LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—English football’s Independent Regulator (IFR) will have “absolute power” to force Manchester City’s owners to sell if they are ultimately found to have run the club improperly, the watchdog’s chair has said.

Premier League leaders City have been found guilty on over 100 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules by an independent commission between 2009 and 2018.

The club have appealed and deny any wrongdoing, but face a severe sanction unless they overturn the verdict.

Owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, City have blossomed into the dominant force in English football since a 2008 takeover.

“We have the power to ask an owner to step away from a club if we believe that they run a club in a way that is neither fit, fair or done with propriety,” the IFR’s chair David Kogan told “The Rest is Football” podcast.

Asked if an owner could refuse to divest, Kogan added: “No. We’ve got absolute power to do so.”

Kogan also said last week he would resign if there is any political interference in any investigation the IFR may undertake into City.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has come under criticism for his initial comments on City’s guilty verdict, saying he would be “really concerned” if the club’s Abu Dhabi owners left the club following the verdict.

Downing Street subsequently had to backtrack, insisting no one was “above the rules”.

Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to June 2026, has since published all of his dealings with the City hierarchy.

But the case poses a delicate balancing act for the UK government in preserving its longstanding ties with the Emirates without interfering in the independence of the disciplinary action against City.