Utter contempt and disgust for a football club which has meant following Premiership football has been ultimately meaningless for many Premiership fans for 15 years.
Following the leaking of guilty verdicts for 114 of the 115 charges, and providing an appeal fails (which many think it will) Manchester City has effectively cheated football fans out of time and money. Should fan groups mount a class action for compensation and clubs for that matter?
Compensation which could go to making the fan experience better and involve greening stadiums and transport to them to offset some to the damage the City owners have done to the planet by emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide.
Premiership football fans have bought a product / experience which wasn’t what they thought it was and not billed as advertised.
Probably best to wait and see what punishments are dished out by the independent commission.
At the moment, if the Man City appeal fails, it could be a straight 54-point deduction based on financial breaches (The number of years above PSR allowed losses x 6 points for each breach) with each year based on the Everton precedent + what the commission deems to add on, depending on the extent of the losses; this along with heavy fines for non-co-operation.
But it is relatively unchartered territory and it is in the commission’s gift to throw City out of the league – straight to League Two (if the English Football League will have them, which no doubt they will). There are precedents for this with Leeds City, Glasgow Rangers and Juventus. And Leicester had a points deduction spanning the Premier League and the Championship – so the two bodies have a precedent to think of.
And the new Football Regulator can step in with additional draconian sanctions, particularly in relation to the owners.
The other hit will come from individual clubs suing for compensation – which could be in the hundreds of millions. Finishing fifth meant missing out on Champions league qualification and guaranteed millions, circa £40m plus. Clubs being relegated, like Blackpool could claim a smaller amount.
The difference between one club and the next’s finishing place in the Premiership is around £2.6m (totalled up over 4 years that is around £240m – allowing for the few clubs which finished above City in the period.). And what about the cups which City won (bought?).
There are precedents for compensation payments with Everton, Burnley, Derby County, Middlesbrough and Leicester and out of court settlements. And it doesn’t stop at these shores. What about the clubs in the Champions League which didn’t progress at the hands of City?
Already Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham have lodged legal files reserving the right to claim compensation in the event of a guilty verdict against City. And Everton had to pay interest payments to Burnley, given the time lag.
And what about players whose career and livelihoods have been affected. Standard bonuses for reaching the Champions League are around 25% of salary. That is £62,500 / week on a £250,000 salary, taken over a year that is £3.25m. Multiply that by squad numbers and years and the numbers get scary. The difference between Premiership and Championship salaries come into the picture too.
If City are relegated, through points deduction or by order – most first team players would probably want to leave at the end of the season. Should Arsenal go for Haaland (who is close to Odegaard and have the funds from the potential Vinicius Junior deal) and Semenyo (who wanted to go to Arsenal nine months ago) in the inevitable ‘forced sales’?
And how will this season be fair given that five matches have already been played – and City players won’t be the same psychologically probably knowing they are going down? Witness mistakes from Guehi and O’Reilly in the England game. Seems like the only fair way is to give the points deduction in the immediate future, and wait for the appeal.
And City will appeal the sanctions – but given their reputation is in tatters, their arguments likely to be focused on the partiality of the panel are unlikely to carry much weight.
And given City refused to provide financial information, how is anyone to know these shenanigans haven’t carried on since 2018?
In terms of punishment fitting the crime – as the guilty verdict spreads over nine years should City face a nine-year point deduction every season until 2035?
And should the players who won medals hand them back – and the team have an asterisk against their name in the seasons they ‘won’ titles and cups?
What damage has this done and will do to the Premier League in the medium to long term? Serie A used to be the best European league, until the financial scandal around Juventus. Sponsors may start to doubt the wisdom of displaying their wares in a tainted product; spectators may turn away from watching a pseudo sport; and broadcasters follow the crowd. The bubble may have burst.
The longer the appeal and potential court cases go on – the longer the Premier League will suffer reputational damage which has an effect on balance sheets, and its political standing in football politics.
The Premier League has to clean up its financial act, insisting on total financial transparency – even to the extent of starting anew.