Manchester City is charged with violating 115 UEFA financial fair play rules, which could lead to them losing Premier League points and some of their league titles from recent Premier League history.
UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are sets of restrictions that ensure no team spends more than what they have earned. They are in place to keep the leagues competitive, prevent clubs from falling into financial trouble and to improve the financial well-being of European leagues in general.
English club Manchester City F.C. is currently set to go on trial, as they are charged with failing to disclose financial information, which violates both UEFA FFP and PSR regulations. These illegal practices are said to have taken place within a nine-year period from 2009 and 2018, during which the club lifted three premier league trophies and became champions of Europe once.
With the possibility of being proven guilty of the charges, debates have taken place regarding the possible punishments that the club could face. Fans have speculated that the club could be deducted points, revoked league titles and even relegated to the second division in England. “I believe that if they’re found guilty they should be relegated for what they’ve done, ” sophomore Langston Fabiyi said.
Some fans would appreciate being awarded the title of past years that Manchester City had won, while others believe that the title is of little value now. “I believe that if my team was second place in the years that City won the league title, they should be awarded the title,” Fabiyi said.
Considering Manchester City’s recent dominance, it is no surprise that fans have credited their success to illegal practices. However, some stand by the club and argue that manager Pep Guardiola and the club would have been successful without any rule-breaking or overspending. “A lot of it is because they can buy the best players in the world, although Pep deserves a lot of respect,” sophomore Nathan Downie said.
Fans of opposing clubs are also becoming upset with how long the trial is taking to be completed since the results could have massive impacts on the current title race taking place. These feelings have grown especially strong considering the fact that Everton, another team in the Premier League, had been charged with similar accusations and the trial was able to take place in a much shorter time period. “The only reason they are still in the premier league is because the Prem loves them. They have over 110 financial breaches yet no punishment while Everton had one and got deducted 15 points,” freshman Haim Mikowski said.
Fans are concerned that Manchester City’s status, wealth and recent success could have an impact on the result of the trial set to take place. Patterns of favoritism like this for larger clubs could have detrimental effects on smaller clubs in England. “The rich teams are paying the premier league and teams like Everton are not as big so the league doesn’t care about them,” Downie said.
