By Tony Attwood
- How can Arsenal justify removing staff and putting up prices?
- It really doesn’t matter if other clubs try to copy Arsenal’s approach
I am told that Manchester City have gathered a fair old range of arguments they can use to argue against the 100+ cases brought against them by the League, and that much of the defence process centres on stretching the whole case out as long as possible. Of course that might be wrong – I have no proof – but it is a possibility.
The thinking behind this is that ultimately those running the case for the prosecution will become fully aware that they are going round in circles, and their clients – the Premier League – will realise just how much of their money is being used up in this way, and that some threats were made (perhaps not officially) about the cases running on until the League runs out of money.
This could bring about an interesting legal issue: can the club be stopped from playing in future games as soon as just one of the multiple cases has reached a guilty verdict? If so, that could frustrate the ManC case of trying to run the process into the ground. If not, and they can carry on playing, they could demonstrate quite easily that they will keep the case running for years, while carrying on as before. That would clearly not be in the league’s best interests, and certainly not in Arsenal’s interests, given that Arsenal would have hopes of retaining their title.
But to be clear – I am of course just speculating. I am not a lawyer and don’t know the laws involved, and am just wondering where we go next, before the cases have even started. For there could be a long row over what penalty could be imposed. The club will at that point have been found guilty of a breach of the rules, and it might well be clear that getting to the end of all the cases could take years. Should ManC be allowed to carry on playing while fighting the remainder of the cases? If the League tried to stop them, would ManC launch its own case against the League?
But then – if found guilty, could ManC appeal against the verdict? And if so, how long would that take? For by this point we could be looking at hearings for all the cases on which they have been found guilty, lasting for certainly longer than the playing careers of those involved, if not far longer still.
Of course I don’t know what will happen, but it strikes me that we have the issue of Manc and the European competitions. If Manc are found guilty of serious rule-breaking as a result of the first few charges against them, could UEFA or Fifa kick them out of the competition, given that the rest of the case had not yet been heard? Uefa might want to do this, but looking at the length of the case in England, might equally decide to back down. The Premier League might then demand immediate action, and that could lead to further disputes.
And there might be an appeal to Europe for entry to European competition next season on the grounds that only English, not European, law was broken, and an appeal on the grounds that the rulings only apply to certain competitions and not others.
Meanwhile, there could be appeals on the validity of the evidence, and an appeal againsts the involvement of Uefa if the issues so far heard were only in relation to Premier League matches. Plus, those clubs who have been refused prize money or an entry to subsequent Uefa competitions could be demanding compensation. If ManC refused to pay up, then further legal cases could be started on the grounds of the first case heard in the original case.
And again meanwhile there might be arguments about the validity of some eof the the evidence, appeals againsst the involvement of some of the parties (Uefa, the FA, the League…) appeals on the grounds of the competence of the court, appeals on the groundsd that the punishment is disproportionate and not laid down in the rules of Uefa or the League, appeals on the groundds that he players committed the crimes not the club, or vice versa, depending on how the judgement is made, an appeal that says the competition can’t go on while the appeals are outstanding, and… well you get the idea.
I suspect those in the League who are contemplating this situation are looking beyond the case itself to the subsequent scenarios, for one very obvious reason: once the case starts, ManC have nothing at all to lose. And that is always a dangerous situation for anyone running a legal case. The option then is simply for ManC to set up their own competitions with bigger prizes, or even set up their own league in which clubs participating get far bigger prizes than are available in the Premier League and thus guarantee profitability (rather than the current loss-making which afflicts the majority of clubs) and so effectively a new, more attractive league.
Of course I must repeat I have no inside information on this, and no legal knowledge of what the law says. But from what I such legal cases can take quite a while to reach a conclusion. And such matters might not be in the ebest interest of the League at large.
As I have made clear I have absolutely no evidence and no inside information concerning what ManC and their lawyers will do next. I am making no accusations or predictions, but merely suggesting that the League and its lawyers will be contemplating what might happen next, and what happens after that as well.
