Leeds United v Manchester City - Premier League
LEEDS, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 28: Daniel Farke the head coach / manager of Leeds United reacts during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Manchester City at Elland Road on February 28, 2026 in Leeds, United Kingdom. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Manchester City have been found guilty on virtually all charges from the Premier League over their financial breaches, leaving Leeds United and others wondering what’s next.
It’s one of, if not the biggest Premier League story ever. Man City facing a catastrophic punishment from the Premier League after historic financial rule-breaking.
The question for the rest of us watching on is how this affects other clubs like Leeds going forward. Will this open the door for someone else to muscle into the top bracket? Does it highlight how systemically unfair the league is? Does it prove how it’s nigh-on impossible for outsiders to break into the established elite?
Recapping Leeds United’s financial disaster amid Manchester City’s spending breaches
I think the general consensus is that Man City should be hit with one of the biggest punishments ever seen in football. That should be them being removed from the Premier League in one way or another. Either, they do it through a massive points deduction or outright expulsion.
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My appearance on The Overlap’s Fan Debate on Tuesday focused exclusively on Man City’s ‘cheating’. In which, I was asked my perspective on Leeds’ own financial issues in the early 2000s. Also, how that ties into the league’s credibility as a whole with spending rules.
My thoughts were as follows: “We threw so much money at it to catch up with the teams at the top, but as soon as you do that, Leeds didn’t have the revenue to keep up, and we took out loans predicated on getting into the Champions League, and missed out by a point.
“Like Portsmouth, they went under after winning the FA Cup. The Premier League will argue the rules are in place to stop that happening again, but inherently rules that are based on revenue and spending within your means, they only serve to benefit teams at the top, because their revenue is exponentially going up, whereas for teams likes Leeds, there’s so much to catchup and no way to do it fairly.
“Deflating” – My thoughts on Leeds United’s fight to re-establish amongst Premier League elite
Of course, Leeds in 2026/27 is different to the Leeds that was in the Premier League around the turn of the millenium. The Premier League itself is wildly contrasting too.
While Leeds were struggling for enough cashflow to match ambition, it’s now a case of being unable to spend as much as we’d ideally like to.
The Premier League will point to clubs on the brink that are protected by these rules. But inherently, these rules naturally benefit the clubs even more at the top, who have revenue that absolutel dwarfs anyone else in the league, and there’s no way to bridge that gap legally.
Specifically on Leeds’ view of the financial rules, I said: “In the current system – I know it’s FFP, PSR and now SCR – it changes names but it’s under the same guise of how much revenue and how much money your club makes is how much you can spend.
“So if you’re outside of that bubble of the truly established elite that are continuously growing, you’ve got no way of getting to that.
“Aston Villa, get into the Champions League again, and lose all of their best players. It just seems a bit deflating.”
Jamie Carragher and Stuart Pearce weigh in on Leeds United’s Premier League headache
Host Jamie Carragher was on the side of wanting the full might of the Premier League to come down on Man City. And, appreciates the plight of clubs outside the ‘big six’ that find it incredibly tough to retain key players.
He and Stuart Pearce believe that this was the case long before the Premier League’s inception in 1992.
“It’s funny this, I used to watch your (Pearce’s) Nottingham Forest team, used to win lots of cups and always been in the top four,” Carragher responded to me.
“People talk about this ‘we can never dream about this happening’, but when did this actually change? I don’t think it was the Premier League.”
To which Pearce answered: “I think it started in the 80s. There was a tolerance in the 80s where if you joined, like myself, Nottingham Forest, then you get an attraction from Man Utd.
“But, you could stay at Forest for two years before you get recognised for internationals or other clubs start knocking, and then you’ve got to make a decision.
“In the 80s, you could keep a side together that win even a European cup and keep that side the next year. It would take maybe two or three years and then you’d filter away some of your better players.
“Then all of a sudden, if a (Stan) Collymore had done well for you, he’s out of the door. Roy Keane comes on the scene, they come, ‘he’s too good and we need him at our club’. That was a couple of years before the Premier League started and then everyone started hoovering up. All of a sudden, we’re talking massive squads, real talented players getting hoovered up, even kids.
“I almost find it quite sad.”