By Cameron Andrade
The defending Premier League champions, Manchester City, has been charged by the Premier League for allegedly breaching their financial play rules. Claiming over 100 rules were broken dating back to the 2009-2010 season.
Man City has been one of the world’s biggest clubs ever since billionaire Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008. Winning six Premier League titles since 2010, four of those titles coming in the last five seasons.
According to the Premier League, Man City hid financial information and did not accurately provide said financial information. Along with allegedly a secret contract between one of their managers over a four year period, stating one of the managers was making more than what was stated.
Financial play rules are designed to not allow clubs to spend more than what they have earned. Essentially making it fair for the smaller clubs who do not earn as much revenue as the big clubs. However, there are ways around this rule; you can hide how much you are spending or inflate how much you are earning.
The club released a statement on their website regarding these claims:
“Manchester City FC is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with. As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”
This is not the first time that Man City has been investigated for a matter like this, during the 2020 season the club was found guilty by the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) of their own financial fair play rules. Given the punishment of a two year Champions League ban, along with a $30 million fine.
The club appealed this ruling and won the case, having the ban removed and the fine reduced to $10 million.
It is hard to tell how big of a punishment the club will receive after a breach of this magnitude. It could be as light as another multi million dollar fine; or even as big as point deduction or relegation from the Premier League. There has even been talks on whether the titles won by Manchester City in the past should stand, awarding the second place teams of those seasons with the Premier League trophies.
Another club recently went through the same allegations, Italian side Juventus were docked 15 points in Serie A for financial irregularities and false accounting throughout the club. The point deduction brought them from 3rd place in the league, all the way to 10th place.
“I think considering the Juventus situation my first reaction to the news was wondering what the punishment was going to be,” Man City fan Ethan Kahn. “I think if it is a fine or something along those lines we will be alright, but a points deduction or transfer embargo would really be detrimental to the progress we have made in the past decade.”
As all the talk focuses on the wrongdoings of Man City’s board of directors, people have seemed to forget about how the fans of the club will be affected.
“These charges are definitely more numerous than the charges in 2020,” said Kahn. “The club seems super committed to ending this ASAP which is promising, but I think there’s a general sense of uncertainty across the fan base as to what the team is gonna have to go through. We could see a completely different Man City in 2-3 years’ time.”
Man City’s current manager Pep Guardiola, recently held a press conference prior to their fixture on Sunday against Aston Villa. The manager faced the media for the first time since the allegations occurred.
“What happened since Monday is the same that happened with UEFA, we have already been condemned, the club proved they were innocent.” said Guardiola
The Spaniard even took a jab at the additional 19 Premier League clubs during the interview.
“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without us having the ability to defend.” said Guardiola
Once a decision has been made from the Premier Leagues judicial panel, Man City will not have the opportunity to appeal the decision made by the Premier League through the Court of Arbitration of Sports. However, they will have the opportunity to appeal once they have appointed an appeal panel.
Multiple Premier League teams have been bought by billionaires over the years, in a league where all but two teams are currently owned by billionaires. There is bound to be some havoc, over owners who use their soccer clubs as pawns in a marketing scheme, rather than the good of the game.
As the investigation and allegations have just now started to take place, the world could have to wait up to four years for these charges to reach a verdict once and for all.