Man City owners could be forced to sell club if regulator demands it

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

The Independent Football Regulator could force the Manchester City owners to sell the club should they deem it necessary.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan became the owner of Man City in September 2008, when his Abu Dhabi United Group took over the club from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. A billionaire and member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, he initially acquired a 90% stake before completing the purchase of the remaining shares in 2009.

His takeover transformed City into one of the biggest forces in world football, with huge investment in players, facilities and the club’s wider football operation.

However, after years of spending billions in the transfer market, the club was recently found guilty of 114 financial breaches by the Premier League, including "sham" sponsorships to inflate income, secondary payments given to players and managers and also a failure to cooperate with the investigation.

Punishments are yet to be confirmed but it is likely the club will receive a substantial fine and likely a points deduction that would see them drop into the Championship.

Many pundits feel the Abu Dhabi ownership should be removed, too.

"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," David Kogan, the chair of the IFR, said on The Rest is Football podcast.

Asked if an owner could refuse that demand, Kogan replied: "No, no, no. We've got absolute power to do so."

He did insist that any speculation regarding the status of the Abu Dhabi ownership was premature, as City have appealed the charges from the Premier League.

"I am not going to get pushed into making any judgement on this until we've seen all of those questions being answered and 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," the IFR chair added.

"And pre-empting that would be a colossal mistake."

Kogan previously confirmed when he expects Manchester City to receive punishment after they were found guilty.

He told Times Radio: “The Premier League have said that they want to get this resolved within season and actually, of course, it’s not the Premier League, it’s an independent commission that’s going to hear this, made of three retired either judges or lawyers.

“My understanding is there is a prescribed process, which is 12 weeks, and so people are assuming this will actually be heard by the middle or the end of January. But as I say, it’s not our process, it’s that of the Premier League’s independent commission. What I don’t think we can do is take any judgment until we’re quite clear.

“Obviously, City claim that they have some form of silver bullet to put off these charges and win the appeal, and we’re not there to judge whether that’s right or wrong yet, but I think we’ll know in the early part of next year.”