Nandy warns Kogan indecision having real-world consequences
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has warned that the limbo over David Kogan’s appointment as head of the Independent Football Regulator is “obviously having real-world consequences”.
Media rights expert Kogan was named the preferred candidate for the newly created role of chair of the IFR, after the Football Governance Bill passed through parliament this year.
But his coronation was delayed after it emerged that he had previously donated to Labour party campaigns relating to both Nandy and the now Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It led to a review being launched in May which was supposed to last mere weeks, but four months on there appears no end in sight.
While DCMS permanent secretary Susannah Storey confirmed that the department had not been given a timeline on the proposed conclusion date of the [William] Shawcross inquiry into Kogan’s appointment, Nandy said she “recognises the need to move quickly on this”.
Nandy: real-world consequences
Whitehall hopes to see the football regulator become fully up and running by November, as it looks to wean it off DCMS.
“I took a decision to recuse myself from the process,” Nandy added, “because the committee warned Mr Kogan in the report about a perception that there could be some lack of impartiality.
“I had understood that that inquiry, which opened in May, would conclude in a matter of weeks. It is obviously having real-world consequences that it hasn’t yet concluded.”
It comes as a report by campaign group Fair Game found that just four full-time clubs were what it described as “regulator ready”.
Brighton and Hove Albion, Cambridge United, Carlisle United and AFC Wimbledon were deemed ready for the incoming quango, while Bath City were the only part-time club.
The regulator plans to introduce a new test which could see bad owners imprisoned, and clubs forcibly sold through legislation.