On 114 Charges

Article BY MATTY

Eight years after UEFA initially launched an investigation, five years after CAS found City innocent because they purposefully withheld evidence from UEFA, and three years after the Premier League opened their own investigation into the matter, the verdict has finally come in for Manchester City and their 115 counts of financial irregularities and fraud: guilty on almost all counts. 114 charges stand, punishment awaits.

I remember back in 2017 and 2018 how this was pretty much all in plain sight. How City, much like Chelsea before them, artificially inflated their earnings in order to quickly rocket up the table and play with the big boys within 4-5 years of being bought by the UAE. How they used their unlimited money reserves to woo Pep Guardiola and make him manager of his favorite toys. Anyone in the world could be bought with the money City had. And so they did. The run of success City had was and is unprecedented, likely never to be matched in modern history. All built off the backs of cheating. We have emails of Stuart Pearce knowing exactly what was going on from 2009 through 2013. We have evidence of the UAE paying refs such as Michael Oliver and Darren England. Regardless of when the doping stopped, which is believed to be around 2017, the damage was already done. City were already regularly in the Champions League, with Spurs funny enough usually missing out at City’s expense. The infrastructure already allowed them to spend wild amounts of money in every window, Guardiola getting to play with his favorite toys as long as he desired. Then, as soon as they no longer entertained him, he cast them aside for the new flavor of the month.

I don’t particularly want to go in hard on players, they’d be fools to pass up the paychecks. I will briefly go after Guardiola though. You can’t tell me he didn’t know exactly how business was being done. That he won through cheating and relished in it. Players like Silva and Laporte mocking Liverpool for 97 points not being enough to win the league. You can’t claim to be a football purist and then win through cheating. Whether it’s paying off refs like he did at Barcelona, or winning through financial doping and its consequences, or even going back to his own PED suspension as a player, Guardiola has never cared for winning fair. Just winning, at all costs. And sure, he has won a lot. But only in situations doctored for his success. He’s robbed his friend Klopp, he’s robbed his apprentice Arteta. And as soon as shit even started to hit the fan, he used his golden parachute to swim to safety. Just like Rodri and Silva coincidentally leaving City this summer as well. Guardiola’s got his feet propped up on the beach villa drinking a glass of wine reading this news. He was an architect of the success and doesn’t have to deal with any of the fallout.

Back to City at large. There’s been almost 20 years now of damage done to the league’s integrity because of their actions, as well as their brazen and contemptible behavior when asked to explain any of their irregular reports of money growth. City’s lack of history as a club also doesn’t do them any favors. They were nothing but a bottom tier Premier League team before the UAE made them their prized possession. They were in League Two as recently as 2003. It’s not like we can say they would’ve been challenging for league titles if they weren’t pumped full of oil money. At least with Chelsea and the Abramovich days, there was some modicum of success before they blew everybody out of the water with their spending. Everything City has done, they owe it to their owners.

Which is why the answer to what the punishment should be is merely the beginning of a rabbit hole that should be thoroughly explored: Manchester City should be stripped of all their titles, both domestically and in Europe, and then expelled not only from the Premier League but from the EFL as well. This isn’t even the Liverpool fan in me speaking. Everton and Forest in particular should feel like they have something to say in this, as they received both fines and points deductions for charges that pale both in comparison and number to City. Those points deductions meant that they’re lucky to even still be in the Premier League at all. Everton were docked 6 points for one charge. Extrapolate that out and you’ll realize very quickly just how fucked City should be. Italy relegated their most decorated club for match fixing, which I’ll talk about more upon the evidence of the ADUG paying large sums of money to Premier League officials under the guise of “refereeing in the UAE league”. Juventus were relegated to Serie B for six counts of match fixing. Compared to 114 charges of financial doping for City.

Extrapolating out the damage done to the Premier League and its integrity due to the charges alone, all Premier League clubs should feel some sort of grievance. Liverpool and Arsenal in particular, as they’ve played by the book and been screwed by the finest of margins, margins bought by illegal financial dealings. But I believe a voice should also be given to the teams relegated from 2008-2012, considering City should’ve been fighting a relegation scrap rather than playing for Champions League nights. We should lend an ear to the players and manager of Stoke City, who lost the FA Cup final in 2011, giving City their first trophy under the UAE ownership group. Or to Spurs, for missing out on Champions League football six times because City took up a top four spot off the backs of oil money, while Spurs finished fifth. Maybe Pochettino wouldn’t have had to let that team age so much if he’d had access to those European football payments.

Speaking purely from a Liverpool fan standpoint, the legacy of Jurgen Klopp and his teams shifts considerably if Manchester City is stripped of their titles. Instead of being looked at as a group of players who won a lot but should’ve won more, they actually do win a lot more. A duodecima in 2018/19 (which means a Premier League and Champions League win in the same season), a domestic treble in 2021/22. Three league titles in four years. He’d be in the same breath as Ferguson, the run of success perhaps the greatest seen in Premier League history. Liverpool would be well and truly back on their perch rather than struggling to maintain it.

Other teams and managers would also benefit from such a ruling: Mourinho would’ve won a title with United. Arsenal would be on their own special run of three titles in four years. Smaller clubs like Stoke City and Watford would’ve had their day in glory. If anything, I think many clubs should feel aggrieved for the money they’ve lost, the relegation they perhaps suffered at City’s expense. I wonder if we see individual clubs attempt to sue City for damages caused, money lost, acclaim lost. Or if individual people get taken to court for perjury, seeing as many players, coaches and others that were tasked with providing evidence basically lied to save themselves. Maybe referees who had many suspicious decisions that favored City also had fat checks in their account from the ADUG. We already know they paid referees directly in order to have Premier League referees doing an extra job in the Arab leagues on the weekends. They got paid way more money than a usual officiating job. All expenses paid trips. Always seemed a bit weird to me.

Almost 20 years of cheating has finally been found out. Over £900 million of sham payments brought to light. They’ve made a mockery of the sport with their lies. The harshest punishment, as well as additional investigation in other suspicious activities surrounding the ownership group, is the only fair thing to do.