‘We all hate City now!’
Less than a month after saluting – however grudgingly – the EPL champions, English football has changed its tune.
With the exception of Newcastle and perhaps Chelsea, it has united against them in outraged condemnation.
But that is nothing to what the average fan is feeling.
Manchester City’s latest legal bombshell is a greater existential threat to the game as we know it than the Super League was.
Creeping ever closer to when the EPL’s 115 charges against them will be heard – November is the latest date – there was a growing sense that they would be found guilty – and punished.
Bookmakers suddenly reduced the odds of Pep’s boys being relegated at the end of next season – no matter where they finished.
After the EPL deducted points from Everton and Nottingham Forest for minor offences last season, there was a feeling that it would lose all credibility if it let City off the hook.
Stripping it of titles, kicking it out and sending it down two or three divisions were all discussed.
Judging by social media outbursts and podcasts, fans were suggesting a fate more colourful.
Getting wind of this, the Abu Dhabi owners, who have always maintained their innocence, opted for a pre-emptive strike – and took the nuclear option.
Their challenge over Associated Party Transactions (APT) will be heard next week and, if successful, could scupper the EPL’s case before it’s even heard.
In short, APT means businesses associated with the club (Etihad Airways are one of many in City’s case) that are willing to sponsor it.
Etihad already does, of course, with the stadium itself named after it, but City claim the rules governing APTs are restrictive and discriminatory.
The phrase they coined was “Tyranny of the Majority” which caused a bit of head-scratching that was not confined to democracies.
To ensure against limitless sums being lavished by mega-rich owners to distort the league, there is an independent arbiter who assesses whether such deals are ‘fair market value’.
And this control – designed to keep some semblance of fairness – is what City want removing and claim is unfair – to them.
They want to spend even more on the team than they have already and make the EPL even more of a monopoly than it is now.
Some people say it is already distorted as evidenced by City winning it four times in a row and six times in the last seven.
They point to a domination far greater than either Liverpool or Manchester United achieved in their respective reigns of supremacy.
According to The Times, which broke the story, City have won 57% of domestic trophies available to them in the last seven years.
In comparison, Liverpool won 41% in the 1970s and 1980s and United 33% in the 1990s.
And when you consider City were something of a yo-yo club that even dipped into the third tier for a season before the takeover, it is a transformation that would give Dr Jekyll plenty of food for thought.
But the owners are not content with this and claim to be victims of a cartel (the majority of the EPL) that is biased against Gulf clubs.
There are echoes of Donald Trump in the rant by City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak that would be funny if the situation weren’t so potentially tragic.
“Tyranny of the Majority” has to rank alongside George Orwell’s 1984 classics: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”
Of course, tyranny is something the UAE should know about, being a regular on Amnesty International’s list for human rights abuses.
Another of al-Mubarak’s infamous sayings came during an earlier case of litigation brought by none other than UEFA.
According to Football Leaks, to the prospect of losing the verdict, he said: “I would rather spend £30 million on the best 50 lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years.”
This is how City deal with the prospect of defeat. As it was, they wriggled off at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on a majority 2-1 decision.
They dragged it out for so long that much of the evidence against them was time-barred.
City play wonderful football, but the club is not easy to like.
They have revamped the stadium, built a fabulous training campus and regenerated a neglected corner of Manchester, but we now know, beyond any scintilla of doubt, why they’ve done this.
It is all about polishing the image of Abu Dhabi.
Watching very closely will be Newcastle who are supportive of City’s stance as they are in the same boat – owned by Saudi Arabia and champing at the bit to spend some of those billions.
Chelsea, in which the Saudi Public Investment Fund has a minority share, will also be keen observers.
The possibility of City or one of the other two being able to inflate the market beyond the reach of even Liverpool, United and Arsenal is nightmarish and could spell doom for the EPL.
It will lose its most priceless asset – its competitiveness – while its soul went a long time ago. The EPL would become a procession just like the Bundesliga is almost every season.
In short, it will kill the goose. How do you compete against 9% of the world’s oil wealth?
Another line from Football Leaks revealed City CEO Ferran Soriano saying he was only interested in his own club – and didn’t care if they became the enemies of football.
That used to be Jose Mourinho’s title after he criticised a referee but City have sparked a civil war – up to 12 EPL clubs have come forward with statements to counter City’s argument.
The fuss it has caused has also held up a £900m payment the EPL promised to the English Football League (EFL) to help ensure at least some of the game’s riches filter down the pyramid.
Some clubs have said they’re not sure it’s worth continuing in the EPL if City win the case – and could resign to join the EFL.
This, in turn, could persuade City to quit and try to bring the moribund Super League back to life.
Sheikh Mansour and his team have come in and are trying to wreck the system: their sportswashing is in danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Step aside, Jose, City are the real enemies of football.
The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.