Meet David Kogan – the most powerful man in English football you’ve never heard of

Reds versus Blues in a contest for a big prize, with plenty of needle in the build-up and uncertainty over the outcome.

It was the type of fixture that David Kogan would have been happy to talk about in his role as a sports media-rights expert. But this was different. This time, it was Kogan — the UK government’s preferred candidate to chair the proposed independent football regulator — who was the subject of scrutiny.

And as he paced up and down a corridor outside the Palace of Westminster’s committee rooms on Wednesday morning, awaiting his grilling from the select committee that scrutinises the work of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), he looked nervous.

Kogan, 67, did not need the committee’s recommendation, as it is non-binding, but it would bolster the mandate he requires to lead the biggest revolution in the English men’s professional game since the creation of the Premier League in 1992.

Not receiving the committee’s support would potentially kill the project’s credibility — a fate some in football would celebrate.

His nerves were unnecessary. On Friday, the committee published its report and declared its satisfaction in endorsing Kogan, “recognising his vast experience in the football and media sectors”.

There was one caveat in the report, which also revealed that 52 people applied for the job, with committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage MP observing that Kogan’s “past donations to the Labour Party will inevitably leave him open to charges of political bias in a job where independence is paramount… (he) must give 110 per cent when it comes to reassuring everyone in the game that he is his own man”.

There is little doubt Kogan is a great candidate for this job. However, his Labour links do raise fears over whether he will be as independent as both promised and required.

Kogan has not tried to hide his political affiliation and there is no evidence that he is anybody but his own man. On the contrary, talk to anyone who has done business with him and you will be told a) he is good and b) he is not afraid to ruffle feathers.

So, let’s explore that, and explain what Kogan wants the regulator to do, how the role will function and what success will look like.

---

What about that needle in the build-up?

From the moment Kogan emerged as the government’s choice for this gig, everyone knew two things about him.

The first is that he has spent the past 26 years advising numerous leagues and federations on how to maximise their revenues by creating auctions for media rights. The Premier League was his first client and the work he did there has been opening doors ever since.

The second is he has written three tomes on Labour’s history, donated over £33,000 to the party and its prospective MPs and, until last month, sat on the board of LabourList, the party faithful’s favourite website.

Last week, Stuart Andrew, the ‘blue’ Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, proposed a motion to kill this version of the bill, arguing it had changed too much from the similar one he championed before his party lost the UK’s 2024 general election and, more importantly, that Kogan is a ‘red’.

“If any donor of any political party had been recommended to me, I would have said no,” claimed Andrew, who said Labour’s Secretary of State for DCMS Lisa Nandy had said yes to a “Labour crony”.

Andrew added that the proposed appointment shredded his promise to FIFA and UEFA, football’s world and European governing bodies, that the regulator would be free from political interference, as they insist the appointed person must be.

But the final word on Kogan’s independence or otherwise during that debate was left to Dinenage, who pointed out how hard it had been to find the right candidate for this “utterly critical” role, noting the threat of FIFA/UEFA sanctions.

“That is why I am surprised the government has proposed a candidate who is so close to the Labour party,” she said. “He will need to demonstrate (at the select committee hearing) that he intends the regulator to be operationally 100 per cent independent from political interference. I struggle to see how that will happen, but my mind is open.”

So how did he swerve the ‘Labour crony’ charge?

That was the question that persuaded me to attend the select committee hearing in person.

The setting for this rearguard action was encouraging. Kogan sat alone behind a desk; in front of him, in the middle of a horseshoe formation, was Dinenage. On the wall behind her hung a huge oil painting of the Duke of Wellington, the famous general and former Conservative Prime Minister; on another was a television carrying a security note that read: “Threat level remains at substantial.”

Not for Kogan, it didn’t.

To mix sporting metaphors, Dinenage — the only Conservative present, as the other Tory on the committee, Damian Hinds, did not attend — opened the hearing with the gentlest of looseners, asking how he came to be the preferred candidate.

Kogan said this was not his first public appointment, having previously held board positions at a London college, a fund overseen by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and with UK public broadcaster Channel 4.

He explained that he did not initially go for the position, mainly because he thought his Labour links would count against him. But on May 16, the day applications for the post closed, a senior civil servant from DCMS phoned him to ask why he had not put his name forward, as other candidates had suggested he would be the favourite to be picked.

Kogan told the civil servant his reason but they called back to say it would not be a problem. So he applied, before setting off on a business trip to the U.S., where he still advises CNN and The New York Times. While he was away, however, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an early election, which meant the Conservatives’ version of the bill ran out of time to get through parliament.

He clarified that he had not gone through the interview process before the Conservatives were voted out last July, so it would appear that he was on a DCMS longlist as opposed to a shortlist that had got as far as Andrew, the relevant minister.

Even so, Kogan can justifiably claim he was considered for this role by the previous government and had actually been appointed to public office — Channel 4’s board — by Nadine Dorries, when she was the Conservatives’ DCMS secretary.

The inference was clear: even Tories think he’s good.

To complete the story, Kogan said he withdrew his application last autumn, as he was too busy. But in March, the same senior civil servant called again to ask him to re-apply. With more time on his hands by then, and having become convinced that he really wanted this “pressing and important” job, Kogan agreed, was interviewed by an independent panel and got the nod from the new Labour government.

It was not until Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis was called on that anyone in the select committee hearing specifically addressed the “widespread concern” about his links to Labour and whether he would be “completely independent of government”.

Kogan began his reply by saying that in addition to donating £33,000 to the Labour Party and five candidate-MPs, he had also given money during the 2020 Labour leadership election to Nandy, the current DCMS boss, and Sir Keir Starmer, its eventual winner and now UK Prime Minister.

Without missing a beat, Kogan then explained he made these donations because he believes democracies need strong candidates and added he was not “particularly close” to any of these people. He said his “personal independence” has never been questioned before; in fact, most people would say he can be a “tricky character” if people try to lean on him.

He then added that independence is hardwired into the regulator’s remit and said his “so-called links” to Labour had been overstated.

Dinenage was not letting him off that easily, though.

Noting that he seemed to be “perturbed or puzzled” by questions about his “perceived bias”, she said that perception “is out there, whether you like it or not”. He was, after all, “Labour aristocracy”.

The real question, she said, is how he’ll handle the perception that he is in Starmer’s “pocket”, “in cahoots” with Nandy and the government’s “puppet”?

Kogan’s reply was that “the antidote to perception is action” and promised to return to answer the committee’s questions whenever summoned.

“You asked me earlier why I wanted to do this job,” he continued. “Why on earth would I want to do it if I thought I was going to be dogged by accusations of political bias and my actions would reinforce that?”.

So why does he think he is the best-qualified person for the job?

As widely reported, Kogan has worked with the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), Scottish Professional Football League and Women’s Super League (WSL) on TV deals, as well as advising the International Olympic Committee and the United States’ National Football League.

He understands how football pays its bills and how it has grown as a business over the past three decades. He also knows all the main players in English football politics — and name-checked most of them during the hearing.

Also, he has started new companies, such as Reel Enterprises, the media consultancy he set up in 1998, and run old ones, such as the Reuters news agency’s television arm and the photography agency Magnum. “I don’t think many have all those points on the compass,” he said matter-of-factly.

A lifelong supporter of Tottenham Hotspur who attended a north London comprehensive school, he said, “I’ve been in football but I’m not of football”, and he now wants to use his experience and skills for the benefit of the game.

The one weakness he would admit to was his lack of regulatory experience, which probably should have been a bigger cause for concern than which party he votes for as a “strong understanding of economic and financial regulation” was the first bullet-point in the criteria for the role. It was also the priority for Dame Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister whose fan-led review of football governance in 2021 first made the case for an independent regulator.

Kogan explained that while he’s never been a regulator before, he has spent his entire career working in a regulated industry. So, he has “been on the other end”.

But he also said that his first responsibility in the role will be to appoint a board and a chief executive, which gives him several chances to find people with the skills he lacks. He also pointed out that a shadow regulator has been operating for over a year and is well-stocked with staff who have previously worked for the Financial Conduct Authority, the Competition and Markets Authority and other relevant regulators.

“I may not be a regulator, I may not even be a ‘great guy’,” he said, referring to an earlier suggestion from Dinenage. “What I am is someone who is extremely battle-hardened at creating organisations that work and last. And to do that, you need a marriage of skills.”

Case closed, m’lud.

We get it, he interviews well! But what will he actually do if appointed?

The first thing to say here is that Kogan has not only read the Football Governance Bill and all the consultation papers that fed into it, which is not something many can say, but he has also been thinking about this role for a long time.

In May 2021, shortly after the European Super League debacle, he gave a long interview to the Another Europe is Possible podcast about English football’s patchy governance and how it was endangering the existence of dozens of clubs/”cultural institutions” up and down the country.

He said then that he had been talking to Labour MPs such as Nandy, whose local club, Wigan Athletic, had recently emerged from administration, about the seriousness of the situation but had failed to gain much traction with the party’s leadership.

A year later, he spoke to the Here Comes Sports Pod and said, “in theory, a football regulator is a good idea”, especially if it focused on who should be allowed to own Britain’s clubs, giving fans a greater say and making sure all clubs are financially robust. In other words, exactly what the regulator is meant to do.

So, in his answers to the MPs on the committee who asked him about his vision for the regulator, he explained it should not be seen as “football’s cop but as an asset for the game”.

For example, who could object to an independent third party taking responsibility for the Owners’ and Directors’ Test, particularly if this third party had greater powers to investigate prospective investors? Or the creation of a licensing regime that asked clubs to pay their bills on time, provide up-to-date financial information and stick to agreed business plans? Or consult their fans on important decisions?

For Kogan, fans are football’s first “firewall”, and they will be crucial to the success of the regulator. He stressed that the regulator will be “light-touch” and its work must not create a disproportionate regulatory burden. He said that if any club lacks the expertise or resources to provide the answers the regulator needs, the regulator will help them.

He declined to speculate on how big its annual budget would need to be — the latest DCMS estimates have it creeping towards £100million — but confirmed it would be funded by a levy on the 116 clubs who make up the English game’s top five divisions, with the richest of them paying the biggest share.

Unsurprisingly, the Premier League does not like the sound of that last bit but has already wasted millions of pounds in a spectacularly unsuccessful lobbying campaign to block the regulator’s creation, and also currently spends tens of millions on compliance and legal issues it can now hand over to genuine specialists.

Of course, the Premier League also hates the idea of anyone forcing it to share more of the money it raises from the media-rights auctions that Kogan helped to create with the rest of the game.

That power, the so-called “backstop”, is the regulator’s greatest weapon and has been the cause of the biggest rows over both versions of the Football Governance Bill. But such are the levels of distrust within the game at the moment, when Kogan’s name was first reported as the likely boss of the regulator, some EFL clubs panicked and thought the Premier League had somehow managed to get one of its own in the key role.

If anyone still thinks that, rest assured, he knows the English pyramid has become stretched to breaking point by a “series of fiscal cliff edges, all of which have become sharper”, within the Premier League itself, between each division and, most notably, within the Championship, one rung down domestic football’s ladder from the top flight, where parachute payments have created a two-tier competition.

When asked by Bayo Alaba, a West Ham United supporter who represents their fifth-tier neighbours Southend United’s constituency, how he would balance a Premier League club’s definition of sustainability with the view of such a National League team, Kogan said: “If you believe in the pyramid… then you’ve got to believe that Southend has a right to be sustained and supported as much as West Ham and even, dare I say, Spurs.”

Financial sustainability and fan engagement, then. Is that it? 

Yes!

At the select committee, Kogan was very careful not to be drawn into talking about issues he cannot influence, such as the women’s game (intentionally left out of the regulator’s scope for now), ticket prices and the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), including how Chelsea’s owners have been able to navigate the latter by selling themselves things they already owned.

Kogan pointed out that PSR is a competition-related edict, and the regulator would only get involved if the relevant club started to show signs of real financial distress.

“Having opinions are a dangerous thing,” he said, much to Dinenage’s disappointment.

“I thought you would have a lot more opinions,” she replied.

If Kogan had a message for the game, it was that his definition of success for the regulator is that it will function like the mythical referee who nobody notices during a match. In fact, he was even clearer about his desire not to intervene when asked how he might use the backstop power to force the Premier League to send more TV money down the chute to the EFL, National League and beyond.

“People talk about the backstop being a nuclear option,” he said. “But I prefer to think of it more as a tactical weapon. You don’t use nuclear options because, if you do, you all die. You can use tactical weapons but the backstop is one I would urge the world of football not to invoke.”

Instead, he urged football to use the 18 months it has until the bill becomes law (though it could happen before the summer recess begins in late July) and the completion of the “state of the game” report the regulator will use to inform its views on what a fair financial distribution looks like, to hammer out the football-led deal the Premier League and EFL have been squabbling over for at least three years.

“The more they can agree, the better, as we won’t have to get involved,” he said.

So, football, you have been warned.

David Kogan is coming, but he is more than happy to remain the most powerful man in football you’ve never heard of.

(Top photo: Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

This post was originally published on this site