How the football media only publish the news that fits their agendas Next Post Coming Soon...
By Sir Hardly Anyone
On 6 February 2023 the Independent website announced "Man City charged with over 100 breaches of financial rules after four-year investigation". The rest of the media were all diving in as well. Since then... well, nothing much. Manchester City deny it all, and have brought in a top team of legal experts to fight their case.
Now the fact that there was a four-year investigation suggests that the offences relate to issues from around 2019 on to 2023. A list of the offences is here.
Of course, none of us has any idea what the result of the enquiry is going to be, so everything that follows is assumption. But since most football reporting is based on fantasy, I'd say basing an article on assumptions is still one-up on most of what we get. So here goes...
Not guilty on all counts.
In such circumstances Manchester C could let matters pass and say "told you so" and carry on as before. It took three seasons for the new owners to take the club to the top three subsequent to the takeover, compared with 34 years outside the top three before the takeover. Since then they have been in the top three for 12 of the last 13 years.
Clearly therefore it is a format that works, and which if Man C are found not guilty, would be considered legal, so we could expect maybe half a dozen or more clubs to be taken over and operated in the same way. Within five years most of the PL could be owned by clubs backed by the sort of money Manchester City have been able to call on.
They would then change the finance rules and any clubs left being run in the traditional "make a profit" way, would be ousted. I suspect the rest of Europe would not like it either, and they would kick out the Premier League which would end up playing in international competitions with teams fro the USA.
There would be two football worlds. England and USA, and the rest.
Guilty but it was all such a long time ago
In English law, there is a statute of limitations which is six years in most cases - which means generally one can't prosecute a person or company six years after the offence. But this is a civil case so much depends on what is in the contract of agreement between clubs and the league. The case started in 2023 and relates to cases from 2019 onward, so even if there is a statute of limitations with the agreement between the league and the clubs, it seems unlikely that it could apply in this case which began at most four years after the alleged offences could have begun.
And if each breach is a separate case then each breach has its own period of limitations. Probably a tough argument for Man C to win..
Guilty but we want to appeal
In civil cases appeals are quite normal and Everton and Forest appealed. Presumably, this could extend the hearings for another year given that the case has already been running a year.
Guilty and that's the end
The cases so far have resulted in points deductions for the season in which the hearing took place. Everton were deducted 10 points, reduced to six on appeal for a single offence. Manchester City are charged with 115 offences so if found guilty just 15 counts and deducted six points for each that would see them on -90 points. They might get those back through playing next season but still be relegated when they end the season on zero points.
On the other hand given the number of changes against them, if found guilty all round that could lead to a Manchester City penalty of 1150 points reduced to 690 points on appeal.
It's hard to work out how many relegations that would equate to, but if applied at once it would relegate Manchester City to the Northern Premier League or thereabouts.
That sounds ridiculous although again we should remember that Rangers were demoted to the fourth tier of Scottish football in 2012, despite a threat from the TV companies that they would pull out of their deal if the league dared demote Rangers.
Certainly, the PL would not want to be seen to be soft on Manchester City for fear of other top clubs simply giving notice and leaving the league to set up, well, either a Super League in Europe or just in England - with Manchester City in it.
In such a case there is a chance that those supporters who opposed Super League before might be moved enough by the scale of Manchester City's crimes (alleged so far of course since there is no verdict yet) that they might comply with effectively leaving Manchester City to play in League Two or the Northern Premier League.
There is also the case of what would happen to the other City group of clubs. For example this season we have been noting the progress of another City Group club: Girona.
Girona is a City Group club which was in the second division until 2022 and now has a ground capacity of 14,400. Their progress shows just what money can buy, and that the City Group seem pretty much able to buy success in whatever league they choose.
Of course my inside knowledge on what is going on is limited but I have had some indication that there is a feeling among League clubs that this is the one chance they are going to get to stop clubs run by oligarchs and potentates from gradually dominating the Premier League.
The possibility for this case to surprise us still remains.
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