Johanna Frändén: There is no justice between football's cheaters

Facing Paris Saint-Germain is one of the toughest challenges out there, Manchester City learned as soon as the referee blew the whistle at the Etihad Stadium last night. The first half was a Parisian display where almost every action sparkled with individual quality.

After the weekend's clash against Liverpool (3-0 to City who played the last half hour with one more man) where the banners of cheating and accusations decorated half of Anfield, PSG were in any case a combatant who do not exactly have the margins to mock.

Before the match, Paris coach Luis Enrique wished City the best of luck with their appeal and said they "deserved all the titles they have won in recent years".

In the vip stand sat his good friend Pep Guardiola, invited to minimize damage with his mere presence. At 10 Downing Street in London, Andy Burnham may have been sitting and nodding over the gifts he is said to have received from Manchester City's owners during his time as the city's mayor.

The British Prime Minister's direct involvement in history shows with all the desired clarity how integrated elite football and top politics have become.

The matches between PSG and Manchester City were dubbed "el gulfico" ten years ago, after the clubs' respective owners from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The two dictatorships have with some success tricked the team's supporters into believing that it is primarily sporting results on the field that drove the bets. For those who managed to take in the larger perspective, it has always been clear that it all started and ended with geopolitics.

The goal has been to strengthen their positions in the outside world when the oil begins to run out, but in the specific case of Qatar/United Arab Emirates, it has been as much about trumping and smearing each other with the help of football.

It is said that it is more difficult for PSG chairman Nasser al-Khelaifi to lose to Manchester City than any other club in Europe, as he has to report back to a Qatar that has just been humiliated by its neighbor and arch-rival.

PSG has been convicted of circumventing Uefa's financial fair play rules on two occasions (2014 and 2022) and fined a total of approximately SEK 300 million. Like City, it was found to have inflated the value of sponsorship contracts far above market value, in order to pump money into the club's coffers from state-owned companies in - Qatar.

At least PSG have accepted the verdicts. By extension, it has enabled Nasser al-Khelaifi's advancement within the European football bureaucracy. Nowadays, the PSG pamp can also call himself chairman of the interest organization European Football Clubs, with a seat on the exclusive Fifa council since last year. From upstart and outsider from a country no one ever associated with football before 2010, al-Khelaifi has become a force to be reckoned with in world football.

Manchester City's owners chose a different tactic. They have repeatedly refused to cooperate regarding the transparency of the club's finances - about twenty of the 114 charges they have been convicted of apply to this very thing - and this autumn they are staring straight into the abyss that a potential relegation to the English second division would mean.

Wednesday's battle was a showdown between two European clubs who sold their entire identity to Persian Gulf states and then fiddled with the calculators to establish themselves at the highest level. But by all means, they offered really fun football.