If Manc had been more sorry and less belligerent, they might have gained some sympathy
How does the Premier League get out of the ManC situation?
By Tony Attwood
What on earth do we do about ManC? That is the problem and that is the division between clubs – and one made worse as seemingly increasing number of ManC fans are now celebrating their club’s ability to take all the other clubs for a ride, rather than feeling any sense of shame, guilt or any other negative emotion.
The Guardian, citing conversations executives from PL clubs, have said that the dominant view among clubs is that whatever the punishment, (and I’ starting to wonder if there ever will be any punishment) it must be a punishment that will keep the wretched club out of the Premier League for what is being termed the “foreseeable future.”
The only problem is that the PL doesn’t have the power to relegate the Mancs since Football League is a separate organisation. All the PL can do is knock points off the club when it is in the PL. And there is a problem with that since increasingly ManC supporters are celebrating rather than feeling ashamed of, what their club has done.
Another response could be a lower points deduction each year for how many years they are deemed to have been cheating – not enough to relegate them necessarily but enough to ensure they can’t win the League. The benefit of that is that many players who previously would have felt that a transfer to ManC would mean guaranteed medals, because of the way they cheated each season, would now know that it meant a mid-table at best.
And the reason for needing a punishment over time is because there are many ManC supporters who are now celebrating what they have achieved through cheating the system and making fools of the rest of football.
However there could be another punishment for SI.com recently suggested, “The independent panel that will decide the final punishment following a recommendation from the Premier League, does have the ability to expel City from England’s top flight entirely.” And that could mean for year after year after year.
On the other hand Sky Sports News are quoted as having got the opinion of a couple of “senior executives” working in PL clubs if the rest of the PL were against letting the ManCs back into the Premier League, because ManC are “among the biggest commercial attractions in the English game.” And as I point out below – the ManCs are already laughing at us – and that would make them laugh even more.
Sadly though commercial considerations are always to the fore. Some are saying that the expulsion of ManC now would mean teams would play one game fewer and that would have contractual problems with TV.
Which suggests a big points deduction for this season as part one of the punishment and then as and when the club comes back up, another big points deduction to send them back down again in that subsequent season.
There is also that The Independent Football Regulator who must surely decide that the owners of ManC are not suitable people to run a club – so they could certainly get rid of the current directors. They can also reject any other employees at any club whom they feel is not honest enough to run a club – which in the case of ManC could be virtually everyone.
But what if all these worthy people botch the job, relegate ManC maybe for one season only and then allow them to carry on. After all the Prime Minister (a certain Andy Burnham) has said he would be “concerned” if the current owners were forced to leave. His argument was, “They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is…I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn’t just put into the Etihad… but also into the city.”
What we do have to remember is that football bodies are capable of anything so something as ludicrous as allowing ManC off with a minor punishment is quite possible. The Guardian recently came up with the idea that there should be “blanks instead of Manchester City’s name on trophies” as if that would be any punishment.
The whole point of punishment in all societies is both to ensure that the criminal does not benefit from the crimes, and that others are deterred from trying the same trick. Would removing a name and allowing the wretched club to continue as before be a punishment?
I have spent quite a lot of money and a large amount of my emotions supporting Arsenal across the years, in the belief that although some referee decisions were decidedly dodgy, by and large football in England was not biased. Now I find that in terms of the overall rules, it was possible for a club to buy its way to the top. Nothing is going to give me back the money I have wasted watching a bent league, and bent cup matches. And I am not surprised that ManC supporters are laughing at me, and those like me. Football really was bent all this time.
So I wasted my money, because if I had been told clearly and openly that, at least since modern day ManC came along, the league was fixed, I would have stopped gong.
As things stand many ManC fans are laughing at the rest of us secure in the knowledge that ManC will find a way to wriggle out of this situation as they wriggled through the rest of their recent history. And that is what I don’t want them to be able to do.
There is no sense of shame or despair, as I would feel if it were ever suggested Arsenal had engaged in what ManC has done. There are many ManCs who don’t criticize the club’s owners but actually celebrate how they made fools of the rest of us. Indeed there seems precious little acceptance that they have ever done anything grossly wrong – rather there is laughter at us for letting them get away with it.
Indeed there are reports now than journalists are holding back on any criticism of the ManC because of the vast amount of abuse they they receive from ManC fans both personally and on social media – organised into what academics call “circles” where the more abuse you send out the more credibility you have. And of course the multi-billionaire anti-democratic owners of the club love it.
There is a growing feeling now among supporters of other clubs that ManC will never get their due for what they have done, and that perhaps is the biggest worry of all.
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