Manchester City: financial scandal and loss of credibility in European football

In football, attack is often the best defense. They know this at Manchester City, the club that, with Pep Guardiola's possession football, has dominated the Premier League in the last decade like few before. So how do you react to the accusation of having circumvented the rules of football for years, falsified balance sheets and undermined the investigation wherever possible? In short: being responsible for the biggest financial scandal in the history of European football. City relies on attack.

The investigation? Full of errors, nothing but a campaign. The club? Innocent, of course. The truth? Come to light when the “irrefutable evidence” ends up in an independent court. This can be read in an official club statement – dated February 14, 2020.

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At that time, UEFA largely condemned the club for the same financial violations as the Premier League now: Manchester City is said to have concealed cash injections from its owner in Abu Dhabi as sponsorship income between 2009 and 2018 in order to circumvent the league's financial rules. It's about more than a billion euros. In short: City is said to have systematically cheated on a large scale.

Manchester City has lost its credibility

The verdict of an independent commission, which the Premier League published on Tuesday, amounts to a general reckoning: guilty on over 100 charges, in all but one. There is talk of sham contracts, of concealed financial systems, of club employees who lied at hearings.

To see what is now at stake for football, all you need to do is look at 2020. At that time, City went to the CAS, and the highest sports court largely overturned the verdict. That it by no means acquitted the club, but rather only found that a number of allegations could not be adequately proven? Nobody was interested anymore when City celebrated the first treble in the club's history three years later - presented by Etihad. Looking back, the images seem like a mockery of a system that at least tries to maintain the appearance of equal opportunities despite all the money that flows into the clubs from outside.

And now? The Premier League commission is convinced: “We consider the allegations presented to be more than proven according to the applicable standard,” is the final sentence after 40 pages of reasons for the decision.

City's reaction seems like a reflection of the old strategy. But the club has long since lost its credibility. The question now is: Is football gradually losing it too? This could only be prevented with a punishment with a clear deterrent effect. The question is no longer whether forced relegation is possible. But whether there is anything else that could be legitimized.