Why Man City's 115 Charges Could See Them Kicked Out Of The Premier League
Manchester City have been accused of 115 breaches of the Premier League's rules. In light of Everton's points deduction though, the spotlight has again fallen over Pep Guardiola's club as their investigation rumbles on without a conclusion in sight. But why is that, when can fans expect a resolution, and just how much trouble might City actually be in?
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00:00Hello everyone, Adam here again from 442.
00:09Now if I said the number to you, 115, what would you think of?
00:15Maybe 10 years ago you'd have thought of Element 115, I think that was a thing, but it's probably
00:21Manchester City now isn't it, so that's what we're going to talk about today.
00:25So firstly, I feel like before we talk about the 115 charges, it's important to have a
00:29little bit of a history lesson.
00:32Obviously you know Manchester City are rich, they were taken over, but a bit of a history
00:36lesson into their financial misdemeanours and what's happened in the past with them
00:41and other governing bodies.
00:42So of course they were bought by Sheikh Mansour and the Adog consortium in 2008, which is
00:47really where the spending started, and then the trophies came up until 2014 when UEFA
00:54fined Manchester City as well as 8 other football clubs for breaching financial rules.
01:00Manchester City got fined £60m, paid it, yet did not admit that they had any wrongdoing
01:07at all.
01:08So they were adamant that they were on the best behaviour, didn't do anything wrong,
01:11but they did pay the fine to UEFA of £60m, that was in 2014.
01:17And then in 2018, Der Spiegel, the German newspaper, reported email leaks from within
01:22Manchester City, and from those email leaks Der Spiegel stated that, and I quote,
01:27The club's newfound glory years are rooted in lies.
01:31Der Spiegel reported that basically City inflated their sponsorship deals so that they could
01:36spend more money whilst appearing to UEFA and other people like they were spending within
01:41cheque and keeping everything clean.
01:44So as a result, UEFA investigated this internally, and as a result of that investigation, they
01:49banned Manchester City from the Champions League for two years.
01:53City then appealed this, as we all know, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in which
01:57they were then found not guilty and exonerated and let back into the Champions League, which
02:02takes us up to now, where the Premier League have dumped 115 allegations on Manchester
02:08City's head.
02:09So what are Manchester City's charges, you ask?
02:11Well, I'm obviously not going to read out a list this big of all of them, because that
02:15would be very time-consuming, and they're all fairly samey-samey, they're all to do
02:20with financial mismanagement, but the basis of most of them is, there's allegations that
02:24City have failed to fully report financial reports at the end of each year, particularly
02:29in relation to revenue.
02:31There is also allegations that City have failed to disclose player salaries and how those
02:35players are paid, you know, whether that be with offshore payments or, you know, in-house
02:40things.
02:41So, they've failed to disclose the full way that they pay the wages of their players,
02:44effectively.
02:45And that they have failed to cooperate with the Premier League's internal investigation,
02:50so a bit of an extra slap on the wrist there for that one as well.
02:53They've failed to cooperate with the Premier League, which UEFA also accused them of two
02:58or three years ago.
02:59Apparently they failed to cooperate with UEFA as well, so there is that too.
03:02Now it's important to note that none of these 115 allegations actually have any evidence
03:06pinned to them yet in the public domain, so there's nothing visible that anyone can go
03:10online and read that is, you know, cast iron, that has been presented to court, to the
03:16Independent Commission.
03:17It's all up in the air and it's all allegations at the moment.
03:20There's no hard evidence as it stands now and the burden of proof lies on the Premier
03:25League at the moment.
03:26So, why is it taking so long when Everton have just been punished like that?
03:30Well, because Everton have one charge, City had 115, the cases in terms of magnitude just
03:35don't stack up.
03:36City's case is absolutely huge.
03:38There's going to be so many more moving parts, experts, witnesses, statements, documents,
03:43things like that in this case, that it's just going to take so long and when you consider
03:48the fact that Everton's case that has just gone was in court a 28,000 page document that
03:55was for one charge, if you do the maths on that, 28,000 times 115, it's a lot.
04:00It's going to take a lot of reading and a lot of getting through.
04:03It's going to be time consuming, so that's why the date scheduled is roughly 2025 for
04:08when we're going to get a verdict and a decision on this whole thing.
04:11So what is the real difference between the Man City charges and the Everton charge?
04:15Well, the main thing is that Everton actually had an admission of guilt.
04:18They admitted that they did do what they were accused of.
04:21So what they were accused of was breaching the Premier League's profitability and sustainability
04:27guidelines for three seasons throughout the pandemic, ending in the 2021-2022 season.
04:34So basically, the maximum losses allowed in that period were 105 million, to which Everton
04:40exceeded because they had to sort of rejig their finances with the pandemic.
04:45They changed the way that they structured their youth development programme, for instance,
04:48and that's really why they've been slapped on the wrist and the independent commission
04:52deemed Everton to have had an unfair sporting advantage.
04:58So Everton went, yep, we do.
05:00So that's kind of what happened, but I think Everton may well appeal it now because they
05:04feel they've been hard done by, but that's a separate discussion.
05:07But the admission of guilt really is the difference between this case and Man City's 115 charges.
05:14If you think about it in very simple terms, like let's say there's two court hearings
05:18for separate burglars and they've burgled two different houses, but burglar A is Man
05:23City, burglar B is Everton, and burglar B has gone, yeah, I actually did rob that house,
05:28Your Honour.
05:29Well, that court hearing is going to be a lot quicker because not as much evidence is
05:32needed to prosecute burglar B who has said that he's done it, whereas burglar A is standing
05:39firm.
05:40So you've got to go find the evidence to prove that he did.
05:41That's kind of how it is, but 115 charges as opposed to one, so a lot more paperwork
05:46as well.
05:47So what might happen?
05:48That is the big question really, isn't it?
05:49Well, nobody really knows, but you can assume given that Everton seemingly have been made
05:53an example of with a 10 point deduction for one charge that the Manchester City punishment
05:59and possibly the Chelsea one as well, if that happens, will be draconian.
06:03I don't think it will be a case of, you know, if it's 115 charges, then City will be docked
06:081,150 points.
06:09I don't really think that's how it's going to work, otherwise I'd be having a kick about
06:13at Sunday League with Haaland if that's, if they fell that low, it's not going to be that
06:17bad.
06:18But a relegation and huge points deductions, massive fines seem like a real possibility
06:23if City are charged.
06:25The main issue I think with all this is timing and let me explain why.
06:28So there's no definitive date on when the decision is going to be made by the independent
06:32commission with Ban City yet.
06:33They assume it's going to be 2025, but they don't know exactly when.
06:37So let's say that, I don't know, for example, at the end of the 24-25 season, so in like
06:44June 2025, that's when Manchester City are accused of this and charged.
06:49Let's say they're docked 100 points or relegated to League One or something like that.
06:53City would then obviously appeal this and then they'd be going into the new season playing
06:57in League One.
06:58Problem is then with an appeal that might get heard in October, November, December in
07:022025 and the verdict will be reached from the appeal to which then you'd have to restructure
07:08the whole English pyramid if Manchester City then got away with it.
07:11So it's going to be a tricky one to punish them very harshly because of the restructuring
07:15of English football that's going to need to take place.
07:18And the fact that if they are charged, that's not the be all and end all because City may
07:21well appeal it and be able to overturn that after the punishment has been issued, if you
07:26understand what I'm saying.
07:27So it could cause some real problems for other clubs if City are punished so severely as
07:33and when it happens.
07:34It'd be also interesting to see what happened really if this punishment was brandished mid-season
07:39to City and they were sort of on like minus 80 points mid-season.
07:43It'd be like watching 11 of the best players in the world play the most futile football
07:47ever because it's nothing to play for.
07:49So yeah, it's going to be interesting.
07:52City will appeal it if they are deemed guilty and then that's going to cause a whole different
07:57problem for the EFL, for everyone really involved in English football because of the restructuring
08:01that may have to take place and the fact that they may have to restructure it and then go
08:05back on that restructuring depending on the appeal.
08:07It's very, very convoluted what could end up happening in a couple of years' time.
08:11But for now, we do not know, do we?
08:13We're just going to have to wait and see.
08:14I'm sure this story is going to come up time and time again in the months going by leading
08:18up to 2025 and I'm sure more evidence will be presented as time progresses.
08:23But as of now, there isn't on.
08:25It's purely allegations.
08:27So we'll have to wait and see.
08:27But you can let me know in the comments what you think either Manchester City deserve,
08:32whether Everton were treated too harshly and made an example of what you think of FFP,
08:37you know, as an introductory thing that came in 10 years ago.
08:40I think it was in there to kind of keep the status quo at the top of the game.
08:44Those teams that make revenue from their past successes and try and stifle new teams
08:49from prospering really with new investors is to kind of keep them at bay at the time.
08:54That's my take on it.
08:55But you can let me know what you think about all those things regardless.
08:58Don't forget to subscribe.
08:59I've been Adam.
09:00I hope you've had a very lovely day and I'll see you very soon.
09:04Goodbye.