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Image: BBC Sport
Written by David Skilling
Manchester City’s breaches of financial rules could have cost other Premier League clubs as much as £844 million, according to a new BBC Sport investigation.
It’s a massive figure, adding another dimension to the conversation around City’s financial conduct between 2009 and 2018. We’ve spent recent weeks discussing titles, trophies and potential punishments, but there’s also a conversation around what other clubs might have lost along the way.
BBC Sport’s Dale Johnson has examined the financial consequences of City’s position in English football during that period, calculating potential losses from league placings, missed European qualification, relegation and domestic cup competitions.
The analysis estimates £188.2 million in Premier League placing money, £217.8 million in missed Champions League earnings, £349.7 million associated with relegation and another £88.3 million from domestic cups and the Europa League.
Tottenham has come out as the biggest potential losers, with an estimated £119.9 million in missed earnings. Spurs finished one place outside the Champions League positions on four occasions when City qualified, with the difference in European prize money accounting for most of that figure.
Hull City are second at £99 million, largely because they suffered two relegations during the period. Everton follow at £66.4 million, having missed out on Champions League qualification once and finished immediately outside the Europa League places on four other occasions.
Swansea, Newcastle and Liverpool also feature prominently, although the financial calculations differ a lot depending on whether a club missed European football, suffered relegation or lost a cup final.
I think the relegation figures are interesting because much of the discussion around the City case focuses on clubs competing at the top of the Premier League. But for teams further down, staying in the division can be worth considerably more than finishing a place higher.
It’s important to acknowledge there are qualifications to all of this. The BBC isn’t claiming these clubs would definitely have achieved different results without City’s financial advantages; football doesn’t work like that, and removing one team’s spending from the equation doesn’t automatically tell us how an entire season would have unfolded.
Some calculations also rely on hypothetical sporting success. For example, Liverpool’s potential European earnings are partly assessed against what Manchester United earned by winning the Europa League in 2016-17. Liverpool might have qualified for that competition had they beaten City in the 2016 EFL Cup final, but nobody can establish how far they would have progressed.
What interests me most is how far the consequences could extend beyond the clubs that finished second to City. A missed Champions League campaign can affect a club’s spending, while relegation can change its financial position for years.
No retrospective calculation can tell us exactly what English football would have looked like without the financial advantages. But the BBC’s investigation gives us a much better sense of how many clubs could have been affected.
Check out the full breakdown on BBC Sport
Thanks for reading. David Skilling
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