- At last the cheats are revealed and the return to football can begin
- Will the Mancs be stripped of their titles and have points docked?
by Tony Attwood
The extreme delay in dealing with the crimes of ManC is obviously a consequence of allowing an entity into the Football League that is willing to threaten to bankrupt the rest of the organisation if it didn’t get its own way. It always seemed worrying that an accusation of not cooperating with financial reporting, (a charge that on the face of it could be cleared up in half a day), should take three years to reach a verdict.
But as we now know, this is all quite probably just the start. Two questions are raised with the first being: “do we all agree to the basic rules that we have here or not?” And then the second question being, “Can you answer that first question without bringing in a team of lawyers?”
Because if the answer to the second question is no, we are now in a new land. A Monty Python type land in which the accused says, “Are you my lawyer?” and bewigged gentleman replies “Yes. That will be £2000.”
The fact is, do we want to have a set of rules governing the way professional football is run, or not? Do we want a club with so much money available to it that it could, if it wished, take the rest of the league to court and bankrupt all the clubs? Indeed it is not even a question that they could do this, it is that they might threaten this.
Put another way do we want Arsenal FC to be run in accordance with the same rules as Torquay United FC? Or put yet another way, do we want the rule of law in which every organisation is treated equally, or not? And then following on from that, what are we going to do with those clubs who just ignore the rules because they’ve got so much money they can tie the rest of the league up forever in legal proceedings?
And here we get to the big point. Because if ManC were to win this battle, it would be the end of professional football in England as we know it. Professional football would continue in other countries but not here in England, because at every move ManC and its lawyers could change the rules to something else.
Now it can be argued that football can continue with the same club winning the league every year – Bayern Munich in Germany is the prime example. Or maybe two clubs (Celtic and Rangers in Scotland for example) sharing it across the seasons.
But the reason that it is the Premier League that the rest of the world wants to see, and why our grounds are so often sold out, is because until ManC bought their way to the top, the Premier League doesn’t have the predictability of most other leagues. That’s why we have the financial rules. If ManC were to win the legal argument we would have a league like Germany, and although it works there, I don’t think it would work in England because we have a history of over 100 years of competition and variation. And because we’ve always believed that the Premier League was a real competition.
Yes ManU won the league five times in seven years but at such a cost to themselves they are now on the edge of bankruptcy. Yes Arsenal won the league five times in the 1930s. But then it took them 43 years to win it the next four times. Newcastle, Wolverhampton and Huddersfield each won the league three times in six years or fewer, but none have won it since. These spells of success come and go – and that’s what we cherish.
Except that ManC wanted to make their run eternal, and would use all the oil revenues they could lay their hands on to do it, with no regards to the rules and no regards to any other club.
And that it why punishment now really is key. Because everything is on the cards here, not least including the much‑trailed potential destruction of the brand. Yes we have had clubs winning the league three times in a row but then there was no suggestion of any rule breaking. Now there is, and it is massive.
There is of course much more and I will try to cover this in coming articles, but here’s the very basic point: A set of rules exists within the Premier League about income and expenditure. Manchester City have been found guilty of breaking these rules over 100 times. How should they be punished?
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Demoted several tears, very large points deduction and a very substantial fine dwarfing Southamptons 250,000,000
A considered punishment:
i. 1 point per guilty charge, split equally over this and the following 3 seasons
ii. all trophies to be taken away from jnitial period to today, but not reallocated: seasons to be asterisked for postetity. City not allowed to refer to these as won awards
iii. most importantly, a full public admission anc confession from the owners, without which they will be found to have failed the fit and properpersons test and forced to sell up their stake in the club
Using precedent as a basis for punishment is tricky because although clubs have had varying punishments for many less charges. Chelsea held their hands up and said all right guv it’s a fair cop and got their sentence reduced.
Man guilty should be heavily punished with points removed in future years and obviously couple that with a fine to cover costs and pay off future debts.
It has to be heavy as their appeal will no doubt halve the deal whatever it may be.
No wonder that City have been buying up young talent in the past year . They must be anticipating a transfer ban.
From A. I :- Manchester City has bought at least 6 high-profile young players (aged 21 and under) over the last 12 months, in addition to several lower-profile additions to their elite youth academy.
Why not consider a period of suspension altogether for at least a season? It would avoid disruption and injustice in any otther league to which they might be demoted.
It has happened to players over betting or drug offences, so there is something of a precedent
The Premier League had no choice but to find them guilty in order to maintain credibility, confidence and order, but it is all meaningless without a fitting punishment.
A return of their trophies would only serve as a past punishment with revenue and growth already made and that being too complicated and non reversible, where as a forward punishment would be more fitting and easier to arrange and more beneficial to the premier League and their creditors.
The world record 114 charges should have an equally fitting punishment that would probably be the following:
1. A ‘two year’ relegation sentence.
2. A ‘two year’ domestic cup ban.
3. A ‘5 to 10 year’ player purchase ban.
The player purchase ban would have to continue up until all debts owed have been paid, serving a 5 year minimum to a 10 year maximum period.
The debts in reference to this 5 to 10 year player purchase ban, includes all debts to be paid back to it’s owing teams, advertisers, and investors, with all creditors being made whole before the ban is lifted serving the minimum 5 years, and if still not paid, then the ban would continue to the maximum 10 year end.
In detail: All debts can be paid by the use of the clubs revenue, it’s assets and its player sales during the ongoing purchase ban period for the next 5 to 10 years, with the final duration ending of the purchase ban being depending on when all debts have been fully paid. 5years minimum to the maximum 10 year ban period or until all debts are paid serving at least 5 years.
The Manchester city club is worth over 4 billion in assets, so they are rich enough in potential asset sales to be able pay it’s creditors by selling a small portion of there assets, starting with player sales, before business assets need be sold, and they will have 5 to 10 years to make that happen after which their transfer purchase ban would be lifted.
If they refuse the the club would go into administration with all control passing to the new administrator to sell it’s senior players first and if need be also it’s property assets as well, until debts are paid and the remaining club ready to restart with a clean slate in a lower league status and trying to reserve the club as still a football club business.
Just an opinion of most people I have spoken too.
One thing that must not be allowed is that if they have a fire sale the money raised could be used to bolster their financial figures. They have 12 players that transfermarket value at 70 million plus . even if they were forced to sell half of them they would still be strong enough to survive relegation .
They ought to pay for it with fines , and relegation , if so determined. They should not be allowed to control this narrative . Guilty or not ! Right or wrong ! If they have broken FFP laws , charge them.