Government’s preferred candidate to chair football’s new independent regulator unveiled

David Kogan has been selected as the Government’s preferred candidate to chair football’s new independent regulator.

Kogan, who has previously advised the Premier League and the EFL on television rights deals in a 45-year career as a media executive, business leader and corporate advisor, is now set to head up the watchdog intended to ensure football clubs in the top five tiers are financially sustainable. The regulator is also crucially set to have ‘backstop’ powers to impose a financial settlement between the leagues if they cannot agree one.

Kogan will now appear before MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee for pre-appointment scrutiny on May 7.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Kogan brought a “wealth of experience” which made him an “outstanding candidate” to chair the regulator. “This will be a vital, public role to ensure sensible, light-touch regulation helps to strengthen financial sustainability and put fans back at the heart of the game,” she added.

Kogan said: “Across the country millions of us share a passion for football, a game that is not only part of our national heritage but one of our most valuable cultural exports. “That’s why as both a supporter and someone with many years spent working in football, I am honoured to have been asked to be the preferred candidate for chair of the newly created independent football regulator.

“Our professional clubs, whatever their size, are a source of local and national pride. They generate economic growth and investment, unite communities, and create shared experiences and memories that transcend generations. “The job of the regulator is to work with those clubs, their owners, and their supporters to create a dynamic framework that will ensure the game is on a sound financial footing so that it can continue to flourish and to grow. I cannot wait to get started.”

The creation of the regulator is at the heart of the Football Governance Bill, which is set to be further debated in the House of Commons next week. An independent regulator was the key recommendation of the 2021 fan-led review of football, which was commissioned by the Conservative Government in the wake of the European Super League scandal.

Its progress through Parliament was interrupted when the General Election was called last summer, but the new Labour Government has picked up the baton. One of the regulator’s key early tasks will be to produce a ‘State of the Game’ review examining football’s financial flows, including the controversial parachute payments made to clubs relegated from the Premier League.

EFL chairman Rick Parry has long called for these to be reformed, arguing they distort competition in the Championship and contribute to a “cliff edge” in finances between the first and second tiers of English football. Kogan has negotiated a succession of multi-billion pound TV rights deals on behalf of major sporting bodies, including the Premier League and the EFL.

He has also advised European football’s governing body UEFA, the Scottish Premier League, Six Nations, Premiership Rugby and the NFL. Most recently, he was involved in the sale of broadcast rights on behalf of the Women’s Super League.

Kogan’s appointment has already attracted accusations of “cronyism” from the Conservatives given his Labour connections. He has made financial donations to individual MPs, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and has stood down as chair of the independent website LabourList in order to take on the role with the regulator.

Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the CMS committee which will hear from Kogan next month, said the committee welcomed the chance “to establish whether he has the required independence and experience in regulation to carry out this crucial new role”.