Hundreds of allegations about the Manchester City club (Man City) violating financial fair play regulations, and the very heavy penalties attached, are only at the “possible” level. Is it a big scandal, or is it just a “maybe” that never comes to fruition?
Stripping Man City’s past championship titles? Minus a lot of points in the season where the final verdict is made? Even banned from the Premier League ? Everything is “possible” for … 115 crimes that this club is being accused of by the Premier League. The question arises: how far is the distance from “possible” to “reality”?
Three years ago, Man City was banned by UEFA from participating in European Cups for similar allegations, generally violating the field of football expertise and closely related to “financial fair play” regulations. FFP). Man City appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), and the supreme court of this world sport won for Man City. They have nothing, except for paying a fine of 10 million euros, like a little change that the rich don’t even pick up!
Of course, there is nothing wrong with the traditional world excitedly reporting about all the “possible” heavy penalties that hit Man City. Going into detail, all allegations are “very, very serious”. That’s what was investigated between 2009 and 2018. People will continue to investigate, and almost certainly what Man City has done up to 2018 they have also done from 2018 to now, or do… more. So, please: all the penalties that Man City “probably” will, in the press, are actually still not enough, when the investigation provides new information. In reality, the word “maybe” stands closer to nonsense than to reality. If Man City were to be fined again, it would be an insult to those who have absolute faith in the spirit of financial justice. But surely… that’s all.
There is certainly no verdict this season – that’s a fact that the sensational news reports deliberately ignore. As a reminder: these are all allegations (with investigation) between 2009-2018, which is 5 or 14 years ago. How many more years will it take for an organization independent of the Premier League… to re-investigate, according to Man City’s appeal efforts? And that is still not the time when the picture becomes clear, because after the ruling of an “independent organization” in the UK, it is the CAS business!
In terms of “case content”, it is roughly that Man City cheated in declaring financial information and did not cooperate with organizations that control their financial affairs. This is related to FFP: the general spirit of top football today is that how much money the team earns, it can only spend so much money to pay salaries and buy players. The allegation: Man City paid in fact more than the recorded salary to an employee. That is “one crime”. Multiplying by dozens of similar cases, over tens of years, comes up with “hundreds of crimes”. But the question is whether the court can prove the charges, not how serious the crimes are.
Football is now a business (so did the European Court of Justice, in its Bosman case, according to business rules). And in business, you have to give your own secrets so people can manage, know how much you earn, how much you pay? FFP is always funny. Whatever you do, Man City just doesn’t break the law!
