The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) could force Manchester City’s owners to sell the club after they were found guilty of financial misconduct across a nine-year period.
An independent commission ruled that the Cityzens had created “sham” contracts to artificially inflate their revenue and reduce costs by over £900 million ($1.2 billion dollars today) between 2009 and 2018.
The eight-time Premier League champions are now appealing the verdict, with the deadline for its outcome currently scheduled for Jan. 23, 2027.
If City’s appeal is unsuccessful, then they will be handed their long-awaited punishment—and things could get even worse for them thereafter.
According to David Kogan, chair of the IFR, his organization boasts “absolute power” to force City’s owners to sell the club should they be deem it an appropriate sanction.
“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 told The Rest Is Football podcast.
When asked if City, who are majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group, could resist a sale, Kogan replied: “No, no, no. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”
However, no decision will be made until the appeal has been heard, with Kogan adding: “I am not going to get pushed into making any judgment on this until we’ve seen all of those questions being answered. 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.”
La Liga President Demands Harsh Punishment for Man City
Among those to have been most publicly critical of City following their guilty verdict is La Liga president Javier Tebas, who has recently demanded “justice” for the Premier League and the rest of European soccer.
Tebas, who recently hit the headlines for comparing Real Madrid with Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, refused to mince his words when speaking at the SPORTEL business conference in Monaco.
“I’m interested in understanding how this story will end. It is important for both the Premier League and the European football ecosystem,” Tebas said. “There are people who have had to leave UEFA because of Manchester City, so I think we need justice for the Premier League, for Europe and UEFA.”
Speaking about the matter at the FIFPRO performance summit last month, Tebas also demanded the strongest possible punishment for the Cityzens.
“I don’t know the exact rules, but I believe it should be the strictest punishment in the Premier League regulations regarding this matter,” the La Liga chief exclaimed.
“It should be a punishment intended to set an example. This isn’t a matter of a father and his children—it is a punishment to ensure rules are followed. And violating the rules for over 10 years—no matter how minor the infractions—is a very serious matter.
“Therefore, it has to be a severe punishment for the non-compliance. Not just to set an example, but because the rules were broken.”
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