It has long been my view that ManC have no intention of obeying the FFP regulations, since their entire club model is based on them not doing so, and it is interesting that of late, the club’s pronouncements have suggested that somehow such rules don’t apply to them. For when asked about the still pending proceedings, Khaldoon is quoted as saying, “This season is a season that’s now behind us. Today is a new day. We start working and preparing for next season. We will take all the good things and the not so good things from this season and learn from it and improve from it and get better. This club will do everything possible to come back to the standards that we know we all can and will achieve.”
Which is a bit convoluted but doesn’t really include anything that says, “And this time we will abide by the rules.”
Of course, what we also have to remember is that Manchester City are now themselves running legal cases against the Premier League (of which of course they are members) and have threatened to keep doing so until the League either goes bust or gives in.
And indeed it is true that in one case it was ruled that the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules are unenforceable. The rest of the Premier League however, argued that this is not the case. Manchester City nonetheless have carried on and have since launched another case against the League. Meanwhile, the League says that the previous judgement has no impact on the rules in their current form. In particular, they argued that, “The tribunal’s decision has found that the three narrow aspects of the old APT rules, previously found to be unlawful, cannot be separated from the rest of the previous rules as a matter of law.” Meaning in fact that just because one fragment of a law is found to be unenforceable, that does not mean that the whole rule or law is unenforceable.
But, unmentioned by the media, is the fact that the rest of the Premier League – or at least the majority that don’t hold with ManC’s way of doing things, could do as they did with the old Football League and resign en masse, and then set up a new League which for the sake of a name we’ll call Super League.
As an entity in its own right Super League could have whatever rules it wants as long as they are within the bounds of the laws of the country in which the league is based, and those rules could well be rules that would stop the sort of funding ManC has. That would leave ManC outside the League, and it would perhaps try to form its own league.
Uefa would then have to decide if they wanted to recognise the ManC league or the reformed Premier League in terms of giving clubs European places. Likewise, the Football League, representing the Championship and Leagues One and Two, would also have to decide which organisation they wanted to link with for promotion and relegation.
And since the ManC league would only have clubs in it that were funded to astronomical levels by the oil states, I suspect the majority of clubs would wish to join the new non-oil based league.
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