How combative Kogan landed regulator role out of left field

First chair's background in football finance and Labour links helped land historic job he did not initially apply for

- Matt Hughes

The impending appointment of David Kogan as the chair of the new Independent Football Regulator has surprised many, given that the media rights specialist was not on the three-person shortlist, but in retrospect he may have been hiding in plain sight.

In a House of Lords debate on the football governance bill last November David Triesman, a Labour peer and former Football Association chair, effectively recommended Kogan for the job, namechecking Kogan's former company Reel Enterprises, which for 13 years sold media rights on behalf of the Premier League.

"We all think we know about football, but I bet that your lordships really do not," Triesman said, and after mentioning Reel's work, he continued: "Whoever the regulator is will need to understand finance. Those money flows will be understood only by people who have done that job, and there are probably no more than 10 of them in this country."