- 3 matches gone, what does this tell us about the end of the season?
- One unexpected signing: Arsenal are still moving in the right direction
By Tony Attwood
By and large, the media don’t like to suggest that there is anything seriously amiss with English football, largely because that would involve them in doing some serious research, and quite possibly facing the awkward question of why they have never mentioned such things before.
But such restrictions seem not to apply to the New York Times website which seems quite happy to cover issues that by and large have been the province of Untold and very few other outlets.
Thus they announce with perhaps a slight twinkle of the eye, what no one else is saying, in that “This is the Premier League’s litigation era.” And with that it is hard to disagree.
Obviously Everton and Forest have had points deducted, the case against Manchester City involved 115 breaches of the rules is still hanging out there, and now we also have the Manchester City case against the rest of the League. And there could be more on the way.
The League is now investigating Chelsea’s accounts, and goodness knows what they are finding, but the odds seem to be stacked in favour of the answer at least in part being “an unholy mess”. Or maybe more.
Manchester United have talked of having “more accountants than we’ve got sporting people”, and looking at the way they were playing yesterday it could be that they have got everyone mixed up.
Meanwhile to balance the books English clubs have been selling wholesale to Europe with young and homegrown players being at a premium. Even the fantasy transfer window around 40% down on last year in terms of the players that Arsenal were allegedly buying, but actually were not.
The League’s director of governance and regulation Jamie Herbert has told the clubs that he has the right to investigate anything that appears to be of concern which led to at least four clubs putting a lot of their players on the market for financial rather than footballing reasons – although not everyone sold.
Arsenal fortunately has not been involved in any such panic selling. Nor is the club implicated in any sales suspected to involve players going for above their realistic market value.
This has certainly upset a fair number of journalists and bloggers who were reduced (in Arsenal’s case) to the gibberish of “must buy a centre forward” despite the club building a totally different model of performance on the pitch.
And there have been some very strange deals indeed. As the NY Times says “Vlachodimos, who had failed to impress in five Premier League appearances for Forest since a £6.8million move from Benfica last September, was valued by Transfermarkt at £5.9m but got sold to Newcastle for an undisclosed fee that has been reported to be in the region of £20m. The 30-year-old has not been in Newcastle’s squad for any of their first four games of the season.”
We are awaiting an explanation although as the NY Times say, “There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of the teams involved.”
So what is going on? We know that clubs are now seeing their academic as football farms that help them balance the books, rather than make the team better.
And what makes it all the more complex is the existence of club groups, notably Chelsea’s BlueCo and Manchester C’s City Group. Chelsea raised a huge sum by selling off part of its hotel chain and using the income to balance the PSR books. Not enough of the League objected to make it illegal.
That was probably because everyone is awaiting the outcome of the League’s 115 claims against Manchester City and their legal claim against the League. It remains interesting that no commentators seem willing to speculate on what happens next.
In the case of the League against Manchester City, if the League imposes penalties in keeping with those against Everton and Nottingham Forest then the City group are likely to start another legal case, or move the club to another country.
If the tribunal lets the City Group off on the same sort of technicality that they used to win their appeal in the Court of Arbitration and Sport then I suspect a number of clubs will feel there is no point in being in the League and will resign to set up a new League of their own – without Manchester City.
Likewise, if Manchester C win their legal case against the League, again I would expect a large number of clubs to hand in their notice and walk into another League of their own, just as they did after they walked out of the old Football League Division 1.
If Manchester City lose, I suspect they will set up their own new League and use some interesting financial inducements to persuade other clubs to join them, Clubs regularly inhabiting the lower half of the Premier League could well be inclined to take up the offer not because it is good for the clubs but because it is good for the shareholders by paying off all their debts
In short, I think we ain’t seen nothing yet.
tony,
I doubt City will be meaningfully punished, if at all. I think they have a better chance of beating the other 19 clubs in court.
But I don’t think they’ll try to form a league of their own. Besides MC supporters who else would attend or view this ‘league’?
The number and seriousness of the charges against MC behooves the other 19 clubs to act. After the 24/25 season they should reorganise the league without City and relegate three but promote four teams. The world would go on.
If another league will be formed, is there a chance for Rangers and Celtic to be invited? Does anyone remember back in the 90s how the Media always talked about them joining the Premier league?
If you are on Twitter, you should probably be following @themagic_tophat. He has some interesting information on 115FC and the UEFA and PL cases against them.
ChelseaFC Holdings also sold their Women’s team to BlueCo in June
Nothing to see here, move along
Why was the transfer market so slow for the big PL clubs this summer? Could it be that a lot of City players will be available by the end of the season?