By Tony Attwood
- Who controls football: Leagues, media, government, rich clubs. Part 1
- Who controls football: Part 2. How the clubs are seeking the wrestle back control
There is no doubt that in many regards Manchester City and the City group have got it right so far. Without even bothering to count any European and cup titles their league record says it all…
1893- 2012: Two league titles in 108 seasons (ie excluding the war years).
2013 -2017: Two league titles in five seasons.
2018 – 2024: Six league titles in seven seasons.
The timespans are getting shorter and the league titles coming more frequently. And since there is no arguing with that fact, clearly the Manchester C method is a success. So given that the money will not stop flowing (at least not until we all stop our dependency on oil) the question at every league club is, “is there anything that can possibly stop Manchester City from dominating football for the next 100 years?”
Obviously, a legal ruling in the UK could do it, with the government deeming that supporting sporting ventures run by foreign powers harms our economy. But that’s unlikely.
But as things stand the Premier League merely works within Uefa rules, and the top clubs have changed their own rules before when the PL was created. And this is an area of interest since the dominance of the league by one club for years to come is not thought to be a “good thing”.
Of course there have been eras in which one team has dominated: in the late 19th century Aston Villa won five league titles in seven seasons. Huddersfield won three in a row in the 1920s. Arsenal won four in five seasons in the 1930s. Liverpool won then ten in 15 seasons in the 1970s 1980s.
Manchester United won eight in 11 at the end of the last century and into the 21st, and then as the century progressed had another five in seven.
Manchester City’s six titles in seven seasons however although not totally out of context in terms of the history of the league, appears to be different, as the club seems to have access to enough money to keep the run going so well that it will not be 10 in 15 like Liverpool but rather, 11 in 12 – even better than PSG’s 10 in 12.
And here two points are noticed. First, if Haaland broke his leg, Manc C would just go out and buy Haaland II, this seems very likely. Second, because of PSG’s dominance the French football-on-TV market has collapsed. The TV companies are just not interested in paying for French league football on TV any more: PSG always win.
In short, the big clubs in the League will not accept one club’s total dominance not just because of egos, but because they fear a PSG situation in the Premier League. One team always wins, the media lose interest, the money stops rolling in.
From this thought came the 115 charges against Man C with clubs anticipating that this could result in a warning to Man C to cease and desist.
But the club did not pull back and instead started legal action in which they challenged sponsorship rules, the decision-making process, and associated party transactions rules.
But the rest of the Premier League and the clubs promoted each year – have always shown themselves to be in agreement with the rules of the League, even though some like Leicester and Nottingham Forest think they are cleverer than everyone else and can get around the rules.
What this means is that if Man City ever look remotely like winning their legal case against the league, the rest of the League will simply resign from the league and set up a new league, once more with promotion and relegation to and from the Championship.
As for Europe, the clubs there know the value of playing English clubs, and they would sooner have matches against the New Premier League top four, than always against Manchester City with its infinite resources.
In short, no one in the west wants to play in a league where one club always wins.
As a result Manchester City has no friends in the Premier League, and even if they win in court that situation will not change. A mass resignation of the rest of the league will follow a Man C victory, because that victory would remove everyone else’s chance of winning anything. That in turn would mean that players from across the world wouldn’t want to play in the Premier League, and the TV audience would flop..
Which brings us back to part one – the collapse of French football. The TV audience. The audience has gone because PSG not just always win, but win by buying up all the best players and dominating everything. Likewise, TV revenue in Scotland is very modest, what with Celtic winning 12 of the last 13 titles.
The Premier League clubs know that if Man C get their way and win all the time, everyone else’s incomes will drop as TV reduces its funding as in France. But they are already committed to all sorts of expenditures which are dependent on them putting in a challenge. Allowing Man C to continue does not just make it difficult for other clubs to win the league, but also makes it almost impossible to continue bringing in the funding that they need to compete.
That is quite simply why if Man C to win their legal case, the other clubs will simply resign from the Premier League and form a new league exactly as they did when leaving the Football League and forming the PL. Except this time Manchester C will most certainly NOT to be invited to join. Instead they will be forced into a European league with PSG and… well, who knows. Barcelona are insolvent so they would take the money. But anyone else? Presumably some other clubs owned by the City Group.
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