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Manchester City face sanctions after a finding of guilt on more than 100 Premier League charges, while chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak insists the club is confident and disputes the verdict.
Manchester City are awaiting punishment after a finding of guilt on more than 100 Premier League charges. The scale of that punishment is now the only story in town.
Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the City chair, issued a statement on Saturday that has only added to the confusion. He remains convinced the past three days of whiplash are simply the drumroll before a big reveal. He believes some clinching piece of evidence will swish away the initial finding of guilt on the Premier League charges. This appears to be the official City position right now.
It is understandable there should be a great deal of confusion. This has never happened before. It is without precedent. The common assumption is that events will unfold like this: sanctions first, perhaps as early as midweek.
Then an appeal. Then whatever comes next. But someone is suing someone. It will not be cheap or quick.
Potential Penalties For Manchester City Include Points Deduction
A verdict means nothing without the hammer of actual consequences. The triumphalism of those who seem personally invested in seeing City fail could still turn out to be premature. There are many suggestions of how this may play out. Among the more lenient is a combination of a major fine, a one-season points deduction and a transfer ban.
In other words, punishment that looks like punishment but is not really. Everyone feels vaguely vindicated. We carry on. There is also the suggestion of political pressure applied by City owners, as reported most recently by Bloomberg.
The idea floated is that the United Arab Emirates government wishes to see its investment protected as a quid pro quo for its trading partnership with the UK. This is not actually a conspiracy theory. It is how the world works. Politics is real.
Football is not. The Premier League will press for major sanctions to head off a disastrous round of internecine litigation. Club-on-club action would risk torpedoing the thing we have all been watching for the past 15 years. Yes: truth, fair play, stolen glory.
But will someone think of the brand? Here is one small suggestion. If the verdict does hold up, the punishment should include a lengthy ban on City having any kind of sponsorship. This would at least speak to the core of the charges, the allegation that state-owned companies were used to funnel in direct investment.
It would force City to grow their revenue by more standard means. It may even have a beneficial effect. Not that anyone is talking about compromise yet. One notable aspect is how utterly entrenched aspects of City fanbase seem to be on this.
Club Owners Defend Outside Investment Practices
Facts are malleable, principles relative. Everything must be bent to your interests. There is a very important distinction here. It is entirely legitimate to question the existing rules.
Maybe outside investment should be allowed. Spending your own money on your own property, pumping funds into the system, adding not taking: this seems not just reasonable but commendable. How can it be a crime? This is to wilfully misunderstand the equation.
If everyone else is obeying the rules, if the entire culture is based around competitiveness, then this becomes not just deceit and deliberate cheating. It is a trashing of the basic idea of sport. And, in the end, this affects people lives in tangible ways. Not just hopes and dreams, but employment, wellbeing, the goals you work for all your life.
How many families have been uprooted, incomes affected, moments of happiness scrubbed by this? This is the state of cognitive dissonance described in al-Mubarak statement. It is also the only official comment by any party so far. It is not surprising there should be zero acknowledgement of any culpability, or even legitimacy to the charges.
Hang on to a rising balloon and you face a difficult decision. Let go before it is too late or just keep getting higher. Al-Mubarak is in a difficult position here. He is frontman for a propaganda project that has spectacularly crashed.
Faced with this he has trebled and quadrupled down, and in the most tribalist way. This club matters to me, al-Mubarak begins, a club executive who is, as things stand, guilty of destroying that club future prospects. There is dark talk of media reporting. With its implication of lies and fake news, as though this is all just another structural obstacle in the way of the true victims here, inherited dictatorial billionaires.
Here is what I said to my family, al-Mubarak goes on. He weirdly drags his own relatives into the picture, before offering once again the most intriguing element. There is the suggestion there is some key detail here, some game-changing element City are desperate to get out. But it has so far been prevented from entering a properly constituted legal tribunal.
There are so many things that I would like to be able to share with you to help you understand why we feel so confident. This is not a standard line from a club facing such serious charges. The greatest decade in the history of nation-state football projects is over. They are selling Pep wigs in Woolworths.
End Of Era For Manchester City Success
And we have failed, barring that promised deus ex machina, to paint it sky blue. So what next? This feels like the end of an era even in the current in-between days. Lord Pannick KC, Mystery Machine Chambers.
Come for the legal expertise. Stay for the unfathomable brinkmanship. That great escape may still present itself in more nuanced ways. Most obviously in the question of what the actual punishment is here.
Rope-a-dope litigation. Scooby-Doo justice. A verdict that is simply exposition, buildup to that moment. That moment where we finally get to rip off the zombie mask and reveal the cranky old amusement park owner underneath.
He has his bulging ring-binder full of irrefutable evidence of City innocence. This is certainly one way of going about things. Manchester City fans at the Etihad Stadium in 2012, when they had just won their first Premier League title, could not have imagined this.
Premier League Charges Khaldoon Al-Mubarak Financial Sanctions Sponsorship Ban
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