Independent Football Regulator chair releases statement that impacts Newcastle United ownership
The Independent Football Regulator was formed last year and has the power to forcibly remove owners and directors.
Independent Football Regulator chair David Kogan has stressed they cannot prevent state-backed ownership.
Newcastle United and Manchester City are the two English clubs that fall into the category. PIF - Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund - bought the Magpies for £305million in October 2021.
Likewise, Sheikh Mansour, the vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, changed English football forever when he bought Man City in 2008. The biggest story in football right now centred around the club being found guilty of breaching 114 financial rules.
Established last year, the IFR has the power to remove owners via a strict Owners, Directors and Senior Executives (ODSE) test. This could lead to City’s owners being forcibly removed if they fail to successfully appeal their guilty verdict.
State-backed ownership not under threat
However, speaking to The Rest Is Football podcast, Kogan, the chair of the independent regulator, declared that the state-backed aspect has little relevance. When asked if the IFR will block future Gulf States from buying clubs, he said: “Not as a matter of course. I think we would be looking at any company, country, individual who wishes to buy a club against the criteria laid out in the legislation that creates us.
“That legislation does not allow for us to block something just because it’s a Norwegian sovereign fund, for example. Actually, we have a strong mixed economy of different types of owners in the five leagues. I’m not sure it makes sense for us to do that (block state ownership).
“But you know, it will come down to circumstances which they apply and the guarantees they want to give. We are bound very much by the way the legislation has been written, which doesn’t preclude that from happening.”
IFR answers Roman Abramovich question
Kogan also suggested Roman Abramovich would have passed the checks in 2004. However, his subsequent sanctioning by the UK government in 2022 means he would unlikely meet the current criteria.
“It’s an answer that I understand people will find satisfactory but it’s the answer I’ll give,” Kogan added. “We look very closely at what we can and cannot do in terms of taking a view on any individual. Now clearly, when he bought Chelsea in 2004, Richard Scudamore would have regarded him as being a fit and proper person.
“He obviously had the money to buy it (Chelsea) and keep them going. Whether, in the context of 2004, he probably would pass the test. Would he today be somebody that has been sanctioned? Absolutely not.”