Man City owners could be 'banned and forced into sale' if proposed change passes

A Labour peer has called for football clubs to be banned from being owned by states which if passed would force Manchester City's Sheikh Mansour to sell.

The Football Governance Bill, which was created by the Conservative Party before being pushed through by the Labour Party following the General Election, aims to establish a regulator for the sport. The objective would be to provide further protection for clubs to avoid situations like we saw with Bury repeating themselves in the future.

After moving through the House of Commons, the bill has made its way to the House of Lords where Lord Bassam of Brighton has called for the bill to block state ownership of teams. This would mean both City and Newcastle United would be forced to sell their stakes so as to be handed a licence by the regulator to compete in the Football League.

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Mansour is the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates while Newcastle are owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Lord Bassam's amendment reads: "No state-controlled club may be granted an operating licence, and any affected club must satisfy the IFR [independent football regulator] that they have divested themselves of their state-control before applying for an operating licence.

"A state-controlled club is one which is wholly or majority-owned by individual(s), entities, or entities controlled by individual(s) who are deemed by the IFR or the secretary of state to be under the influence of any state actor, including but not limited to: members of any government or their immediate family, a head of state or their immediate