimately found to have run the club improperly.

His comments came after an independent commission found the club guilty of circumventing Premier League rules.

The commission found City had set up “sham” commercial arrangements to inflate revenues or reduce costs by more than £900million across nine seasons.

City were also found to have made “concerted efforts” to “stop and frustrate” the Premier League’s investigation into those arrangements.

The club have lodged an appeal against the commission’s verdict.

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Kogan has said the IFR has ‘absolute power’ to force Sheikh Mansour to sell Man City if the guilty verdict is upheld (PA)

Kogan told The Rest Is Football podcast that it was premature to talk about any action his organisation might take.

However, he confirmed the IFR had the power to force a sale by the club’s owner Sheikh Mansour if that was felt to be appropriate.

“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 said.

Asked if an owner could refuse to divest, Kogan replied: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”

On the possibility of the IFR investigating City, Kogan said: “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 and come to a conclusion on that and what we’re going to do. And pre-empting that would be a colossal mistake.”

Kogan has already pledged to resign if there is any political interference in any investigation the IFR may undertake into City.

That pledge came amid concerns the case could become a diplomatic issue between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

City have won their opening seven Premier League games this season and are currently three points clear of defending champions Arsenal at the top of the table.