Despite employing arguably the best football coach in the world, stocking its rosters with the world’s best players, gaining
a stranglehold on the English Premier League titles for last decade-plus, Manchester City F.C. often projects the aura of inauthenticity.
Manchester United, moribund for nearly as long as City has been ascendant, has the mystique of a great football team even as it wanders in doldrums.
How did Manchester City rise to the top of EPL? By evolving a philosophy of playing the game and employing staff to bring that vision to fruition? They sort of did that, especially after the arrival of Pep Guardiola.
But, mostly, they achieved prominence by bulldozing the rules that govern the English and European football, especially financial fair play and accounting rules.
Following the purchase of club by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, through the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, City F.C. immediately set about violating all the rules of European football and the English Premier League
with impunity.
To be fair to the Sheikh and Man City, they were following the blueprint laid down by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who bought the Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and, the sheer power of his will and checkbook, turned the club into a serial winner.
UEFA tried to curb the club’s action but, through delays, City escaped punishment. UEFA, stung by the experience of trying to control the game, has essentially thrown in the towel on enforcing financial fair play rules so that clubs like Juventus in Italy, Barcelona in Spain and PSG in France just do whatever they want.
Todd Boehly and his cohorts in investment firm Clearlake Capital now own Chelsea have taken that blueprint to ridiculous lengths, spending nearly $400 million to acquire players in the January 2023 transfer window alone and giving them lengthy contracts. That outlay exceeds the amount of money spent by the Spanish, French, Italian and German leagues combined!
Now, is history about to repeat itself? The EPL released an extraordinary statement today alleging staggering transgressions by Manchester City F.C., dating as far back as 2009.
Will Manchester City F.C. again escape being held accountable to the rules that govern the other clubs?
