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By Tony Attwood
There is something about the way that the media reports and often doesn’t report the Manchester City court cases that makes me very suspicious. Suspicious that the media is being muzzled, and suspicious that something has been fixed. Or suspicious that the case is just so big the rest of the league is losing their nerve.
Then I think of the sort of people who own the other big clubs in the league and how they do not take kindly of being made to look like mugs and I think, well, maybe they won’t put up with any more nonsense.
Of course, I don’t have any hard-cut evidence concerning the ongoing cases, but it is just the language that is being used by the media that worries me. As for example in the Guardian today where the headlines are.
“Richard Masters: time is right to resolve Manchester City’s alleged breaches case
- Premier League chief executive keen for resolution
- Masters: ‘It is time for the case to resolve itself’”
The data itself comes from Reuters it seems, rather than the newspaper having its own reporters either on the job, or if that is not possible drawing conclusions.
And yet I know it is a legal case, but it is not bound by the rules and laws of a case in an English court where of course comment and speculation before the hearing is very strictly controlled so that witnesses and the jury can’t be influenced.
Rather we have blandness on top of blandness as in, “The Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, says it is “self-evident” that the case into Manchester City’s alleged breaches of financial rules needs to be resolved as soon as possible.”
How self-evident do you want to be, one wonders? That was self-evident in February 2023 when all this started.
After that, we get a note of how many charges (do they think we have forgotten) and that these are related to alleged breaches (of course they are alleged until proven) and then the tiny amount of speculation, “If found guilty, City, in the worst-case scenario, could face a points deduction or even be relegated. City deny any wrongdoing and are contesting those charges. No verdict has been reached in the case.”
And note, there is no mention of the penalties given to Everton and Forest. They got a six-point (reduced from ten on appeal) and a four-point reduction respectively. … The link to the Everton Appeal decision can be found here. The link to the Nottingham Forest decision can be found here.
In a masterpiece of nonsensical understatement Masters said in a BBC interview, “It is time now for the case to resolve itself. It’s been going on for a number of years and I think it’s self-evident that the case needs to be heard and answered.“ Talk about the bland leading the blind.
So what else can one say? First, Manchester City are now suing the Premier League. Rather pleasingly for me our report on that matter is right near the top of Google searches on the issue (it is here) although that sadly reflects not only the mastery of my reporting and literary techniques but the fact that not many other people want to get on the wrong side of Manchester City.
Second, that the penalties awarded against Everton and Forest ought to mean that if Manc C are found guilty across many of the cases their punishment ought to be proportionate to that awarded in previous cases, and so could result in a points deduction so great the club ends up in the Northern Premier League, or whatever that league is now called
Either way City will appeal any penalty that involves points (they obviously don’t care about money since their owners own a substantial part of the world’s oil) and so the case could go on for years
But supposing Man C win, or get let off with a meaningless fine – what then? Well we might then wait and see what happens in the case of Manch against the rest of the league but if the rest of the league are not happy with the outcome they could all resign from the league and set up their own new league without MC who could in turn go off and set up a league with all the other City Group clubs. That in my view could be a very good outcome.
The fact that this is the Premier League against ManC is important. When Uefa took on PSG that club was fined €60m in 2014, of which €40m was suspended. That is a bit like you and me being fined sixpence which one penny suspended. Or six cents with … well you know what I mean.
PSG’s squad for Uefa competitions went down to 21 and they were fined again another €10m in 2022. That is still nonsense, but will the League hold its nerve against Manchester City? We can only hope they do. But I fear the worst.
Footnote: When we have published on this topic before we have received a number of comments saying the writer is stupid, lacking in information, out of touch, and the like. We have published those in the past, but these tend to find them a bit repetitive, so we do publish some of them, but not the repeats, or the abuse.
Thanks Tony, a great read.
I could just imagine if it was Arsenal instead of ManCity facing these charges, the media would be like a dog with a bone and would be pushing this through by pressuring the league authorities. But because it’s MC they seem a bit reserved and faded on the subject.
How come they were quick to make judgement on Everton etc. but seem to be showing no progress in the case against MC, is their not a time line for such cases?
If MC get away with a lenient charge, then it would set a precedent for all other clubs to weigh up the costs of cheating to rewards gained. ManCity have gained more than just titles as this has a knock on effect with merchandise, sponsorships and fan base growth recognition from around the world. It may be worth cheating!
In my opinion football is a trinket in the Dystopian world we humans are racing towards that is a two world society. The powerful few and the rest of humanity which despite consisting of millions have one personality – servitude to the few. The big fry burn the life out of the small fry for the smallest crime whilst being free to commit every crime in the book.
The big question is: Will we know the identity of those we serve George Orwell – 1984 or we don’t know the identity of our master/s. Brave New World. Aldus Huxley.
In the mean time we live in the hope that one day the corruption which is strangling the life of our favourite game will someday soon be torn to shreds and replaced by honesty and integrity. A hopeless hope I fear.
Not quite, in my view Charles. Some of us live with the question what can I do about it, and how can I do that? Once one can adopt that view, then a more positive attitude is born, and from there, more options arise, and from options comes hope.