It;s official: football supporters are stupid.

 

• Arsenal v Everton, the team, 287150 comments and what happens next
• Arsenal v Everton, and Tottenham doing almost as well as Luton

By Tony Attwood

I use the word “official” above in a vague sense, because my source for the notion that we are all stupid is the Daily Telegraph which runs a comprehensive football section and is widely seen as the voice of the Conservative Party which governs the UK.

And as for what they are saying, here are a few headlines…. and they are all really negative…

At Arsenal Stadium it was “Arsenal fans fell for that old chestnut – a goal that never was.”

At Liverpool “Jurgen Klopp’s long farewell leaves Liverpool in state of euphoric melancholy”

For Manchester City: Gary Neville rips into pitch-invading Man City fans: ‘They’re not kids, they’re 40-year-old blokes’

Celtic fans “celebrate winning the league by trashing Glasgow”

With Tottenham it is “Spurs fans fighting and another season wasted (that one is by an Arsenal fan).

Southampton reach play-off final – “but pitch invasion prevents lap of honour”.

 It is all pretty awful and negative and all the fans fault.  Although curiously amid this barrage of raging negativity there is a 750-word article on Manchester City saying “Pep Guardiola hints at Manchester City exit” which itself doesn’t contain a single word about the big issue – the 115 charges against Manchester City.

The aim of course is to unlink the club and its manager from the charges, which suggesting everything else is the fault of the fans.  But it doesn’t really work for if Manchester City are found guilty and the same penalties applied as were given to Everton (twice) and Nottingham Forest then the calculator has to come out.

Everton had two charges against them (eight points deducted) and Nottingham Forest had one (four points deducted).   On that scale with 115 charges against them Manchester City if found guilty would have 920 points deducted which effectively would mean relegation to the 10th tier of football.

The trouble is there are only eight tiers in England, with the bottom tier running multiple leagues such as Northern Premier League Division One East, Northern Premier League Division One Midlands, Northern Premier League Division One West, Southern Football League Division One East, Southern Football League Division One West, Isthmian League Division One North, Isthmian League Division One South Central and Isthmian League Division One South East.  Presumably one of those would take the renegade club.

Although we would still have questions, such as could Manchester City continue to play in the Premier League while the appeal was being heard?

And then the big one: if Manchester City were found guilty would they accept their punishment or would they leave and join another league – for example a European Conference League made up of themselves along with Real Madrid, Barcelona. Juventus and AC Milan.   

OK a five-team league does not look that viable, but then add in Girona who will finish third in the Spanish League this season and are also owned by the City Group, just as Manchester City are.  And Palermo,  and Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne, who although in the second division in France could easily have some more players brought in from other clubs in the City group.

So that is eight teams, leaving just 12 more to find for the new super league which the owners of Manchester C could easily buy with their spare change.  One can imagine that among the clubs that voted originally for the Super League, one or two might join.  And there we have a new league for Manchester City to play in, while avoiding whatever points deduction the Premier League gives it.

But then on the other hand what happens if Manchester City are found not guilty or just given a suspended fine?  How would the rest of the league feel about that?

To see what might happen we need to go back to October 1990, when the managing director of London Weekend Television, met with the representatives of Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur to discuss a breakaway league which would have its matches shown live on ITV. 

The idea was to sell the plan to 18 clubs under the overlordship of the Football Association.   And it should be remembered that 14 clubs agreed to the caveat that if the FA failed to deliver they would go ahead and form their own league anyway.  

In the end, it was agreed to continue with promotion and relegation with the clubs beyond, in the Football League – but that was only in the end.

The City Group would then approach Uefa for membership, and Uefa would know the power not just of these clubs, but others that the owners could buy in order to boost the league.

And in considering this we should remember that Sheikh Mansour who is the owner of Manchester City is also chairman of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and of the Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment company for the Abu Dhabi royal family, that acquired Manchester City in September 2008.

So there isn’t exactly short of cash.