Manchester City and the Premier League have gone at each other for the last three years, doing considerable damage to their working relationship
Premier League CEO Richard Masters has responded to to criticism of Manchester City's ongoing legal battle.
Premier League CEO Richard Masters (Image: PA Wire)
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Manchester City currently resemble a fish on the end of the Premier League's hook. There is enormous flapping and flailing, but an escape looks improbable.
As the decision noted of the 115 hearing, "the proceedings were at all times extremely hard fought on both sides" and "issues were fiercely contested". That isn't a surprise given the consequences of the outcome; this case was make-or-break for Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, and it is hard to see how a number of senior City officials implicated in the guilty verdicts can keep their jobs.
No wonder that fight goes on then, even if City can do little publicly. They are still part of what is a confidential process as they appeal the final decision of the three-man panel, so the irrefutable evidence that they think was wrongly rejected by the panel still cannot be presented.
The chairman has written an open letter to supporters and the CEO sent a video message to staff but both were limited in what they could say. The leaking of the panel's findings were damning for the club, the nature of the published decision - with all of the findings but none of the evidence to support it - even more so, and the timing in what is the biggest international break in modern memory has ensured there can be no footballing distractions.
All of which will sting City even more in a three-year war between the club and the league, which started off cold and has only got more freezing down to the last details. After the Premier League waited more than 15 hours to publicly confirm that City had appealed against their guilty verdicts, the club statement very pointedly referred to "the opinion of the Premier League commission" instead of mentioning a decision or an independent panel.
That may give small comfort at the Etihad, but it still won't get them off the hook. Only a complete overturning of the original conclusions on the most serious charges - like legal VAR - will be enough to see City wriggle free on appeal.
It is the Premier League that is in control, and the verdict will have been welcomed by a number of clubs in particular, yet at the same time, the clamour for expulsion is not widespread. Every member will want to see City punished for their rule breaches, but the appetite does not appear to be there for the most severe option.
That would give the league a problem that it has used this case to try to show it does not have - that it can be, as David Brent would put it, a friend and a boss. The Premier League has, through the disciplinary commission it has set up, overseen the trying and (as it stands) sentencing of City but still believes it can work with its members in partnership to discuss what is best for the league.
Should City be punished but stay in the league, they are not likely to overthrow the competition, but nor will they forget what has been done to them for offences that they still insist they are innocent of. Even if key figures at the club are forced out, that mood is unlikely to change.
For all the power the league have in this case, the show must still go on. Just as it seems strange that City will kick off at Anfield next Sunday as if nothing has changed, depending on the severity of sanctions, the Blues may well still be one of the biggest assets in selling the competition, complete with by far and away the most marketable individual in the game in Erling Haaland.
This case from the start has felt like an endgame for certain individuals, yet there is a strong chance that both sides must co-exist and work together afterwards for a common goal. Like many things at the minute, that looks like it could be another messy problem that will not be easily resolved.
A pint with Paul Dickov and being in the pub with Man City supporters after 115 guilty verdicts
A pint with Paul Dickov and being in the pub with Man City supporters after 115 guilty verdicts