The Premier League’s fight for its future rests entirely on the Manchester City case.
Prosecuting financial malfeasance on an industrial scale will define the path which governs the top flight for the next few years, if not longer. The 114 charges brought against City’s owners marks an existential juncture for the English game. All options remain on the table as viable punishments for Enzo Mareca’s side. They risk point deductions, seeing titles won voided and even expulsion from the Premier League.
Any expectations of outward contrition on a first return to action since the independent commission delivered its damning verdict, when the message from within Eastlands’ corridors of power is one of maintained innocence, were incredibly naive. Their comprehensive win over Liverpool, at the place Pep Guardiola famously described as ‘a bugger of a ground’, carried an abundant message both on and off the pitch.
Manchester City’s charges fate must end Premier League disparity
Even before rocking up to Anfield last weekend, Man City fans were mirroring their hierarchy’s defiant stance. Their argument was, and remains, that the club is in fact the wronged party; that nine years of financial doping was a necessary evil to ensure they could realistically compete against a ‘red cartel’ of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Noel Gallagher, who stood among the away allocation on Merseyside, was also quick to make a case that fans should not feel the weight of arbitrational action. The Oasis co-founder insisted the misdeeds carried out in their boardroom were ‘nothing to do with the supporters or the players’, pushing the envelope for clemency to those who witnessed a history which could soon be expunged from the record books but not their memories.
There is credibility to Gallagher’s case for mitigation. After all, City fans did not ask to be festooned with a scintilla of Abu Dhabi’s eye-watering wealth since 2008; they have simply been swept along for the ride after decades in the doldrums. Unfortunately, contempt for the conmen and compassion for the conned, while an admirable sentiment, does not translate to football. Fandom is an entirely one-sided transaction. Whatever happens behind the scenes can, and does, ultimately impact those at the bottom of the food chain most. New signings, managerial changes and price hikes are all passed on to those supposedly still considered to be the game’s lifeblood.
Should the club’s appeal fail, the fallout will invariably hit their supporters hardest. It won’t be Sheikh Mansour that suffers the indignity of potentially retracing the steps from their infamous trip to York City in what is now League One. He is equally well-insulated from repeated taunts of ‘cheats’ which reverberated around Anfield and will soundtrack every visit to grounds in whatever division they ultimately find themselves playing. But while Man City fans will be understandably aggrieved by whatever punishment follows, they have a chance to represent a first step towards fairness in domestic football.
The Premier League’s approach to how it treats those that fall afoul of its stringent financial regulations has hardly been even-handed. Accusations of a halfway house existing which appears to view those in its upper echelons more favourably are difficult to shake given the cases involving Everton, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. The former, both perennial relegation candidates at that time, were hit with point deductions which were imposed forthwith, complete with an updated table to show their perilous revised positions. The Toffees gained no sporting advantage from their breach of Profit and Sustainability Rules but were hit with a landmark 10-point sanction, reduced to six on appeal. Forest, similarly, were told that ‘rules are rules’ as an £34.5m overspend was hit with a four-point deduction.
Conversely, Stamford Bridge chiefs were given remarkably lenient measures for self-reporting secret payments made under predecessor Roman Abramovich which had helped grease the wheels of signing players between 2011 and 2018. The Londoners won one title fewer than City in their own breach period but saw their punishment restricted to little more than a £10.75m fine and a suspended one-window transfer ban for their historic acts of rule-breaking. A separate 74 charges with the Football Association drew a similarly meagre £10m financial penalty while an initial suspended six-point deduction was downgraded on appeal. Any case against punishing the fans for the oligarch’s illicit tactics have subsequently been undermined by Chelsea’s match-going support continuing to deify him with chants at games since being stripped of power.
That sentiment was also pushed far and wide in the aftermath of the failed European Super League, when the English contingent of the continental ‘dirty dozen’ conspired to launch a breakaway under the cover of darkness. Both UEFA and the Premier League acceded to that request with financial penalties that represented barely a ripple in their respective balance sheets. A shared fine amounting to £3.6m was handed down by Richard Masters’ organisation, who threatened to impose a greater 30-point deduction and £20m fine should they try and pull a similar stunt in future. European football’s governing body, despite being directly impacted by the breakaway plot, were even more forgiving with individual £1.4m sanctions and foregoing 5% of their European competition revenues for a season, two years down the line.
Throwing fans at the mercy of regulators is a convenient shield for owners to escape retribution and City’s overlords are unlikely to think twice of sacrificing those who treat Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak as folk heroes were it to allow them to be extricated with dignity from what has become an increasingly complex case.
Man City previously led the way as the first club to withdraw from the Super League plot, earning plaudits from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin for demonstrating ‘great intelligence’ in doing so. Whatever punishment could come their way from the current saga can act a great equaliser for the supposed ‘greatest league in the world’.
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