Man C accept their latest punishment: what does that tell us?

 

 

• Arsenal lose to Liverpool in pre-season friendly, but the stars were against them
• The 69 players Arsenal are looking to sign and the 29 who are leaving

By Tony Attwood

Manchester City have been fined over £2m by the Premier League for 22 instances of “delaying the kick-off or restart of matches.”

They have accepted the fine and apologised.   So what do we learn from that?

It is not a story that has attracted much interest in the media although the Guardian has covered it, as has the Independent, each paper using virtually the same language and refraining from any speculation as to what is going on.

First, we now know there is a fairly strict rule about when a game kicks off – it is there to protect the TV rights as TV companies tend to get fairly worked up about having to hang around waiting for a club to be ready to go.  They pay the money and they own the match – that is very much TV’s thinking.

Second we now find that Manchester City kept on breaking the rule.   From which we might well ask why?   Did it have an advantage to them to keep the opposition waiting for a minute or two?  Certainly, that could be the reason, as nothing is done by the club without its team of psychologists having an input.

And that brings up the issue of why the club not only kept on doing it again and again but kept on doing it more and more – the longest delay was for the second half start in the last game of the season.   Why would a club that had already been warned about delaying the match go on doing it more and more?

One obvious reason is that it might bring them an advantage of some sort by making the opposition hang about on the pitch.  Another is that they just like sticking two fingers up at the league.   Another is that one of their overlords has given the order that the team should not be on the pitch ready to play until his Almightyship has taken his seat in the stand.

But will the fine of £2m stop them?  Given the massive amount of money that the club has available, it would seem unlikely.

And looking at the whole thing my guess is there are two likely reasons that they kept going with this tactic – and possibly will do the same. this season.

One is that delaying the start does cause opposition players to get more anxious, or agitated as they hang about waiting.

The other is that it sticks two fingers up at the league and the rest of the clubs.  It says £2m is nothing to us, and we can do anything we like.  Make up all the silly rules you like – the more you fine us the more we will do it – as witness the fact that the longest delay came with the last match.  It is in short a symbolic gesture in relation to the 100+ financial claims against the club and the reminder that the club is now suing the league.

Interestingly the media is pointing out that “The issue is unconnected to the 115 charges City are facing for alleged breaches of the competition’s financial regulations,” which technically is true.  But with Manchester City everything is interconnected in terms of its desire to take over everything.

A statement from the Premier League read: “The Premier League and Manchester City FC have entered into a sanction agreement after the club accepted it had breached Premier League Rule L.33 relating to kick-off and restart obligations.”

What is particularly interesting however is that the club have not been punished via the same fixed fee for each offence but each offence has been given a higher punishment.  So the fines range from £10,000 for the first offence up to £200,000 for the last offence.

The longest delay was by two minutes and 46 seconds – and that came after they had been warned and warned and warned throughout the season.

The league stated that, “Rules relating to kick-offs and restarts help ensure the organisation of the competition is set at the highest possible professional standard and provides certainty to fans and participating clubs.  It (sic) also ensures the broadcast of all 380 League matches around the world is kept to schedule.”

Most interestingly however is the fact that there is  no speculation by the media as to why Manchester City kept doing this, and kept doing it more and more despite being repeatedly warned.  As far as I can find out no other Premier League club was fined or even warned on this issue during the season.

The only explanation I can think of is that of sticking two fingers up to the league, and if that is the case we can look forward to more and more acts of childish petulance by the club in the season to come.

The only previous case of this type I know about (thanks to the Athletic)  involved Crystal Palace who were fined in 2023 for delays in two matches.  No other club has made the approach what appears to be a policy.