OPINION: Seismic Premier League decision leaves Manchester City in lurch

The words used are nothing more than catastrophic for City. From 2009 to 2018, they have ‘systematically’ broken rules that they signed up to. Over the course of nine years, more than 900 million pounds was entered into their coffers ‘disguised’ as sponsorship payments, conflating their revenues and allowing them to hide their debts, whilst spending big to rival the big boys before overtaking them.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters described the landmark 40-page verdict as the ‘most significant in Premier League history’. He is right; this is likely to change everything.

As has already been stated on Flashscore as well as other media outlets, the ramifications of this case could be endless. Will their titles won during their time be stripped, will they be excluded from the league, is the very future of the club, storied by its fans for more than a century, in serious danger of extinction?

Before any of the sanctions are handed out, Manchester City will appeal. They once again wrote of their surprise after the announcement, insisting they will continue to fight on. Chief executive Ferran Soriano suggested that this still has lots to run, whilst the club itself has said they have ‘irrefutable evidence’ that they have done nothing wrong.

If this evidence does exist to clear their name from football’s biggest punishment, where was it during the 12-week inquest in 2024?

There is also another, more worrying string to this saga - did this just abruptly stop in 2018 or did it continue up to the present day? Regardless of the answer, something we may never know, success breeds success. Without the Premier League title in 2012, would Pep Guardiola have come to City and brought with him the lustre of his management to dominate the league for four consecutive years?

It’s unlikely that this proverbial rabbit will be pulled from the hat, and if they do indeed lose the appeal, their legacy under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour is irrevocably tarnished. Every single trophy they have won in that time will be tainted, and they will become a pariah within English football. 

Those teams that battled City domestically and in Europe will have some vindication this evening. But that does not give them a title; it does not give them their trophy lift and bus parade; it only gives them a hollow feeling of what might have been. Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United in England and Inter in Europe could have had alternative presents if the past had been different.

The Premier League, though, will also be walking a tightrope. Celebrations will be going on at PL HQ, but their attention will soon turn to how they keep their lucrative product from turning into a laughing stock. They allowed this to go unchecked for nearly a decade before Rui Pinto’s hack and Der Spiegel’s reporting in 2018. 

Their integrity, which has risen in stock after the strong statement released on Tuesday evening, now hangs in the balance. Too lenient a punishment and they risk seeing City walk free; too harsh and they ruin their product. Their next steps must be calculated, and they must be robust.

Make no mistake, this story still has plenty to run. Fans of rival clubs and of schaudenfreude will be celebrating tonight, and their ire will not die down when Manchester City visit Anfield to face Liverpool when the Premier League returns. However, the future of football is very much at stake; the future of the English game is on the chopping block, and the Premier League must show strong leadership if it is to come out of this dark chapter with a bright future.

Josh Donaldson is a Global Senior Editor and International Football Specialist for Flashscore. From the UK, now living in Prague, Josh specialises in football and cycling and can be found at an obscure ground watching games or on his bike. You can follow Josh on X and read his articles here.