- Arsenal v Atletico Madrid: tomorrow at 8pm
- Pre-match predictions often avoid key issues. But why is this?
By Tony Attwood
Although it doesn’t apply to everyone by any means, there is still a tendency among some British people to assume that by and large the British are a law-abiding population, and the companies that operate within Britain are likewise law-abiding, while in other countries… well, they just don’t have our standards.
And yet of late some questions are being asked. Now of course, that doesn’t prove anyone is doing anything illegal – but it does mean some (and maybe it is just a few) people are getting a trifle suspicious.
So nothing written here means that just because Manchester City won the league six times in seven seasons they were breaking either football or national laws in some way, but given the fact that Manchester City have over 100 cases hanging over them internally. But it raises the point that given that the club reportedly threatened to destroy the Premier League if these went to court, it suggests that maybe (just maybe nothing more) our past view that English clubs would never behave as some foreign clubs allegedly do, might be a little outdated.
And this issue has arisen again at this moment as Chelsea, who have won the Premier League five times, have been implicated in a series of misdemeanours during the times they were winning the title.
So I must reiterate, I have no evidence either way in such cases, but I do find it interesting that reports are appearing and questions are now being asked. And the existence of some of the questions does seem, at least in some ways to be tainting football.
This may, of course, be because we all know that the allegations against Manchester City have not been settled, as the club allegedly threatened the League should it dare to proceed. Leicester, we also know, has been found guilty of a variety of financial misdemeanours. Manchester United were fined €300,000 for financial fair play breaches between 2019 and 2022, and so on.
Indeed, when we start looking at clubs outside England, we find much the same is going on with guilty financial verdicts of late against Barcelona, Malaga, PSG, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Juventus, AS Monaco, Marseille, Real Betis, Sporting CP and Porto. Which means even if we just assume that only one or two clubs in England are breaking the rules, we are suggesting that English clubs are run very differently from many European clubs. Maybe so, but I am not sure. Certainly, one I can say is that the case I have been following, in which wrongdoing by a football club was reported, has made no progress because each football body has said that it is not something they handle. If, and it is a big if, the various authorities within football treat allegations in other areas of football similarly, that would suggest some issues are simply never being investigated because each body suggests the issues raised are not in their remit.
Of late, something like 17 fair-sized European football clubs have been found guilty of serious rule-breaking, and so one might reasonably start to wonder how many other clubs out there have either not yet been spotted doing unlawful things or have not yet come to court, or are getting away with misdemeanours because each football body says it is “not one for us”.
But what also strikes me is that the media doesn’t like this story and generally won’t touch it. They seem to have a vested interest in leaving us naively believing that everything is ok and it is just one or two naughty clubs, and maybe one or two dodgy owners, who are getting up to no good.
And yet numerous English football clubs have received points deductions due to mismanagement, entering administration, or breaches of profit and sustainability rules: Everton, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Luton, Leeds, Leicester, etc., etc. Of late, we have also heard of cases against Chelsea (facing over 70 charges), Manchester United, and of course, the 110+ cases against Manchester City.
Now, what is worrying is that under eight per cent of crimes reported in England and Wales result in someone being charged. Which if this applied to football, it would mean that dodgy doings dominate the game.
However, there are many clubs that appear to be in the sights of the investigators, but the media, not wishing to interrupt their suggestion that English football is the best in the world, are not reporting this. Meanwhile, 180 officers have been “involved in a series of raids connected to tax evasion in the football industry. At the centre of the investigation are player transfers, agents’ fees and image rights that have been included in certain deals dating back to 2007,” according to the Independent. And that is without touching on the issue of child abuse.
However, one of the great allies that the crooks seem to have (and I say “seem” as this is simply how it appears to me; I don’t know any crooks) is that football in this country is self-regulating. As a result, the clubs can keep issues quiet, and because the media is dependent on the clubs for information and cooperation, the media may be rather slow to pick up on stories that show the clubs in a bad light.
Of course, I can’t investigate this, nor am I sitting on evidence, and I offer no proof, so you can easily dismiss all I write. But there seems (and I stress seems, since I am not sitting on evidence) to be a certain concern that, somehow, something is not right at the heart of English football, covering issues as disparate as club finances and the treatment of children.
I know it seems odd to say it, but could there really be something rotten at the heart of English football which the media refuse to report?
