Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has compared Manchester City’s achievements to an Olympic title won with performance enhancing drugs, branding the club’s conduct “financial doping” and demanding a punishment severe enough to deter others.
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Manchester City were this week found guilty by the Premier League of serious breaches of its financial rules spanning nine seasons - an era in which the club lifted eight major honours and grew into one of the dominant forces in world football.
Predictably, the ruling has loosened tongues across the rest of the division, with a number of high-profile names issuing their hard-hitting takes on the matter, and perhaps most significantly what should be the next course of action.
One of the loudest voices belongs to a man whose side are due at the Etihad Stadium before the year is out, with the owner of one of Manchester City’s upcoming opponents weighing in with one of the more incendiary comparisons yet.
Acun Ilicali’s “financial doping” verdict
Speaking on the Hull Daily Mail’s The 1904 Club podcast, Acun Ilicali reached for perhaps the starkest analogy available.
The Turkish businessman - who took ownership of Hull City back in 2022 - made a point of noting he could not personally pronounce Manchester City guilty. Even so, he argued, if the findings stood, then the parallel was an obvious one, and a damaging one for the sport.
“Their chairman says they are innocent. I don’t say they are guilty or not because they are saying they are innocent, and the Premier League says they are not innocent,” Ilicali said.
“If they are not innocent, I think it is no different to doping and winning an Olympic medal. This is financial doping at the end of the day. Bringing the top four or five players with huge money, breaking the rules. From that side, it doesn’t look very positive.”
Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has issued a statement in response to the club's guilty verdict issued by the top-flight this week.cityxtra.co.ukPep Guardiola Breaks Silence After Man City's Guilty Premier League Verdict
Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has issued a statement in response to the club's guilty verdict issued by the top-flight this week.
Call for a heavy deterrent
For Acun Ilicali, the significance of any sanction lies less in the punishment itself than in the message it sends to every other club in the country, expressing a concern that a token penalty would tell other sides that the rewards of breaking financial rules are worth the risk.
“If you give a small punishment, then everybody will do it,” he warned.
“For the future of football, and for it to be a clean future, this kind of thing, if it happens, should be punished and not let people do something like that.”
The Hull City owner, who last term steered the club to promotion through the Championship play-offs, also called for what he described as “natural money” in the game.
“If there is a mistake like this, this kind of mistake gives crazy advantages to some teams and it’s not fair,” he added.
Man City stand firm before December meeting
Manchester City, it should be stressed, still reject the accusations outright, and have continued to do so despite official confirmation of the verdict and the details of the matter released by the Premier League on Tuesday evening.
The club maintain their innocence, have branded the commission’s opinion “unsafe” and are pursuing an appeal against findings now formally confirmed by the Premier League. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak used an open letter to supporters to insist the club’s confidence in clearing its name is undimmed.
Acun Ilicali’s input adds another combative voice to a chorus of rival owners circling in the wake of the ruling. From calls for points deductions to the threat of compensation claims, Manchester City now find themselves batting away criticism from every direction as the sport digests a landmark decision.
Hull, currently eighth in the Premier League table, make the trip to the Etihad Stadium on December 19, and perhaps few away dressing rooms will arrive in Manchester this season with quite so much already said in the public domain.