No conflict of interest in appointing Labour donor as football regulator chair, No 10 says
David Kogan's appointment seems like a case of obvious cronyism.
A bit like committing a bookable offence with the referee only yards away: the referee in this fixture being Dame Caroline Dineage, who chairs the culture, media and sport committee.
Will the MPs' decision now go into extra time?
Tory MP Louie French wants to blow the whistle on his appointment, claiming it's a breach of the code on public appointments.
French claims politics and sport shouldn't mix. But every football fan knows they do, of course. Arsenal fan Starmer is just the latest prime minister to parade his passion for football.
Ironically, the regulator is not a Labour idea. It was in Boris Johnson's 2019 Conservative manifesto and was recommended in a review by the former Tory sports minister Tracey Crouch in 2021.
But even before it kicks off, it's showing relegation form. The Arsenal vice chair Tim Lewis, West Ham vice chair Baroness Karren Brady, and Brighton chief executive Paul Barber have all put the boot in.
Brady, a Tory peer and leading opponent in the House of Lords, claims it could deter investment. Barber claims clubs could cut funding for academies and women and girls' football.
Now it looks like Kogan's candour before the MPs has put him in an offside position.
And his appointment is now surely a decision for VAR.
Sky News
