We’ve all gotten rather used to the rich and powerful escaping meaningful consequences for their misdeeds in recent years, and it’s been the same in sport as in life generally where fans of the Premier League have watched Manchester City engage in obvious financial doping going back more than a decade.
Since first purchasing the club back in 2008, City have been quite transparently used by owners Abu Dhabi as a sportswashing front, a projection of soft power for an oil rich nation-state with a dubious
human rights record. The problem has always been proving—something City have been using their lawyers to try to prevent almost from the moment they arrived.
Over the past week, the Premier League’s efforts to fight the existential threat that is a nation willing to pour essentially limitless resources into the club for largely non-sporting purposes finally came to fruition when City were found guilty on 114 of 115 charges related to their financial doping and subsequent efforts to avoid being held accountable.
Still, there were questions as to whether it would lead to anything—whether the league even really would want it to lead to anything. Today, the league released their first statement on the matter. And it doesn’t seem like City or their fans should be feeling comfortable or confident over what might come next.
“The core decision establishes the facts of what happened at Manchester City during this period,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Masters of the City ruling. “It details how the club systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade. It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City.
“While the process has been long and difficult, the League has remained determined the facts be established independently. It is a key responsibility of the League to ensure the rules are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for fans. We take that role extremely seriously.
“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history. There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches. Now we have the Commission’s decision, we are committed to moving swiftly through the remainder of the process, to provide certainty for the League, our clubs and fans.”
Manchester City now have until October 2nd to appeal the ruling, which they are fully expected to. There have been rumblings that should the ruling stand, retroactive punishment is not being widely pushed for but that severe penalties that would impact City moving forward are likely to be pursued by the league.
Beyond league-imposed sanctions, clubs including Liverpool have ensured they will be able to pursue City for financial damages should they wish, and Burnley’s awarding of £35M in damages from Everton after The Blues were convicted of breaching spending rules for a season in which Burnley finished behind them and were relegated are a concerning precedent for City.
The Premier League’s press release on the ruling further outlined City’s misdeeds as follows:
- Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs
- The club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators
- Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits
- During the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)
