⚖️ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗟 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆’𝘀 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 1., Since the charges ended in 2018, doesn’t that mean Man City won’t be punished for anything that happened afterwards? 2., What’s stopping Man City from coming straight back up the year after relegation and taking over again? 3., When will the years post-2018 be investigated? So… 1., The illicit sporting advantage they built up over 2009-2018 didn’t just disappear. It helped them buy expensive additions to their squad, generate big broadcast revenues and justify huge commercial deals. All of that was carried forward after 2018 and addressing those illicit gains is entirely within the scope of the Commission’s sanctions. 2., The Commission can apply an ongoing sanction regime that mitigates for the accumulated illicit sporting advantage. For example, a repeating points deduction or forced reduction in spend. 3., I don’t think there’s much point in investigating post-2018 because I can’t imagine any evidence was left to be found. But they still have all these huge, brand new sponsorships approved under the new rules! Hundreds of millions that they’ll keep receiving for many years to come. Surely any sanction they get won’t fix that? Maybe not… but there’s another way… Until December 2021, the Premier League’s PSR had a provision for Related Party Transactions (RPTs). All RPTs had to be reported to the PL Board and adjusted for Fair Market Value (FMV). What constitutes a “Related Party” is a matter for accounting standards, not a PL definition. In Dec 2021, the PL updated the RPT rules to the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules. They used their own, much broader definition to ensure clubs with powerful nation-state owners could not readily circumvent the rules. This new rule applied to any new, renewed or amended deal that clubs entered into from Dec 2021. Which means any deal entered into before this date and not modified, was subject to the RPT rules. The Independent Commission found that the Abu-Dhabi-owned sponsors of Man City were Related Parties. This was never declared by Man City and the FMV test was never run. It is my understanding that some of these deals continued to run all the way up to late 2025. In which case, Man City has continued to breach rules regarding financial reporting, good faith compliance and most likely PSR too. In fact, by my estimations, Man City has breached another 15 rules every season for the 7 seasons 18/19-24/25. 100+ more rule breaches that Man City MUST be charged with. The PL Board has no choice in that. This time, they have the option to settle the charges (that option was not available to them before this season). But as regulator, they must charge. At first, I did not understand why they didn’t apply the charges in this same case. It could have been because they did not make the decision to pursue an RPT strategy until late in the case prep. Regardless, they’ve been determined to be RPTs now. A fact that will be difficult to reverse. That means Man City definitely broke rules every season post-2018 until all of their RPTs ended and were replaced with updated APTs. The RPTs were all likely heavily overstated too - FMV would have been much lower than the value of the RPTs. And there’s the kicker for Man City. Not only will this hammer their PSR from 2018-2025. It will also invalidate all of their new APTs. The FMVs of their various APTs will have all been determined under false pretences and must be invalidated. They’ll have to repeat them… this time, in full knowledge of their cheating and damaged brand. By waiting for this Commission to conclude and issue its findings, it lays the foundations for ensuring successful charges for 2018-2025 and invalidating their current hoard of APTs. Game over.

After seeing how so many City fans are embracing their cheating, has it changed your view on how to punish the club?