Manchester City Shockingly Suing the Premier League Amid Financial Charges
In a simultaneously shocking but also not surprising turn of events, Premier League champions Manchester City are suing the Premier League. The club wants to bring down the Premier League’s Associated Transaction Party (ATP) rules that have attempted and failed, to limit City’s spending in order to keep the league fair. City claims that they are the victims of “discrimination” and described the Premier League’s financial rules as “tyranny of the majority,” another word for “democracy.”
The ATP rules were instituted in 2021 after Newcastle FC was bought in a Saudi Arabian-led takeover. According to The Independent, the rules were set in place to “prevent clubs from benefiting from commercial deals at highly inflated prices with corporations linked to the club’s ownership.” It seems simple, but if you’re confused, the rules were put in place to stop nation-states from buying football clubs and exploiting them by turning them into money-printing machines. Make sense?
If you have followed Manchester City for the past decade-plus, you know how ridiculous this lawsuit sounds. The club that should be rightfully punished for spending beyond the limits of Financial Fair Play is suing the Premier League for having spending limits and trying to make things fair and somewhat unpredictable on the pitch. Not that those spending limits ever stopped City who have turned the Premier League into the latest inevitable Champions League in the grand tradition of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
Even more reprehensible is that City has thrown things like their youth development system, women’s football team, and community programs into the line of fire, saying that financial regulations will hurt those aspects of their institution the most. Through this attempted appeal to the good hearts of the Premier League officials, of which there are few, City essentially state that the community and their youth and women’s football programs will pay for the club’s mistakes. Plus, it’s all a smoke screen. We know who deserves to pay the most: the owners of the club. The question is, will they ever be punished?
So, what is City getting at by suing the Premier League? What could they possibly have to gain by looking so foolish so publicly? It is this writer’s opinion that this is just another attempt from a nation-state to steal the joy out of the beautiful game by leaving all of the other clubs behind. Another example of the big clubs wanting to play by their own rules. City had two options when they received the infamous 115 charges of financial doping, accept the charges and subsequent punishments, or fight back. When you put it like that, it almost seems admirable that they are suing the Premier League. Almost. The reality is that they have made their situation vastly worse by fighting.
Manchester City have made things worse because they have alienated the rest of the Premier League. They have no allies, no one to stand with. However, they have now also alienated the Premier League itself. Who knows what the punishments were going to be for the 115 charges before this lawsuit came down the pipeline? Knowing how the Premier League treats its big clubs, it might have just been a slap on the wrist. Maybe a two-window transfer ban, maybe worse, maybe better. However, now City has bitten the hand that feeds them. They have made an enemy out of the Premier League, and should have motivated the League to do two major things:
First, punish City soon. No more delay. Everyone knows they are guilty, everyone saw what they did. Second, punish them severely. I’m talking about the loss of Premier League trophies, relegation, mass point deductions that kind of thing. If the Premier League wins this lawsuit as they should and confirms the charges as they should, the hammer needs to be brought down. Sports Washing needs to be brought down, and Manchester City’s financial misdeeds need to be the line in the sand. Never forget the Super League. Never forget that they tried to take this beautiful game from us.
