The Regulator can’t tackle Manchester C but could stop clubs dumping injured youngsters

 

 

• Arsenal under 21s: will we see any of them break through this season?
• That was the start of the end of international football

By Tony Attwood

As you will know if you have been following reports, the new Labour government in Britain is going to bring forth the Football Regulator.  As you may recall there was already a bill going through Parliament but it got lost owing to the General Election.

But the Regulator is back, and so is the Regulator’s biggest problem… the it can’t touch the Man C situation as the legal case is already happening over the club’s claims against the League and the League’s 115 accusations against the club.

What is clear also is the the Regulator won’t touch Scottish football as the Bill only applies to the Premier League, the Championship, Leagues One and Two and the top tier of the Conference.   According to the BBC Scottish football is not committed to a regulator. 

So a better title might be “Regulator of bits of football”.  The headline news about the regulator however is that the Premier League and Championship combined, net debt was £4.7bn in 2023.

That obviously is concerning, but here’s another concern: Manchester City FC are suing the rest of the League.  If they were to win the Premier League would collapse and so would a number of the smaller clubs which would share mutual responsibility for whatever award Man C got.   What’s more the regulations would then need to change the rules to allow Manchester C to spend as much last they wish whenever they wish.

Quite what the regulator will do meanwhile do we don’t know, but one demand that has been aired is the restriction on playing League games in foreign lands.  This is a real threat as La Liga is already discussing taking some of its games to the United States of America.

The argument is that if this happens and the Premier League does not follow, then investment in Premier League clubs would decline.  But on the other hand, investment in PL clubs is currently at an all time record, although that figure is warped by the amount of investment in Manchester C over the past 16 years when they have been owned by Abu Dhabi United.

La Liga on the other hand has a crisis of its own with the financial collapse of Barcelona.   And this of course doesn’t just affect Barcelona, for it also affects everyone to whom Barcelona owes money.  At the moment the debt is calculated at over £900m.  About a third of that is accounted for in player salaries and loans taken to pay them, and the rest is owed to other clubs, the developers of their ground and the banks.

Barcelona are of course “too big to fail” and there is no doubt that if they did fail the knock-on effect on clubs around the world could be significant.

Such a failure could then open the way for Abu Dhabi United to move in.  Now the European regulators have already allowed both Manchester City and Girona (whom the City Group own) to play in the Champions League against each other, so why not Barcelona as well?  After all, there’s virtually no one else available who could take over Barcelona’s debts.

At present the feeling seems to be that “this could never happen” because Barcelona values its independence too much.. Except that the way they staved off financial collapse last season was by selling off the broadcasting rights to their matches for future years – and all that money has now been spent.  So their income this coming season is actually going to be lower than before.

Which thus brings us back to playing games in the United States.  I can’t see that doing this will actually solve Barcelona’s problems, but it might stave off collapse for one more season, so could be allowed.

But to return to the start, such issues are not for the new Football Regulator who only looks at English (and maybe Welsh) football (I am not clear about Wales at the moment but I imagine that is the case).  The Premier League is by far the biggest league that there is, generating as it does just on double the amount of money as the Bundesliga which has a turnover of just over £3bn.

So the eyes of the footballing world will be on this new entity and what it does.  And at the same time, the eyes of the world are also on Manchester City’s court case against the entire Premier League and where that goes.  My guess is still that if Man C do not back down the rest of the clubs in the league will resign, as they did from the Football League, and set up a new league (as they did with the Premier League).

And Manchester C won’t be invited to the new league.  Which, with the impending demise of Barcelona, could see Man C, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid form a new league including also New York City, Girona, and maybe a few other clubs the group owns.