Lisa Nandy ruled the UK Government out of Manchester City’s financial-breach case on Thursday, pushing back against days of claims that ministers were being drawn into football’s biggest regulatory fight.
“We will not, as a government, be involved in any decision-making around whether these allegations are upheld,” the culture secretary told talkSPORT. “It’s for football to determine that because the integrity of the game is at stake.”
Nandy framed the position as a line she had always held. “I’ve been very clear since I became Culture Secretary that people don’t want to see politics in their game.”
Why Nandy had to speak
The row grew out of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s remarks about City’s Abu Dhabi owners. Burnham, a City supporter, said he would be “really concerned” if the club’s owners decided to sell up, and later pledged to publish all his dealings with the club from his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. Downing Street issued two clarifications of his position, and opposition politicians pressed him to come clean about meetings with people at City.
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Nandy framed club owners as caretakers, not operators of the rulebook. “Whilst we are really grateful to investors who come from all over the world to invest in our clubs and help to ensure their viability and their success, they are custodians, both of their clubs and of the game. They have a responsibility to play by the rules and uphold the rules.”
Kogan: ‘I would resign’
Two days before the Nandy interview, Independent Football Regulator chair David Kogan drew his own line. Asked what he would do if political pressure landed on him over the City case, he told Al Jazeera he would walk.
“Our independence is absolute, and my independence, personally, is absolute. Any form of political interference on the way we operate is going to result in my resigning from this role. And I stand by that completely.”
Kogan said no pressure had been applied so far.
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115 charges, a billion-pound verdict
An independent commission found City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules on 29 September 2026, and guilty of the majority of charges concerning the club’s failure to co-operate with the investigation. The panel concluded that City had arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners to inflate revenues artificially and reduce costs across the seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18.
Al Jazeera reported the commission found City used schemes to inflate revenues and reduce costs “by more than 900 million pounds ($1.2bn) during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules”. Possible sanctions range from unlimited fines and points deductions to title stripping and expulsion from the league.
Nandy had earlier called expulsion “the ultimate sanction” and said it would carry “huge repercussions for everybody”, in a Channel 5 interview around the time of the verdict, while adding that City were entitled to a fair hearing.
Verdict due by 23 January 2027
City lodged their appeal on 1 October 2026. Under rules introduced this season, the appeal must be heard within 12 weeks of being filed, with the hearing itself lasting up to five days, and the Appeal Board then has 30 days to deliver its verdict. On that clock, a final decision is due by 23 January 2027 at the latest, though the case’s complexity could push the verdict deeper into 2027.
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Once the Premier League process ends, the Independent Football Regulator takes over on the ownership question. Nandy said that body, not her department, holds the power to act against unfit owners: at its most extreme, the regulator can compel owners out if they are judged unfit to run a club.
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