Sanjay Bhandari, the chairman of the football anti- racism group Kick It Out, has emerged as a front runner to become the first chairman of the game’s new independent regulator. Bhandari is on a shortlist of three but is considered the ideal candidate for the part-time, £130,000-a-year role because of his background in law and finance, as well as his knowledge of the football landscape.
A Cambridge law graduate, Bhandari moved from the legal sector into the world of finance, occupying roles considered well-suited to an independent regulator.
As a partner at accountancy giant Ernst and Young he was the head of the financial services forensic team as well as the joint chief innovation officer for tax and law.
The appointment of the regulator chairperson has to be signed by the DCMS select committee but Bhandari, who was awarded an MBE for his services to sport last year, has already impressed since becoming the chair of Kick It Out in 2019.
Certainly, the relationships he already enjoys in football could be of benefit when the formation of a new regulator is still being met with such resistance and scepticism, not least among senior figures in the Premier League. Only this week Steve Parish, the chairman of Crystal Palace, told the football business summit that the watchdog “wants to interfere in all of the things we don’t need them to interfere in and help with none of the things we actually need help with”.
He added: “We have a problem that we’re constantly being told we’re not a business and [that] we’re part of the fabric of communities.”
