David Kogan has been selected as the government's preferred candidate to chair football's new independent regulator.
Kogan, who has previously advised the Premier League and the EFL on television rights deals in a 45-year career as a media executive, business leader and corporate advisor, is now set to head up the watchdog intended to ensure football clubs in the top five tiers are financially sustainable.
The regulator is also crucially set to have 'backstop' powers to impose a financial settlement between the leagues if they cannot agree one.
Kogan will now appear before MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee for pre-appointment scrutiny on Wednesday May 7 at 10am.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Kogan brought a "wealth of experience" which made him an "outstanding candidate" to chair the regulator.
"This will be a vital, public role to ensure sensible, light-touch regulation helps to strengthen financial sustainability and put fans back at the heart of the game," she added.
Kogan said: "Across the country millions of us share a passion for football, a game that is not only part of our national heritage but one of our most valuable cultural exports.
"That's why as both a supporter and someone with many years spent working in football, I am honoured to have been asked to be the preferred candidate for chair of the newly-created independent football regulator.
"Our professional clubs, whatever their size, are a source of local and national pride. They generate economic growth and investment, unite communities, and create shared experiences and memories that transcend generations.
"The job of the regulator is to work with those clubs, their owners, and their supporters to create a dynamic framework that will ensure the game is on a sound financial footing so that it can continue to flourish and to grow. I cannot wait to get started."
The creation of the regulator is at the heart of the Football Governance Bill, which is set to be further debated in the House of Commons next week.
An independent regulator was the key recommendation of the 2021 fan-led review of football, which was commissioned by the Conservative Government in the wake of the European Super League scandal.
Its progress through Parliament was interrupted when the General Election was called last summer, but the new Labour Government has picked up the baton.
One of the regulator's key early tasks will be to produce a 'State of the Game' review examining football's financial flows, including the controversial parachute payments made to clubs relegated from the Premier League.
EFL chair Rick Parry has long called for these to be reformed, arguing they distort competition in the Championship and contribute to a "cliff edge" in finances between the first and second tiers of English football.
Kogan has negotiated a succession of multi-billion pound TV rights deals on behalf of major sporting bodies, including the Premier League and the EFL.
He has also advised European football's governing body UEFA, the Scottish Premier League, Six Nations, Premiership Rugby and the NFL.
Most recently, he was involved in the sale of broadcast rights on behalf of the Women's Super League.
Kogan's appointment has already attracted accusations of "cronyism" from the Conservatives given his Labour connections. He has made financial donations to individual MPs, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and has stood down as chair of the independent website LabourList in order to take on the role with the regulator.
When will football's independent regulator start?
Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett:
"David Kogan is not that well known to football fans, certainly not compared with some of the other people that are on the shortlist, when you consider one of those is the chair of Kick It Out Sanjay Bhandari and then the former Aston Villa and Liverpool chief executive Christian Purslow too.
"It was always going to be controversial whoever the Government selected and this is no different. He has very close ties to the Labour Party.
"I don't think that's going to be any cross-political issues, though, because it was the Conservative Party who recommended him in the first place.
"He has been very close to the Premier League and you wonder whether the EFL will be happy about that because of course one of the big jobs that he's got to do is sort out the new deal for football, and how they reorganise the financial structure of money dripping down from the Premier League throughout the various tiers of English football.
"So, it was always going to be controversial, we know a little bit about him and his business acumen, we don't know too much about him in the realm of football.
"He's now got to face scrutiny by the MPs so he's been their preferred candidate announced, but he hasn't got the job yet. He will be scrutinised by MPs before he's given the role and we still don't have an exact timescale on when the independent football regulator will come into force and start work.
"This is the first step of it, appointing a chair person, but when they're actually going to start we don't know.
"Sir Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, are very keen to get this in place as soon as possible. Will it be in place for the start of next season? I think that's a tall order but we're starting to see the process happen now and it's going to be a huge change for English football."
