By Tony Attwood
Arsenal remain in the top eight group of clubs for yellow cards this season, with 11 cards. If they carry on at this rate the club will end up with 104 cards. Mind you that would also mean that Chelsea would end up with 152 cards and Bournemouth and Manchester United with 114.
By way of comparison last season Chelsea were top of the Yellow League with 105, so we are into expansionist territory here with the level of yellow cards seemingly going up by something like 45%. I am not sure that the PGMO gave the league any indication that this would happen – but if it does carry on this way clubs are really going to be using their full 25 man squad and demanding this is increased from 2024/5.
Even Manchester City are not escaping totally unscathed – they are on eight cards, and in a group of clubs in 14th position in the yellow table. Carry on like this and they will get 76 cards this season, compared with 52 last season – an increase of 46% – remarkably similar to the average.
Whether PGMO will continue this way we don’t know of course because they are (in case you have not heard) an ultra-secretive service company. We shall have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, we have the news that at long last the case against Manchester City is starting, getting on for two years after the Premier League first revealed it was considering the matter.
It seems possible that the delay has been due to Manchester City procrastination and the presentation of mountains of evidence that may not always be completely relevant – although I would stress that is speculation on my part. If that was the case it would be something that was perhaps an attempt to get the League itself to cave in, in the same way that the club might hope that the League will seek to settle the latest legal assault on the League from ManC over its rules, concerning whether they are legitimate within English law.
Indeed it is of interest that the allegations about Manchester City cover nine separate seasons, and that is of interest because of course punishment at the end of the case (if the club is found guilty) will be delivered presumably over one season.
With Nottingham Forest and Everton getting deductions which roughly average one point for each misdemeanour, Manchester City could get point deductions of anything up to 115 points.
Manchester City got 91 points last season, so that would mean they could lose the lot and be relegated to the Championship. I’m not saying this would happen, but it is an interesting speculation to wonder what they then might then do. Obviously, they would appeal, and quite possibly start a second legal case against the League, but I also think that the owners might not want the ignominy of being called cheats and liars, which is what a loss of the case would amount to.
What must be keeping them happier however are three factors. One is that in the recent cases it has become clear that the regulations have been very poorly drawn up, so they could win on a series of legal technicalities.
The second is that having built up their squad, they are able to trade in players and buy new ones at a much lower overall price, and so the ground is set for them to continue to adhere to the rulebook by cashing in on past purchases. And third they have another way out by leaving the league and setting up a City Group international league.
At the same time they could of course buy up a few more clubs to expand the group and then invite one or two other teams they don’t own to join them. Newcastle United would be an obvious candidate of course.
Now this is all speculation of course, and I have no insight into the legal issues being debated nor any legal background of my own. It is the equivalent of the chit-chat going on in the pubs. But I think I can say it is very likely that the whole affair has done a lot of damage to the reputation of Manchester City, a club which is now in essence seen by some supporters as made up of a bunch of cheats.
However, it is possible that the ManC case arguing that they have been discriminated against could have an impact. This is the one where they claim football regulations represent the “tyranny of the majority”. A verdict on that is expected to turn up part way through the running of the 115 charges case.
But it is also being argued that this case brings the two legal teams together before the detail of the 115 charges is investigated, allowing, in the words of the New York Times, ManC’s lawers to say “We are prepared to take you down if you go forward with what you’re planning to do, then we’re going to have a damages claim against you of hundreds of millions, which you can’t afford. We’ll tie you up in litigation for the next five or 10 years, and we will take you down.”
But what the NYT doesn’t consider if whether clubs can resign from the League en masse. I think they could and could do it before the hearing on that case is finished, thus leaving the League as an empty shell. ManC could win, but find themselves the only club left in the League. So they will then create a Euro league playing their other clubs and any others that want to join in, such as maybe PSG.
Of course it is patently obvious that I am not legally trained or experienced, my time in court being jury service and nothing more, so I might be talking codswallop, and probably not for the first time. But until someone says why the 19 clubs in the League can’t resign en masse and set up another League without ManC then it remains a possibility.
This idea of 2 separate leagues emerging at the other end of this, in whatever form, seems to me more and more likely as time goes by. I find the prospect less than palatable, and depending on there structures it may be the end of my interest in football. But it may not.
Of course it has already happened in other sports and they have sailed on serenely.
Boxing? Darts?
There are probably more but none spring to mind.
So it can work, but alas I think I would hate it.
It is customary for major enquiries to be conducted either in public, or with a certain level of transparency at least, whatever their other shortcomings may be. I’m thinking of Covid, Infected blood, Post Office scandal, Grenfell Tower etc. The identity of the presiding official is always known.
Man 115 City is subject to an “independent” inquiry, conducted by persons unknown at an undisclosed location.
Is it too cynical to be suspicious that these factors alone mean that there will be no chance of a satisfactory outcome.?
John L
Are these not the Premier League Rules and weren’t Everton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester’s hearings heard under identical conditions?
I know what you mean though about a satisfactory outcome, because in two out of the three cases the independent panel couldn’t understand the issues and tried to panalise the clubs more severely than the rules permitted.
@Nitram,
golf…. and in the end money somehow won and now there are 2 leagues.
However, all this and all scenarios are hinging on an elefant in the room no one is talking about : TV rights.
So… imagine all clubs say : go to hell and leave the PL.
Are they liable to the organisations who bought the TV rights ?
How long would their finances last without the actual TV rights ? as at the moment they’d say : we up and leave, the money would stop coming in
How long would it take to create a new league ? Or would the top 5 or 6 just say : Hi guys from the ESL, we’ll join you anyway, which at present would mean something like 9 or 10 teams…not 20…. unless it becomes an English Open Football League where some clubs from Europe join the majority of PL teams
Or will the clubs ran by nation states turn against companies buying rights ? And tell them to stay put or the markets in their countries and all the advertising revenue they put into advertising with them would vanish ?
Just can’t think this can happen without the buyers of rights having a say.
I’m still of the opinion that if each PL team would just field the U21 team when facing City, and do it for a whole season, the problem would solve itself. Make their victories and trophies worthless.
If the PGMOL is funded by the Premier League, Football League and the FA, why don’t those authorities have more input into the way it’s run? Don’t tell me it’s to keep it unbiased. It’s the effing worst. And is this organisation, company, entity, whatever the hell it is, completely without oversight from the entities that fund it? While the League is trying to punish City it should turn its attention to the referees. No City, no PGMOL. Sounds like a win win for English football and its fans.
The disparity in the number of cards from week to week should raise alarms. There is a clear diktat from the PGMOL to its members on how to call the games from week to week. WTF? This is the tail wagging the dog on an epic, multibillion scale. Grow a spine, cut ties with PGMO and start over. Or oversee the refs with real world consequences. Suspension, removal. And something really out there – TRANSPARENCY.