A veteran of the media industry who helped negotiate a series of dissemination rights across English football has become the favorite to lead the new Sir Keir Starmer football dog.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that David Kogan, whose conference room roles have included an administration at the Channel 4 State, is now the main competitor to chair the independent football regulator (IFR) following a recruitment process.
A source from Whitehall said Kogan had been interviewed for the post by a selection committee appointed by the government in recent days.
It was expected that the Prime Minister was recommended for the role, although they warned that the appointment was not yet guaranteed.
Kogan had a vast experience at the top of English football, after advising customers such as the Premier League, the English football league, the Scottish Premier League and UEFA on television rights contracts.
Last year, he acted as the main negotiator of the Super League and the Women’s Championship on their last five -year broadcasting agreements with Sky – the immediate parent company of Sky News – and the BBC.
Apart from football, he also worked with the first rugby, the Six Nations, the NFL on its British broadcasting transactions and the International Olympic Committee in its capacity as director general of the shareholder and majority shareholder in Reel Enterprises.
Mr. Kogan sold this company in 2011 at Wasserman Media Group.
Its other current roles include advising CNN management chiefs, the American Broadcast News Network and the New York Times on discussions with digital platforms on the growing influence of artificial intelligence on their industries.
Mr. Kogan has links to work, having in the past giving money to a number of individual parliamentary candidates, presiding over Worklist, the independent information site and writing two books on the party.
A source close to the process to name the president of IFR described it as “an obvious choice” for the position.
In recent months, Sky News has revealed the identity of the preselected candidates for the role, with the former Aston Villa FC and the Director General of Liverpool FC, Christian Purslow, one of the three candidates who went to a group of so-called final suitors.
The others were Sanjay Bhandari, who presides over the anti-racism football charity, and Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, who presided over the new parliamentary guardian established after the deputies’ spending scandal.
Sky News revealed last weekend, however, that government representatives had resumed contact with candidates who did not reach this limited list for the position of £ 130,000 per year.
The apparent interruption in the appointment of the IFR inaugural president threatened to rekindle speculation that Sir Keir sought to reduce his powers in the midst of a broader repression on the economic surveillance dogs of Great Britain.
The 10 Downing Street and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have sought to reject these suggestions, with initiates insisting that IFR will be largely established as initially envisaged.
The creation of IFR, which will be based in Manchester, is among the main elements of the legislation which are currently progressing in Parliament, with an expected royal consent before summer recess.
The football governance bill has completed its trip through the Chamber of Lords and will be introduced in the municipalities shortly, according to the DCMS.
The regulator was designed by the previous conservative government following the fury on the failure of the European Super League project, but sparked a deep trouble in certain parts of English football.
Steve Parish, president of the Premier League Side Crystal Palace, told a recent conference of the sport industry that the guard dog “wanted to interfere in all the things in which we do not need them to interfere and help anything we really need help”.
“We have a problem that we are constantly told that we are not a business and (that) we are part of the fabric of the communities,” he said.
“At the same time, we are … treated in the nth degree as a business.”
The first interviews for the president of the new guard dog took place last November, with a previous recruitment process reduced by the call for general elections from last year.
Mr. Kogan is said that officials were originally struck on the presidency of IFR under the conservative administration.
Lisa Nandy, the secretary of culture, will also have to approve the appointment of a favorite candidate, the chosen person should face an audience before payment before the restricted committee of culture, media and sport and sport next month.
It is part of a process that represents the most fundamental upheaval in monitoring English football in the history of the game.
The establishment of the body is delivered with the upper level of the professional game seized by the civil war, with Manchester City, made up of Abu Dhabi at the center of a certain number of legal affairs with the Premier League for its financial transactions.
The Premier League also wishes to agree on a financial redistribution agreement long late with the EFL before the official launch of the regulator, although there has been little progress towards this in the past year.
The government has abandoned a previous stipulation that the IFR should take into account foreign and commercial British policy when determining the relevance of a new club owner.
“We are not starting speculation,” said a spokesperson for the DCMS when he was asked about Mr. Kogan’s candidacy to chair the football guard dog.
“No appointment has been made and the recruitment process for the President (IFR) is underway.”
This weekend, Mr. Kogan refused to comment.