Regulator’s proposed chair donated to Labour campaigns – what else did we learn?

The government’s preferred choice as chair of English football’s new independent regulator contributed money to the leadership campaigns of Sir Keir Starmer and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

David Kogan told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that he was being “utterly transparent” by declaring donations which “hadn’t been discovered by the press”.

The sports media rights executive said he had donated “very small sums” to the 2020 campaigns, as well as thousands of pounds to Labour MPs and candidates in recent years, but had “total personal independence from all of them”.

Nandy said Kogan – who also sat on the board of Labour news website LabourList – was the “outstanding candidate” to fill the position when he was announced as preferred choice in April.

Conservative shadow sports minister Louie French said the failure to disclose the donations when first put forward for the role was “a clear breach of the governance code on public appointments”.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Kogan had been appointed through a “fair and open competition”, while the BBC understands his donations were below the threshold that requires declaring.

The Football Governance Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament after being reintroduced by the Labour government in October, will establish a first independent regulator for the professional men’s game in England.

The legislation will hand power to a body independent from government and football authorities to oversee clubs in England’s top five divisions.

At a ‘pre-appointment hearing’, Kogan – a former BBC journalist who also previously advised the Premier League, EFL and other leagues on broadcast rights – said he wants to put “fans at the heart of the regulator” and help the football pyramid “survive”.

Kogan has been a Spurs fan since 1964, although he admitted he seems to “run into nothing but Arsenal fans nowadays”.

He was at the 1967 FA Cup final to watch his team beat Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley.

The new Club World Cup and expanding Champions League are “risk factors” for the future sustainability of English football, according to Kogan.

Thirty-two teams will compete in Fifa’s inaugural Club World Cup this summer, while the number of games have increased in this season’s Champions League.

He thinks the growth of these competitions will have an impact on the money English football earns from broadcast deals.

Kogan said: “When you look at how Fifa is doing its world club competition, the way Uefa is developing its European competition, all of those are factors that directly impact on English football – things like broadcasting slots and broadcasting financing.

Reading owner Dai Yongge was forced to sell the club last week after he was disqualified under the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test.

Kogan believes the regulator’s powers to evaluate owners and directors will be far more extensive with “access to much greater knowledge and much greater ability to intervene”.

Legal disputes are becoming increasingly common in football.

The Premier League spent more than £45m last season on legal costs due to various disputes over its financial regulations.

The league has been embroiled in a series of investigations, disciplinary arbitration processes, and appeals. Cases have involved Manchester City, Everton, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Leicester City.

Kogan hopes the regulator won’t face any legal challenges but said it must be “prepared for the worst” and referenced “very wealthy clubs and a very wealthy league”.

Some fans, and even an MP, Labour’s Ian Byrne, want the regulator to help set ticket prices.

Kogan said “it’s not a matter for the regulator to set ticket prices for individual clubs”, but that “it is a matter for the regulator to allow fans to have a view”.

So how might fans be involved?