The Manchester City situation has become one of the most talked about stories in Premier League history, sending shockwaves through every club they interacted with. And Arsenal in particular are right among the clubs who have been affected the most.
For years, Mikel Arteta’s side have been trying to close the gap on Pep Guardiola’s team, finishing second in Premier League title races and pushing City all the way. Arsenal eventually got their hands on the Premier League trophy, but the competition during those years was against a club whose financial conduct has now been found to have broken the rules.
An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of serious financial breaches across a nine-season period between 2009/10 and 2017/18. The findings included the use of “sham” commercial agreements which artificially inflated revenues and reduced costs by more than £900 million, as well as misstated accounts and significant breaches of Premier League and UEFA spending limits.
Now, what happens next is very complicated. Anything is on the table, from lengthy transfer bans to massive points deductions, maybe even expulsion. But there is no right solution. Whatever gets decided will have a massive knock-on effect for not just Manchester City but other clubs around them.
Ian Wright not mincing his words
Ian Wright certainly believes the consequences need to be serious.
Speaking after the verdict on ITV, the Arsenal legend described City’s conduct as “cheating on an industrial scale” and called for an “unprecedented punishment”.
Arsenal have spent years trying to build a squad capable of challenging Man City. The margins have often been tiny. A few points here, a missed opportunity there, but City when it came down to it always found themselves at the top, winning a record fourth title in a row during the 2023/24 season.
Nobody can say with certainty that Arsenal would have won any of those titles had City followed the rules.
But if a club is subsequently found to have significantly breached spending regulations during the period in which it established its dominance, it is completely reasonable for the clubs who competed against them to question what might have been different. And these clubs will have good cases to make.
The commission found that, had City’s arrangements been accounted for accurately, the club would have breached spending limits by a substantial amount. Over 900 million’s worth.
What should the punishment be?
City have not been punished yet. The sanctions will be decided at a separate hearing, with possible measures including fines, points deductions and other sporting sanctions. Manchester City also have until October 2 to appeal the verdict and have already stated that they intend to challenge the findings.
Wright’s call for an unprecedented punishment raises the obvious question of what that actually looks like. Should there be a huge points deduction? Should historic titles be reconsidered? Should there be financial compensation for clubs who believe they were disadvantaged?
Those are questions that will likely dominate the Premier League for some time.
For Arsenal, there is a topic that not many people have talked about. The fact that it was absolutely crucial that the club won the league last season.
For years upon end, Mikel Arteta’s side failed at the last hurdle.
If we hadn’t finally got over the line, there could have been a world where the Gunners only would have received the title through Manchester City being punished, and us happening to be the second-placed team.
But given the results of last season, we can actually say we won the league fairly and competing in a somewhat normal environment.
With all the questions surrounding the Premier League at the moment, the uncertainty makes this current season even more interesting.
I’m sure Manchester City’s first game back from the international break, against Liverpool at Anfield, will be one to keep an eye on.
2 Comments
Did they automatically stop cheating in 2018 or did they find other ways to hoodwink the Premier league everthing that happened afterwards is a consequence of cheating expunge all their records and throw them into the Conference league.
Most likely they carried on cheating, but the Prem has to draw the line somewhere otherwise the case would take far too long, so they settled on 2018 as the cutoff. And even if they didn’t cheat beyond that, you’re right – what they did between 2009 and 2018 absolutely had an impact because they were able to attract players like Haaland and Rodri using the illegally bought squad they already had.