City Scandal Should Be a Watershed Moment for European Football
If found conclusively guilty, Manchester City need to be summarily dealt with and serious measures be put in place to preserve the health and future of the Beautiful Game
It won’t be, but the concluding phase of the Premier League’s case against Manchester City should be the catalyst for a wholesale reckoning. Because while it’s never been more popular or as lucrative, football at the top of the English game is fundamentally broken.
If Chelsea’s admission of tens of millions of pounds in illegal payments to agents that helped facilitate their title wins in 2014 and 2017 hadn’t forever tainted that period in the League’s history — even while it’s greatest story, that of Leicester’s unfathomable triumph in 2016, was sandwiched in the middle — the City scandal will ensure that an entire era of the Premier League, from 2009 to the present day, will be littered with asterisks and overshadowed by corruption and malfeasance.
The scale of these ructions probably wasn’t foreseen by the traditional “Big Five” when they drew up plans for the breakaway Premiership in 1991. A natural inequality had, of course, always existed in the English game but the financial clout of Sir John Moores’ Mersey Millionaires, for example, relative to smaller clubs wasn't comparable with or as impactful as the gulf that exists today between the Premier League’s real “haves” and the other “have nots”.
The boom-and-bust cycle that saw Manchester United and Tottenham, for example, relegated in the 1970s — even Chelsea and Manchester City went down in the early years of the Premier League era — or allow for a team like Watford to win promotion one year and finish second the very next season in the early 1980s was intact.
For a little over 100 years, that natural cycle had ensured that dynasties like those of Huddersfield Town in the 1920s, Arsenal in the 1930s and Liverpool in the late 1970s and 1980s were either short-lived or were ultimately finite. Even the richest club in the land in the 1960s only won the title in 1963 and 1970 and managed just one FA Cup before largely disappearing from view until 1984.
The inception of the Premier League and the slow-moving explosion in wealth it ushered in upended that natural order and has led to the annual honours and financial spoils being concentrated in the hands of a small few.
The lid to Pandora’s Box was opened the moment Roman Abramovich and his unprecedentedly obscene wealth assumed power at Chelsea in 2003. It was thrown wide open, and the chaos that has ensued in the 17 years since was unleashed, when Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) were allowed to purchase Manchester City.
What was tantamount to a nation state, with effectively bottomless coffers at their disposal, taking control of a 130-year-old football club in a league characterised for over a century by parochial ownership and deep community ties… What could possibly go wrong?
It allowed ADUG to assemble arguably the greatest team in the history of the domestic game, managed by the world’s most celebrated manager. Pep Guardiola, an elite coach of elite teams (because those are the only ones he chooses to manage) would never have taken the post at the Etihad Stadium were they not one of the biggest clubs in the world but, having done so, he added 15 major trophies to City’s honours list, vaulting them above the likes of Everton in the ranking of England’s most successful clubs.
But those achievements, particularly their treble-winning success in 2023, have aptly been likened to Lance Armstrong’s PED-fuelled Tour de France victories — the result of “financial doping”, in the words of Arsène Wenger, on an industrial scale.
It was perversely ironic that that clutch of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup triumphs was won just weeks after the Premier League announced that they had referred City to an independent commission charged with 115 breaches of League rules, transgressions that enabled Sheikh Mansour and Abu Dhabi United to amass a footballing empire and a team capable of sweeping all before them on the domestic and Continental fronts.
What is equally perverse is that it took the League five years to bring the charges against City and another three before a verdict was reached — an eight-year span in which, in addition to the Champions League, they won the English title five times, the FA Cup three times, and the League Cup four times. As they sit on top of the pile during this international break with a 100% record, they will, of course, be in contention to win any or all four of those competitions before the rest of the appeals and sanctioning process has run its course.
Given the precedent established by the Premier League’s censure of Everton (let’s not forget that they recommended the maximum penalty of a 12-point deduction) and Nottingham Forest, Manchester City should have the book thrown at them and hard. Their punishment should be massive in scale and commensurate not only with the extent of their apparent cheating but also the levels to which they obfuscated, denied and impeded the League’s investigation into their wrongdoing.
Nothing should be off the table, including expulsion from the Premier League. A points deduction that merely guarantees relegation to the Championship would only see them back in the top flight within a year, able to continue on as nothing had happened. Which is why massive fines and a multi-year transfer ban should also be on the menu when the commission into the sanctions to be meted out meets in the next few weeks.
And if Everton are unsuccessful in their appeal against Burnley’s claims for compensation based on the Blues’ 2022 PSR breach, the worms will already be out the can when it comes to a litany of similar lawsuits that can be brought against City by a host of clubs who were denied titles and qualification for the Champions and Europa Leagues during the period in question. Everton, in 2009 and 2014, would, of course, be among the aggrieved parties and have a case for pursuing lost revenue in the tens of millions.
Let’s not pretend, though, that the rules that eventually became PSR in 2014 and SCR as of this season are not wildly anti-competitive and are what prompted ADUG, under the auspices of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, to bend, break and circumvent in the first place those spending limits in a bid to rival and then overtake the traditional Premier League powerhouses of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and, the later-comer, Chelsea.
Though supported by a majority of member clubs, including the likes of Everton, Newcastle United and Aston Villa who have either broken the “Big Six” stranglehold on the top four or are hopeful of one day being able to, they amount to the cabal that attempted in 2021 to form the controversial European Super League (ESL) pulling the ladder up behind them and ensuring that no one could ever conceivably “do a Leicester” again.
Even remaining as perennial Champions League qualifiers has become a Herculean task as the Magpies (despite being backed by a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund of their own) and Villa have discovered over the past couple of years. Being forced to sell their best players — to Big Six clubs, it should be noted — to remain PSR and now SCR compliant means that they are no threat to the latter’s hegemony and could struggle to finish in the top five this time around.
In its current guise, the Premier League as a 20-team sporting competition is a farce; rather it is a two-tier corporate environment with a small elite able to vastly out-spend the rest and hoover up the best talent, thereby keeping a proverbial boot on those below them who might one day become pretenders to their throne.
Limits based on squad cost ratios simply favour those clubs who have, through repeated qualification for the Continent’s most lucrative tournaments, amassed the highest revenues, the biggest commercial and sponsorship deals and the widest global followings. It’s why the Champions League and, arguably, the Premier League that Everton helped found before it, is one of the worst things to have happened to football.
Importantly, top-to-bottoming anchoring, that would have benchmarked each team’s spending capacity to the revenue of the bottom side, was rejected by the member clubs last year. Such a measure would have represented a big step towards a more competitive landscape but would have put English clubs at a disadvantage to the biggest in Europe who would not be operating under the same constraints.
It’s why, for the health of the future game, SCR in England should be scrapped and standardised squad cost ratio rules that include such anchoring as to effectively cap player salaries and curb out-of-control transfer fees should be imposed across all five of the Continent’s biggest leagues as a matter of urgency.
Because while true equality will never be possible between clubs like Manchester United on the one hand, with their massive worldwide following and designs on a 100,000 seat stadium, and Bournemouth, and their 11,000-capacity Vitality Stadium, on the other, the rules should allow for the latter to operate on a more level playing field than the status quo.
And the framework of regulations should encourage rather than stymie clubs who operate on the sound, live-within-your-means financial footing being employed by The Friedkin Group at Everton, even if we’d like to see a good deal more ambition and envelope-pushing from our American overlords.
It should better reward the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth and Brentford, shining examples of clubs who have sought to narrow what is, in reality, an unbridgeable gap between themselves and the richest teams by implementing innovative recruitment strategies and player-trading policies that have helped make the Premier League as competitive as it has been outside that top five or six for the past couple of years.
All of that would require both Premier League and that cabal of its richest clubs acknowledging what has long been lost — that their raison d’ětre is sporting competition not a collection of rival businesses competing as much for sponsorship revenue as they are for silverware. That the Champions and winners of the domestic cups will, with rare exception, come from that small handful of massively-resourced teams. Pigs might sooner fly, but we live in hope.
First, though, the Premier League’s rules around spending and their enforcement mechanism must be shown to have the same teeth that they did when Everton and Forest were on the end of them. Manchester City cannot be allowed to escape with a mere slap on the wrist like Chelsea. They need to be summarily dealt with and a serious conversation had about the health and future of the Beautiful Game.
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers27/09/2026 07:06:05
I do also think that punishments, and properly enforced regulations, are the only things that will keep the big clubs in check. They need to be applied fairly across the board.
I’ve started to think that the financial bubble the elite clubs exist in is self sustainable. That they now have a continuous stream of money coming into what is a closed and well-protected market.
Many have predicted that it will burst at some stage. Well, we've had several large global recession since the PL really kicked into gear. Finances have only gotten better for the elite clubs. Football seems to be a recession-proof commodity.
Sky have seen off all competitors and dominate the market. People will always want a Sky package for Christmas or their birthday. It's cheaper to sit in now with a Sky package than go to the pub, or the game, or the restaurant or the cinema or the theatre on a weekly basis for many people. Going outside the front door is becoming less of an option now for many people, as the cost of living continues to go up.
Sky will always have money for the PL deals, and will always want the elite teams onside. Club's commercial deals work in part because the commercial company's logo is being piped into millions of homes and pubs by Sky. It's hand in hand.
What you would hope may level things a little, is that there are more European spots available. More clubs will qualify, will bring up their coefficient, will build their revenue and brand, will build their experience and squads. As a result, more clubs will become more important and more relevant to the PL authorities. Their hand will be forced and they have to be more egalitarian as a result.
27/09/2026 08:18:51
Kieran#2
TV revenues have actually plateaued, so tangible income from stadium and infrastructure, and how regulation is coped with, are the future growth areas. Lyndon, in the article, has put flesh on the bones of what we all know.
The Premier League was set up to manage the income streams of the elite clubs, never to actually regulate them. They had to make some shape at it with fan-led revenue, which resulted in the current regulatory process, where they allowed the Independent Commission to run amok. They needed to show results, so the likes of Everton were expendable. Everton did well to survive. By being the tough organisation that the Premier League is, they could not keep pigs like Burnley out of it. This has caused a precedent they now have to handle to survive themselves. They have worked out a solution: internal arbitration.
City cannot appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, as they did regarding their UEFA ban. They can go one better than that with the Premier League’s internal arbitration. Hence the lack of information surrounding it.
As for government intervention, it is not within its remit to impose financial sanctions or get involved. It can ban owners and directors, which is not going to happen in this case. The government has pulled back on investigations into Saudi interests in the past, and as for the Abu Dhabi ecosystem, which acts similarly across all asset classes as we have seen in football, it will not touch it with a bargepole.
As far as Everton are concerned, they have weathered the storm, and their appeal against compensation and the new arbitration route should see their fine reduced. Everton have to concentrate on developing the stadium, the infrastructure and how they manage the regulatory environment. TFG are falling short in infrastructure and UEFA multi-club regulation. UEFA are much better than the Premier League. It is only in these areas that Everton can progress in the new paradigm that football finds itself in. Hoping that regulation—always too late everywhere—will restore some imperfect past is just wishful thinking.
27/09/2026 09:06:12
Jerome, when thinking about what you've just posted, it makes sense that clubs like Chelsea have a hotel. Diversifying and expanding your revenue streams is hugely important. If football is becoming more and more commercialised then make the most of it.
There have been discussions on here about us buying the land around BMD. Commercial opportunities should be driving something like this forward.
You would hope alright that we have learned some hard lessons from the regulations being implemented. Giving out about Coty is only a small part of things. We need to make sure we look within first and foremost.
27/09/2026 11:30:24
It will be a watered down whitewash, the Premier League would have sooner quietly swept the charges under the carpet. It's only gone ahead because of the young man who hacked into City’s computer.
Chelsea were let off lightly so I expect City to be the same, the question is if truth be told how many other clubs have got away will dodgy accounting.
Nothing is straight when monies involved, especially lots of money.
City’s biggest penalty is their loss of reputation
27/09/2026 11:42:30
Jerome, I think we have to hope for some better regulation emerging from this mess. The punishments handed out so far have not been proportionate or consistent, and worse the potential for ongoing litigation is just out of control.
How to draw a line under this? How about the prem sets out that the City punishment is to be applied and then review the whole system, press the reset button, so that this can never happen again.
lets have transparency, clarity, fair play on a level playing field.
In ordinary life the richer you get the more you are taxed, lets apply that to football clubs too, keep a SCR and "tax" super rich clubs with the funds being reinvested in the game as a whole, from grass roots up.
Slowly the super rich lose unfair advantage.
I wish this system could be applied to the worlds super rich outside football too, the world used to be run by governance and diplomacy, now its all about money and power, and its cancerous.
The health of the game, and the planet, needs common sense fairplay. I can only hope.
27/09/2026 11:53:56
Kietan#4
Even the Nelson Dock and so called blue plan that Chong hinted about has not clarity. The City breaches and how the appeals procedure has opened up to arbitration has to be pursued by Everton. TFG confidence statement regarding the breach of Uefa Multi Club rules does not inspire confidence, as them continuing to ignore the Finch Farm option also does As a Anchor in a Dock development we should be hoping for more.
City will be fighting tooth and nail, as will the other Silent ones, like our neighbours seeking whatever advantage they can get. the regulatory situation is something to be managed like everything else. On the Uefa Multi Club rules TFG are behind the curve.
27/09/2026 12:25:47
Raymond, reputation will be lost to some degree alright. I would be interested to see if club sponsors pull out of deals, or walk away when it's time to renew them.
The Middle Eastern owners may or may not decide to sell up and walk away. If City aren't beneficial as an asset in terms of sports washing, then they have no value.
Andy, genuine question, text often sounds sarcastic when you don't mean it to, but is that now how the tax system already works? The more you earn, the higher your tax bracket. Or do you mean an extra tax again?
Like most billionaire types, you'd just go off shore?
27/09/2026 12:59:46
The thing that would actually hurt Man City and deter others is a points deduction proportionate to ours. That would seem to send City into League 1 / the third tier. Compensation claims from other clubs could blow things apart too.
Anything that avoids any kind of relegation would appear to be an open invitation for the richest clubs (who already have a huge baked in advantage) to break rules - and take the punishment now and again. Sadly, that might be outcome. The Premier League probably isn't rigged as such but let's be honest, it is not a fair and truly competitive environment either.
To be honest though, our big problem with the Premier League and the rich club stranglehold is that we have completely failed to capitalise.
By rights, we should be inside the Rich Club cartel. We were extremely well placed to do so at the start of the Premier League era and have had numerous opportunities in the last 30(+) years to jump on board. That we are not rich is the fault of our owners for the past 30(+) years who have all generally be too self-orientated, vain and incompetent to make this happen.
It takes some serious incompetence for a club ever present in the Premier League since inception to remain one of the poorest 10 - left behind by the likes of Brentford in the transfer market.
If City are relegated, then it will leave a vacuum for a season or two - and that could potentially mean a change of strategy for TFG. It would be a rare opportunity to steal a march on the rich 6, just as Newcastle and Villa appear to be in a transitional period and Spurs keep seeming to make a pig's ear of things.
27/09/2026 13:32:45
Great article Lyndon.
Professional football has never been a level playing field.But the level of inequality now is absolutely off the scale. So many clubs nowadays know that all they’re really doing is making up the numbers. Deep down, they know it’s unlikely in the extreme, due to the game’s current financial climate, that they’ll actually win anything.
Domestically, it’s pretty much the same teams winning the title and getting to League and FA Cup Finals season after season. How many times have Chelsea and Liverpool faced each other at Wembley in the last 3 or 4 years?? As a bit of football traditionalist, I honestly think there’s something sad about realising that a vast glass ceiling is now place for the vast majority of clubs.
As I said at the start, it’s never been a level playing field, but back in the late 1960’s when I started to love the game, at least a lot more clubs felt they had a reasonable chance of achieving something. For example, between 1966 and 1972, seven different clubs won the title in seven consecutive seasons, and the FA Cup was won by thirteen different clubs in thirteen consecutive seasons!! I use 1966 simply because it’s an obvious focal point in the game due to the World Cup. But here are respective winners to prove my point:
League Title
1966…Liverpool….Cup…Everton
1967…Man.Utd….Cup…Spurs
1968…Man.City….Cup…West Brom
1969…Leeds…Cup…Man.City
1970…Everton….Cup…Chelsea
1971…Arsenal…Cup…Arsenal
1972…Derby…Cup…Leeds
1973…FA Cup winners only…Sunderland
1974…Liverpool
1975…West Ham
1976…Southampton
1977…Man.Utd
1978…Ipswich
When you also take into consideration that QPR, Swindon and Stoke all won the League Cup during this period, and that Fulham, Newcastle and Norwich all reached domestic finals, it highlights my point that back then a lot more clubs felt they at least had some sort of chance. Now, there’s absolutely no way that the next seven Premier League titles will be won by seven different clubs.
Fans in this country used to laugh at the leagues in countries such as Scotland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, because it was the same two or three clubs always winning them.Because of Bayern Munich’s domestic dominance, some people have recently adopted a similar condescending attitude towards the Bundesliga.But let’s be totally honest here…the Premier League in it’s current format is probably no better than any of these leagues. Because even before a ball was kicked in anger on the opening day of the League, we all knew which two or three clubs would likely be winning it. And the fact it wasn’t always like this is what saddens me.
By the way, apologies for coming across as a bit of a “Statto”!! But hopefully it worked!!
27/09/2026 14:32:36
David you are right - the inequality is now baked in.
The rich clubs who generate the global revenues are positioned so that they win everything. Everything is stacked in their favour:
- the number of subs allowed (so they can make the most advantage of their huge, deep squads)
- elite academies, youth player trading etc allowing for talent hoarding (where most of the best players in the Championship are loanees from the Premier League)
- the sustainability rules (which prevent rich upstarts breaking through as Chelsea, City and PSG have all done fairly recently)
- revenue distribution, ploughing the greatest share of the money back into the richest clubs
- refeering (which let's be honest, simply isn't fair)
- the media coverage (which acts as a propaganda tool in favour of the established clubs) and associated fixture scheduling bias
And so on and so on...
The point of each televised game is that the rich club with glamorous players puts on a footballing show, scores plenty of goals and wins. That is global audiences are tuning in for.
In this TV & advertising revenue driven environment, the opposition is there to put up a decent competitive fight but ultimately be beaten.
Those outside of the Rich 6 (or so) accept this system because they make more money than they were doing when the league was a bit more competitive (albeit still not hugely competitive).
Which is why it is so deeply annoying that we squandered a brilliant opportunity to part of the Rich 6 and yet we remain on the outside looking in.
27/09/2026 16:05:56
Andy #6
Unfortunately that is the way it is.I would have hoped like you that regulation would work, but I do not think it is within the remit of these power investors.
They just see it as something to get round and blatantly ignore in achieving their objectives.
Kieran #Various.
Just to clarify what we are dealing wishm
Abu Dhabi’s Abudabi United Group (ADUG) is private, but its owner, Sheikh Mansour, is Vice Chairman of Mubadala—so it’s deeply tied to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth network. ADUG bought Manchester City, which became City Football Group, a global multi-club portfolio widely described as a tool of Emirati soft power.
Saudi Arabia took a different route. In 2021, Public Investment Funds(PIF) led the Newcastle United takeover. In 2023, it took 75% stakes in the four biggest Saudi Pro League clubs—Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli. It didn’t buy the league outright, but it effectively controls its top tier.
Abu Dhabi bought a club and built a network. Saudi bought a club, then reshaped a league.
My Son who dealt with a Abudabi Sovereign connected company told me they play by their own rules.So you can quess what their attitude is to the Premier League.
Robert#11
A poster on Evertonia who's Grandson is at City's Academy and who has been at Finch Farm, said no wonder a young lad would go their having visited him there.City spent £200m on their facilities, Everton built Finch Farm for £17 million and spent £4 million since financed by a Council Loan.Obviously Finch Farm option to buy back at £17m this year is not worth it.That is why I point out the infrastructure deficit, which TFG show no shape at addressing. Actually the whole move from Bellefield was a Kenwright rip off.
27/09/2026 16:26:23
Spot on Robert, you make a lot of very valid points there.The media side of things is particularly interesting. I cancelled my Sky football subscription last year, because of their obsession with the Sly 6. But I still have access to Sky Sports News.But even that annoys me because football wise, their main focus is still the Sly 6!!
Like the sad individual I am, I decided to conduct a little experiment recently. At any given time, morning, afternoon or evening, whenever I put Sky Sports News on, I made a mental note of which Premier League teams they were featuring or talking about at that particular moment. And I very much doubt anyone will be surprised to hear that on most occasions, it was something concerning one of the Sly 6 that was being debated!! Very, very rarely would I put the channel on and find someone discussing the current situations and possibilities of Brentford, Brighton, Fulham etc. Or Everton.
So not only are the Sly 6 dominating the televised fixture schedule, they’re also dominating the Sky Sports News channel too!! And because of the all important “global” audience agenda, Sky are clearly quite happy to go along with this, and continue accommodating and enabling these clubs to constantly keep their profiles in the media spotlight.
27/09/2026 17:16:36
It's only to us fans, that this is a sport. To the people running the Premier League, it's a business.
Fairness, and equality aren't business terms. It doesn't matter to the people at the top, if the same few teams are winning everything, only that Premier League inc. is making more money. As the fans aren't going anywhere, anytime soon, then they will see no reason to change anything.
Man. City's punishment won't be allowed to hurt the brand, if it's a big punishment, it'll be because the Premier League will still get their money from the other cash cows. If City are now vital to their profits, it will only be a slap on the wrist.
To the League, City's only crime was getting caught!
27/09/2026 17:25:20
John, it may well.be the case that the brand is everything.
It's a dawned if you do, dawned if you don't for the PL. Give one of you cash cows, one of your heavyweights, a kicking they deserve, and you lose them. Don't give them a kicking, and you're seen to be weak and ineffectual, especially given the number of charges.
27/09/2026 18:19:43
David, I've noticed that too. Teams outside of the sky six get very little air time. With Sky News in particular, if its not on a Sky sports channel, it doesnt exist as a sport.
I am doubtful that the majority of pundits and journalists would be able to give you an analysis of a Brentford squad, or a Brighton squad, or an Everton squad, in anywhere near the same way they could for City. Arsenal or Liverpool.
I've gone on at length about narrative. The narrative in the media around City will always be lenient, will always be softly softly, when it comes to convictions and consequences.
I mentioned towards the end of last season that there was a morbid enjoyment on Sky Sports news to Spurs' apparently death spiral. You won't get it with City.
Liverpool falling away last season and this one, expect sympathetic reporting.
27/09/2026 18:31:58
What you wrote in your final sentence makes a lot of sense Raymond@5, but my own view is that people just don’t care about this as much anymore?
I might be wrong but often when you see a player cheating nowadays, it is followed with the phrase “he had a right to go down” Life has changed, outraged at everything but ashamed of nothing, used to only apply to fans of a few clubs, but I think this has changed and “win at all costs” now applies right across the board?
I’d fuckin love to see us cheat and win the lot, was what my son said, but he’s only been watching Everton, for 26 years and like he said, he’s seen England playing in more fucking finals than Everton
27/09/2026 21:21:25
I wonder if there's a cohort of City fans who wouldn't care if the full set of sanctions were applied. The older generation of fan who saw the very lean years, the season in League One. They've lived through success they never dared think of, even in their wildest dreams.
It may well all be worth it. The revenue streams from the stadium alone, and yes, I know they don't fill it even now, would still put the club at an advantage. The Academy and young fringe players would probably make a decent go of promotion from the lower leagues. There's probably a list of decent managers who would be happy to take the club on.
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27/09/2026 05:57:13
I read a stat during the week that PL spending in the summer transfer window was bigger than the next eight countries' leagues combined. That shows the revenue, and commercial pulling power, of clubs in England. You would think the most of that spend was by the 'big clubs'.
When City and Liverpool can spend £100m plus on one player, and offer multiple £400,000 plus a week contracts, you know the outcome. You know where all the best players want to go. By extension, you know where most of the silverware will go.
You know Villa and Newcastle aren't going to win the league. You know that Everton, or Brentford, or Brighton, aren't going to win a cup two or three seasons in a row.
What constitutes a good season now for most clubs, is attaining a number of lesser achievements. In the big picture, you know in advance of the season starting what your limits will be. No more dreaming for fans.
Part of you knows that little will be done to punish clubs. The teams that wanted the super league received a paltry fine, a fine that had little or no impact on the clubs. They were left a little cred faced but nothing of consequence happened.
I won't hold my breath.