By Tony Attwood
There are many ways forward for the clubs other than Manchester City to regain control of their own leagues and the international Champions League without having to have Manchester City and their financial manipulations in the competition.
And I think that slowly Europe is coming to this conclusion. ManC tend to be in denial for the moment, but this is the reality that exists: if the top European clubs want to see the battle through.
And yes, battle it will be, but the big clubs in Europe will most certainly win, and Manchester City will be left on the outside. Of course their pride will make it hard for them to admit defeat, but even if they don’t they will be isolated, and financially worthless.
So here’s how it goes. The Champions League – and come to that the other European competitions that exist beneath it, all work because the individual clubs taking part, along with the countries from which those clubs come, all agree to the basic rules of the competition. These rules change from time to time but generally they include agreements on where the money comes from, and who gets what money.
All the clubs have to do is build a set of regulations that they all can agree with which effectively means that ManC can’t take part without giving up most of its sponsorship money. So the rules might stipulate the maximum amount of sponsorship money each club can receive from all sources during the year. Cheating on this front would mean expulsion from the competition for ten years.
Or sponsors might themselves take the initiative and say, “no matter what we are not going to sponsor this competition if ManC takes part, because of the negative image they bring.
Or again, if any other variance somewhere along the line which says “no club can take part if it gets beyond X in sponsorship money” can be imposed, and all club finances have to be made available.
Now of course as long as the competition is bigger than the power wielded by an individual club or football association, everything is fine. Eventually the club or association sitting on the outside would be forced back inside. But try this…
Uefa has no way of banning Manchester City in the future and they go on and qualify for next season’s competition by getting into the top four places in England, or winning the FA Cup. And supposing then half a dozen or more club said, “No we don’t play them – they are proven cheats.”
If Uefa don’t play the Mancs in the competition, they sue Uefa. If they do play the Mancs a lot of clubs drop out and so the competition loses its prestige. What then?
Quite possibly the next step would be for the clubs that had opposed the ManC inclusion would then form their own new association without Manc and start their own international club tournaments. Fifa and Uefa might oppose this, and kick the clubs out but if they are big enough – we are after all talking of the top clubs in Europe – the clubs will probably be bigger than Uefa.
That could be interesting because the clubs could organise the new competitions on their own basis that was right for them. Then the national associations would be told by Uefa to kick these clubs out, and the associations would be able to choose: vibrant growing new competitions, or old competitions which ManC always win..
I suspect the associations would go with the clubs, since without their most famous clubs the countries in footballing terms are nothing. But at this time the clubs would be able to deal with ManC, quite possibly kicking them out for having fiddled the accounting system. ManC could appeal and win and appeal but what then? The rest of the clubs could form a competition in a new format without them.
Of course ManC set up a rival competition of their own but would other clubs want to play in it?
And it is this question that is the key, because in a battle between ManC and the other clubs, the other clubs would always win, because they are a multitude, not an individual club. The remaining clubs set up a new league but don’t invite Manc If Manc demand a place in the league, the other clus either just play their reserve team and let them win or get Manc to sign up to the new league rules.
Now the point here is that none of this has to come to pass – it can just be set out as a proposal with a warning to ManC that “no matter what tricks you pull, you are not going to win. Even if the rest of Europe end up playing friendlies we are not going to play you.”
