The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayot Akemallero.

Today we'll hear from David Cogan, chair of the Independent Football Regulator,

a role that makes him one of the most powerful people in English football.

So what powers will he actually have and what difference will they make to fans of

clubs in the Premier League and beyond? Well, Matt Slater's with us right now. Matt, before we hear

from your chat with David Cogan, look, words like regulator and government appointment

makes some football fans feel a little weird. Why should we care about this interview? And also, why should football fans

care about the future of English football? In September of this year, the Labour government

brought in the Football Governance Act. And the key bit of the Football Governance Act is the

creation of this independent football regulator. David Kogan was announced as the preferred candidate to be the chair

of this organisation in May. He was officially appointed in October and he's been getting stuck in.

He really has, as he explains. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing any of this? It's about the

resilience of the entire industry, the league, if you like, the league structure. It's about the

sustainability of the clubs. And It's about the sustainability of the

clubs. And it's about protecting fans' voice better, giving fans a bigger voice. And he's got

various levers. There's going to be a licensing system. He's going to run the fit and proper

person test. He's going to do a big state of the game report. And the big stick he has is if football

cannot come to a agreement amongst

itself about how best to share its money, he can intervene. This is called the backstop process.

So he has that power. He has also powers to intervene in clubs that are being run really, really

badly. He can effectively put them into administration. There are certain things that he cannot do. There's a whole list of people, list of things, sorry, that people want him to do,

...