Football regulator rubbishes fears red tape will put investors off English clubs
David Kogan, the chair of the Independent Football Regulator, insists closer scrutiny of clubs’ finances will encourage rather than deter potential investors in the English game.
Former media rights consultant Kogan said the IFR’s mission to improve the sustainability of the entire English pyramid would help to make all teams more desirable assets.
“The idea we do not welcome an English football investment and we don’t welcome active investors who take a clear vision and clear view of what clubs should be, is absurd,” he told the FT Business of Football Summit.
“I have seen absolutely no evidence to date, none that investors are being put off by the creation of the IFR.
“I want to reiterate, it is absolutely our clear intention to make the pyramid more sustainable and more solid. My view is that’s a good investment opportunity, not a bad investment opportunity.
“I think the argument that somehow regulation, by definition, prevents people from showing an interest in acquiring a club or being involved in the club, is simply nonsense, and it’s unproven.”
English football must come together – Kogan
Kogan also urged the Premier League, English Football League and National League to put their differences aside and agree on a new financial redistribution model as a matter of urgency.
The IFR has statutory powers to mandate an agreement and Kogan warned that “the clock is ticking”.
“It would be an utter failure by football not to seize the moment and get over the stasis that currently exists,” he added.
“A deal done in 2019 that simply relies rolling over year by year to no one’s satisfaction is not sensible practice, and it will lead to unsustainable levels of pressure within the system. It creates uncertainty that’s detrimental to the pyramid and to growth.
“Clubs enjoying good times at the top, and they do, surely see that any money passed down through the leagues is an investment which they themselves will benefit from.
“Going forward, it’s to everyone’s benefit for football to try and reach this understanding. The pyramid needs to survive as it exists today, and to do that, English football must come together and end this uncertainty, and it needs to do it now.”
IFR doesn’t know what new deal should be yet
Kogan said the regulator would not decide what it believes a new agreement should contain until it had published its State of the Game review larger this year.
“At this stage, the IFR does not have a view on what a solution might look like,” he said.
“At this stage, it’s for the Premier League, the Football League and the National League to discuss and try and find a solution to get over the hurdles they created over the last five or six years, and any barriers to understanding that exist.
“We know it’s not easy. If there was a simple solution, then Richard Masters and Rick Parry [CEOs of the Premier League and EFL] would have found it.
“But the difference now is our statutory powers as a regulator for the whole of the English game mean that any of those leagues can ask us to activate the backstop, and ultimately we can step in and find a solution.”