Why Man City's 115 Charges Could See Them Kicked Out Of The Premier League

Hello everyone. Adam here again from 442. Now if I said the number to you, 115 or 115, what would you think of maybe 10 years ago you’d have thought of element 115. I think that was a thing, but it’s probably Manchester City now, isn’t it? So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. So firstly, I feel like before we talk about the 115 charges, it’s important to have a little bit of a history lesson. Obviously you know Manchester City, you’re rich, they would take it over. But a bit of a history lesson into their financial misdemeanours and you know what’s happened in the past with them and other governing bodies. So of course they were bought by Sheikh Mansour in the a dug consortium in 2008, which is really where the spending started. And then the trophies came up until 2014 when UEFA fine Manchester City as well as eight other football clubs for breaching financial rules. Manchester City got fined 60,000,000 lbs. Paid it, yet did not admit that they had any wrongdoing at all. So they were adamant that they were on the best behaviour. Didn’t do anything wrong. But they did pay the fine to a foot of £60 million. That was in 2014 and then in 2018 to Spiegel. The German newspaper reported e-mail leaks from within Manchester City and from those e-mail leaks to Spiegel. Stated that, and I quote the club’s New Found Glory years are rooted in lies. The Spiegel reported that basically City inflated their sponsorship deals so that they could spend more money whilst appearing to UEFA and other people like they were spending within check and you know, keeping everything clean. So as a result, UEFA investigated this internally and as a result of that investigation they banned Manchester City from the Champions League for two years. City then appealed this, as we all know, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in which they were then found not guilty and exonerated and let back into the Champions League. Which takes us up to now where the Premier League have dumped 115 allegations on Manchester City’s head. So what are Manchester City’s charges you ask? Well, I’m obviously not going to read out a list this big of all of them because that would be very time consuming and they’re all fairly say me, say me, they’re all to do with financial mismanagement. But the basis of most of them is there’s allegations that Citi have failed to fully report financial reports at the end of each year, particularly in relation to revenue. There is also allegations that Citi have failed to disclose player salaries and how those players are paid. You know, whether that be with offshore payments or, you know, in house things, they’ve they’ve failed to disclose the full way that they they pay the wages of the players effectively and that they have failed to cooperate with the Premier League’s internal investigation. So a bit of an extra slap on the wrist there for that one as well. They failed to cooperate with the Premier League, which UEFA also accused them of two or three years ago. Apparently they failed to cooperate with UEFA as well. So there is that too. Now, it’s important to note that none of these 115 allegations actually have any evidence pinned to them yet in the public domain. So there’s nothing visible that anyone can go online and read that is, you know, cast iron that has been presented to court, to the independent Commission. It’s all up in the air and it’s all allegations at the moment. There’s no hard evidence as it stands now and the burden of proof lies on the Premier League at the moment. So why is it taking so long when Everton have just been punished like that? Well, because Everton had one charge, City had 115. The cases in terms of magnitude just don’t stack up cities cases, absolutely huge. There’s going to be so many more moving parts, experts, witnesses, statements, documents, things like that in this case that it’s just going to take so long. And when you consider the fact that Everton’s case that has just gone was in court a 28,000 page document that was for one charge. If you do the maths on that 28,000 * 115, it’s a lot. It’s going to take a lot of reading and a lot of getting through. It’s going to be time consuming. So that’s why the date scheduled is roughly 2025 for when we’re going to get a verdict and the decision on this whole thing. So what is the real difference between the Man City charges and the Everton charge? Well, the main thing is that Everton actually had an admission of guilt. They admitted that they did do what they were accused of. So what they were accused of was breach in the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability guidelines for three seasons throughout The pandemic ended in the 2021-2022 season. So basically the maximum losses allowed in that period were 105 million to which Everton exceeded because they had to sort of rejig their finances with the pandemic. They changed the way that they structure their youth development programme for instance. And that’s really why they’ve been slapped on the wrist and the independent Commission deemed Everton to have had an unfair sporting advantage. So Everton went, yeah, we do. So that’s kind of what happened, but I think Everton may well appeal it now because they feel have been hard done by, but that’s that’s a separate discussion. But the admission of guilt really is the difference between this case and Man City’s 115 charges. If you think about it in very simple terms, like let’s say there’s two court hearings for separate burglars and they’ve burgled two different houses, but burglary is Man City, Burglar Bee’s Everton and Burglar Bee has gone. Yeah, I actually did rob that house, your Honour. Well, that court hearing’s going to be a lot quicker because not as much evidence is needed to prosecute Burgle Bee who has said that he’s he’s done it, whereas burglary is standing firm. So you’ve got to find the evidence to prove that he did. That’s kind of how it is. But 115 charges as opposed to 1, so a lot more paperwork as well. So what might happen, that is the big question really isn’t it? Well, nobody really knows. But you can assume given that Everton seemingly been made an example of with a 10 point deduction for one charge, that the Manchester City punishment and possibly the Chelsea one as well, if that happens, will be draconian. I don’t think it will be a case of, you know, if it’s 115 charges then it’ll be dots, 1150 points. I don’t really think that’s how it’s going to work. Otherwise I’d be having a kick about at Sunday league with Holland. If that’s if they fell that low, it’s not going to be that bad, but relegation and huge points deductions, massive fines seem like a real possibility if City are charged. The main issue I think with all this is timing and let me explain why. So there’s no definitive date on when the decision is going to be made by the independent Commission with Man City yet they assume it’s going to be 2025, but they don’t know exactly when. So let’s say that I don’t know, for example at the end of the 2425 season, so in like June 2025, that’s when Manchester City accused of this and charged, let’s say they’re docked 100 points are relegated to League One or something like that. City would then obviously appeal this and then they’d be going into the new season playing in League One. Problem is then with an appeal that might get heard in October, November, December in 2025 and the verdict will be reached from the appeal to which then you’d have to restructure the whole English pyramid if Manchester City then got away with it. So it’s going to be a tricky 1 to punish them very harshly because of the restructuring of English football that’s going to need to take place and the fact that if they are charged that’s not the be all and end all, because City may well appeal it and be able to overturn that after the punishment has been issued, if you understand what I’m saying. So it could cause some real problems for other clubs if City are punished so severely as and when it happens. It’d be also interesting to see what happened, really. If this this punishment was brandished mid season City and they were sort of on like -80 points mid season, it’d be like watching 11 of the best players in the world play the most futile football ever because it’s nothing to play for. So yeah, it’s it’s going to be interesting. City will appeal it if they are deemed guilty. And then that’s going to cause a whole different problem for, for the EFL, for everyone really involved in English football, because of the restructuring that may have to take place and the fact that they may have to restructure it and then go back on that restructuring depending on the appeal. It’s very, very convoluted what what could end up happening in a couple of years time. But for now we do not know, do we? We’re just going to have to wait and see. I’m sure this story’s going to come up time and time again in the months going by leading up to 2025 and I’m sure more evidence will be presented as time progresses. But as of now there is none. It’s purely purely allegations. So we’ll have to wait and see. But you can let me know in the comments what you think either Manchester City deserve, whether Everton were treated too harshly and and made an example of what you think of FFP. You know, as a as an introductory thing that came in 10 years ago. I think it was in there to kind of keep the status quo at the top of the game, those teams that make revenue from their past successes and to try and stifle new teams from prospering really with new investors, it’s to kind of keep them at Bay at the time. That’s my take on it. But you can let me know what you think about all those things. Regardless, don’t forget to subscribe. I’ve been out. I hope you had a very lovely day and I’ll see you very soon. Goodbye.