We've Won It All

I find it bizarre that so many people believe Man City will be getting a simple relegation. Step back from the Commission’s decision and look at the holistic implication of what it says… That, over the course of 8 years, Manchester City’s executives and board directors undertook multiple endeavours of systematic cheating on a massive scale, requiring criminal acts involving: false accounting, fraud, and conspiracy to defraud. The impact was vast and undoubtedly fully corrupted the integrity of the Premier League for over a decade, irreparably damaging the league, its brand, its participants, its partners, and its fans. Once discovered, they stone-walled, obfuscated and misled regulators, even committing further criminal acts to avoid justice, including: perjury, forgery, and perverting the course of justice. To action these criminal feats, they needed to have leveraged state powers of the UAE, to which they clearly have full access and control. And even now, when they have been found guilty, they continue to deny and delay, undertaking as much lawfare as is open to them. The Commission has a duty to issue sanctions that will protect the ongoing integrity of the league. This is made explicit in precedent. Relegation, very clearly, does not achieve that objective. It has always been obvious that the club must be expelled if it is not sold to new, independent owners. There is no alternative sanction that can protect the league from such malign and powerful actors. Given the Commission lacks the power to enforce such a sanction, I suspect they refer the matter to the IFR and apply significant sanctions that will keep Man City out of the league long enough for the IFR to act. Given the Premier League is yet to charge Man City for seasons 2018/19 - 2025/26, that also offers further leverage to ensure the objective is met.

This is actually good piece by Borson (see substack link in the quoted post below). I disagree with him that the PL was surprised by the outcome. It was entirely expected. What was not expected was how Man City sought to defend it. Their concocted defence was a shock and one of the most serious findings made by the Commission. In the Everton v Premier League Appeal Board decision of 26 February 2024, chaired by Sir Gary Hickinbottom, para. 199 states: “... sanctions in this field are not essentially punitive: their primary purpose is to protect the integrity of the relevant competition…” And; “... as an aim of any sanction, punishment is far less important than maintaining the integrity of the competition and thus the sport of football, with deterrence being an important overlapping aim.” The Commission has decided that Man City not only cheated, but that it’s a Related Party to UAE state-owned assets… and what’s more, that they will go to extreme, criminal lengths of fraud, perjury, forgery, etc. in order to “succeed”. It begs the question… how can you protect the integrity of the league with participants such as those? I don’t believe it’s possible.