- Why are the league and PGMO not taking the basic steps to stop match fixing?
- Football now has a gigantic problem: why can ManC hve their case heard in secret?
By Tony Attwood
Among the many discussions my pals and I have had about ManC since the Premier League finally decided to act, one that we didn’t have was a chat about what happens if the ManC owners do nothing, not particularly as a ploy but because they have no idea what to do.
For in a country where no one could possibly suggest that the leadership has ever done anything wrong, it is actually an interesting point. A bit like how one might approach a conversation with King Charles about how the monarchy is horribly out of date, not to mention bloody expensive, and how are we going to wind it up step by step in the coming months. It’s not the issue of how one does the winding up, but how one starts the conversation after one has said, “You majesty… I have an idea….”.
For the point is that ManC have never been told that they have got it all wrong and can’t go on. They can’t imagine this sort of situation.
As others have started to point out, at the basis of the Premier League is that notion of a set of rules which everyone agrees to, and where any are broken there are also a bunch of punishments. But when we get to this level of rule breaking, none of that seems relevant any more. Everything is now on too big a scale; we don’t have ways of dealing with this sort of thing.
I mean, I can imagine that through every ManC game from now on all the opposition supporters are simply going to chant “Cheat cheat cheat” whenever the ManC players have the ball, but what else can we do?
For the fact is that whatever rules are brought into the Premier League with the idea of not only applying retribution to the Mancs but also ensuring no other club ever tries this one again, they are probably going to fail for the simple reason that from the moment they are published the Mancs will have teams of people working on overcoming them. However we do know that multiple new rules are already being discussed such as .
- A maximum expenditure on salaries and transfers for all PL clubs each season
- Clubs must not play in any unauthorized competitions which will include competitions with prizes above a certain level
- New rules on foreign ownership, which reduce the option year by year (and will cause Arsenal some difficulties
- A maximum expenditure on players’ salaries each season, which is the same for all clubs irrespective of income
- A maximum expenditure on everything else without reference to income
- The removal of trophies and titles won in season where a club has broken the rules
- All contracts issued by the clubs to be handed to the League and the League rule on their legality. Any found illegal are instantly null and voice, and any expenditure made under such contracts to be a major breach of League rules and subject to points deductions.
That set of regulations would at least start to get ManC seeing what has happened in the way that many other people in football see it: they have come up with a propaganda project that has spectacularly crashed.
So far the Mancs have said just one thing: that there are tons of things they would love to say, and because I know them, I am very confident of winning. To which we are asking, how have they been allowed to get away with this for so long?
Of course this is all going to court. Clubs that were relegated want to come back up. Clubs that didn’t win the league but would have done but for ManC want a title. The lawyers are rubbing their hands.
As the Guardian suggests, the biggest worry is that the Mancs just pay up and then carry on as before. And why not? They’ve got the money. As for the removal of past titles,, so what, when they have enough money to buy everyone and win the league over and over again?
The only thing that could work would be to stop them having any sponsorship in future. But then how on earth could that be monitored.? Who has access to the financial records of a country?
But then if there no standard punishment that really works and stops this sort of thing in the future, the only way forward is to have another league competition without the ManCs in it. ManC could play PSG, Bayern, Real Mad and Barcelona and another other “win every match” club, and the rest of us can get on with football as it was meant to be.
Although I suspect several of those five clubs wouldn’t like that league, because they couldn’t all win every week. But that would be their problem..
I listened on The Football Terrace yesterday to a very prominant Man City blogger giving his view on the situation. The first thing to say is that on an emotional front he is very calm and level headed. No histrionics, just his, what he conciders ballanced and reasonable take on what has happened and what he believes needs to be done, or put another way, allowed to be done, moving forward.
Firstly he basically accepts that if the guilty verdict stands after appeal, Man City must be punished, and severely. But here’s the thing. He still thinks the rules that Man city have broken are wrong.
Why?
-Because any team that has a rich owner should be allowed to spend what ever they like.
Why?
-Because it is the only way to break into the Red Cartel (Yep, that old chestnut again)
His logic is that if you do this, by this he means allow every club to invest as much money as they want, it will open up the league to a point where we can have multiple winners as opposed to the Red Cartel simply sharing it around between themselves. He believes that if Swindon Town, for example, find a mega rich invester they should be allowed to invest Billions, nay Trillions if they wish in order to win the Premier league.
I have never heard such warpped logic in all my life.
How is allowing mega rich owners to spend as much as they like going to result in the premier league title being ‘shared around’ more fairly?
Okay, agreed with the massive increase in TV money spread around the clubs it has made the league more competitive meaning JUST spending Billions is not enough, as it was between the time Obramovic arrived and around 2015 or thereabouts. At least now the competitive nature of the League means spending hand over fist, as per Man Utd, Chelsea and Spurs, is not enough on it’s own. You do need good managers and players as well.
But the bottom line is, yes you can fail spending big, but you cannot win if you don’t. The clubs that spend the most will eventually rise to the top, if they get their act together.
BUT, and this is the point, they cannot ALL win it. So, in this utopian World of everyone spending as much as they like how is that going to go down with the ones that DON’T win it. These people will not be investing Billions to come second. After all that is what is at the root of all this cheating with man city. Spending Billions and coming 2nd/3rd is NOT acceptable. They don’t want the title shared about as per this utopin World. They want to win it every year. That is what they are paying for. And they know that if they have unlimited spending they have more chance of doing that. they don’t want to be in a fight even with just Arsenal and Liverpool.
If this guy is honest, who does he really think will win the League over the next 10 years if Man City were allowed to spend whatever they wanted? Swindon Town? Absolute baloney. Man City that’s who. He wont admit it, but of course that’s who he believes will win it. That’s why he wants it.
And if they don’t, who does he think will win it instead? Again, Swindon Town. Again rubbish.
It will be the club that take over from City as the richest Club with the Richest owners that spend the most money season after season after season.
Lets say it’s Newcastle as I believe thier owners are over twice as wealthy as Man Citty’s. Maybe Villas, I’m not sure.
What do we think will happen when they sign the next Haaland, Mbappe, Ronaldo, Messi etc? Infact the best player in every position because they have enough money to pay whatever the transfer fee is and as much wages as it takes. How long will it take for them to do a Bayern or PSG and turn the PL into a one horse race every year?
And these people, once they’ve attained this position will be going nowhere. The last thing on their minds is ‘sharing it about’. Okay, if someone with twice their money eventually comes along they may dethrone them, and that may indeed be Swindon Town.
But in this senario what is it they have won? The Premier League or the we have the richest owners in the World competition, because that is in fact what it will be.
Okay fine, he may be happy because at least it isn’t one of his despised Red Cartel, and that is what is at the very heart of all this.
They dress it up as ‘leveling’ the playing field. Making it fairer. Giving everyone a chance of winning the Title, but it’s nothing of the sort.
All this would do would take away the power of the clubs that have worked over decades, or even over a century, to establish themselves at the top, and giving it to clubs that have often been run like back street tinkers for years and years, but have won the Billionaire owners lottery.
He said: “I want it so every club has a chance to win the Premier league”.
What utter bollocks.
So the three most successful clubs in English football history play in red. Hence, according to suppoerters of other teams, it must be a “cartel”.
The definition of a cartel is a formal or informal group of independent businesses or countries that work together to limit competition, fix prices, and maximize profits. Does any rational thinking person think that Man U and Liverpool work together…..and least of all with a club from London!
As an aside, a quick look at where refs come from and who the media support, the only reasonable claim would be for a north-west cartel!! Such a conspiracy theory would also be supported by the fact that teams from London have only won the league 22 times whilst teams from the north-west have won it 66 times even though London consistently has more teams in the top flight than the north-west. So based on evidence a “north-west cartel” is far more likely yet when do we ever hear such a claim? This is how stupid the ‘red cartel’ argument really is.
But back to the ‘red cartel’ argument, it’s also worth saying to these misguided people that (according to google) throughout the history of English title holders, seven have played in red whilst nine have played in blue. Perhaps we should start whining on about a conspiracy by teams who play in blue to limit the number of winners who play in red.
But despite all these facts, we don’t really need to argue about any of those conspiracies because the biggest conspiracy in English football is currently unfolding before our very eyes.
Man City fans want to win everything all the time. They have got a taste of it and they like it and they’re upset that they have been found out and that they only manged it by breaking the rules they signed up to. It is what it is and we all know what it is.
Is the “red cartel” a recent invention by MC fans? I’ ve never heard of it until this season.
In any case, it’s an absurd notion.
The evidence from the last 16 years is that Man City will go to any lengths to buy and retain the best players and it is not a level playing field they are trying to create- and this a monopoly with them at the top. City have won 8 EPL titles since 2010 including 4 in a row during that time how can this be in the best interests of the EPL for this to continue? At the heart of this issue is City’s ownership not just because they are foreign but because who they are-another country’s political leaders able to use their political and financial power to both strengthen Citys monopolistic position and also undermine the rules that everyone else but them adheres to.