A Crying Sham for the EPL

Shamball! Shamchester! Sham FC! All have been used about Manchester City after their guilty verdict.

But for English football, a more appropriate label may be a Crying Sham that it has come to this.

Today (Friday) is the deadline for City to lodge their appeal, and with sponsor Etihad Airways already threatening to counter-sue the English Premier League (EPL), the story still has a long way to run.

The independent commission’s use of terms such as “sham contracts” and “disguised funding scheme” has caused hackles to rise in Abu Dhabi.

But hopefully, it will not be as long as City chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak once threatened, when the club faced a fine from UEFA.

“I would rather spend 30 million [pounds] on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years,” he said, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel, which broke the news of City’s financial chicanery in 2018.

For the record, City won their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the mood in the Blue half of Manchester is just as bullishly defiant today.

Although CAS is not an option for this domestic matter, the owners’ intransigence is why the rest of football has the celebrations on hold.

What to do about City remains an insoluble problem with an intractable opponent in an impossible situation.

Punish them too hard and the owners may pack up and leave. Be too soft, and it all becomes a waste of time. Try to satisfy everybody and satisfy nobody.

Everything from putting Erling Haaland in stocks to relegating City to the local pub league has been suggested. But all have consequences that hardly bear thinking about.

Fines would mean nothing to the rich oil state of the UAE, so a points deduction looks almost certain. But how much?

Based on those given to Everton (six) and Nottingham Forest (four) for minor accounting infractions two years ago, City’s punishment would indeed be enough to send it crashing to the pub second tier.

Both Everton and Forest earned reductions for co-operating with the league, but with no less than 35 of City’s 115 charges being for non-cooperation, no clemency can be expected.

Relegation to the Championship is the least punishment City are likely to face, but to many observers, that would not fit serial crimes of such magnitude.

City would certainly bounce back immediately and one season, perhaps chasing new records, along with cup participation, could almost be regarded as a sabbatical.

There’s a precedent for this with Juventus dropping to Serie B after the Calciopoli (match-fixing) scandal in Italy. Several players left but enough stayed for them to storm back immediately.

Ominously, many Italians say this scandal coincided with the decline of the country’s football.

With this in mind, the EPL has to be careful not to cut off its nose to spite its face.

Take away the ghost £1 billion, which is roughly what City concealed, and you have a yawning gap to fill.

And think what such big spending did for selling clubs: Forest made a near £100m profit on Elliot Anderson, whom Newcastle, abiding by the Profit & Sustainability Rules, were forced to sell to them two years ago.

In the recent window, City bought Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea for another £100m plus fee.

Depending on what happens vis-à-vis the appeal, the January transfer window could see a bear market.

It makes you wonder if City’s summer splurge was because they saw a possible transfer ban coming.

Yet for all that extra spending, City’s superiority was often by the slimmest of margins.

They won the EPL title by a single point or on the final day three times, with Liverpool the biggest losers.

Without the Abu Dhabi riches, the playing field might be levelled, but the league will be a poorer place.

There are so many questions: Will the EPL clubs keep their edge over the rest of Europe?

In the light of this ruling, will UEFA be reenergised and jump on board to hit City, knowing the club’s argument is a sham?

English football has recently installed an Independent Football Regulator to guard against charlatan club owners and ensure all parties play by the book.

Getting his teeth into an issue of this magnitude to kick off with might be more than the IFR had bargained for, but he’ll never get a juicier bone.

But not everyone is out to get City. None other than new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants to wait to see the outcome of the appeals process.

Although a fully paid-up Everton fan who thought the Blues were unfairly treated two years ago, he would be sorry to see the City owners go, if they do pack up.

As a former mayor of Manchester, he knows how their money regenerated a sizable and neglected corner of his former city. And now as PM, he would be loath to lose trade worth £25 billion between the two countries.

And then there are the players. You wonder if recent signings have a relegation clause in their contracts.

The Championship might still be palatable for some but not others. But anything lower and City could be looking at a mass exodus.

And would there be a transfer ban on City? Another unthinkable scenario for the club whose manager was famous for overthinking.

And Pep himself? His legacy will inevitably be tainted by his close association with the head honchos.

Was current boss Enzo Maresca completely in the dark about all this?
No matter how we look at it, today is not the beginning of the end but, at best, the end of the beginning.

A better idea of what the wider public and fans of other clubs make of it will be revealed when City next take the field.

It’s away to Liverpool. Anfield will no doubt let them know how the rest of football feels.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.