I cannot get my head around the sums involved in the Manchester City findings

Craig is still off enjoying his well earned holiday, so I’m back in the hot seat for today’s column, and there really is only one place to start.

Manchester City.

I thought the verdict earlier this week was staggering enough. City were reportedly found guilty of virtually all of the charges brought against them over breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, but the detail emerging since has taken this to another level.

The Premier League has now released further information following the independent commission’s decision, and some of the figures being reported are genuinely difficult to comprehend.

For years we’ve listened to arguments about City, financial rules, sponsorships and whether everybody else was simply jealous of their success.

I’m sorry, but when you start looking at these numbers, I don’t know how anybody can seriously continue with that argument.

The figures are astonishing.

£830m Is A Number I Cannot Get My Head Around

This is the part that stopped me in my tracks.

According to figures reported following the commission’s findings, Manchester City recorded £949.94 million in commercial income from Abu Dhabi sponsors between 2009 and 2018.

Of that, just £119.25 million was actually said to have come from the sponsors themselves.

The remaining £830.69 million was attributed to sums paid by Abu Dhabi United Group, City’s owner.

Just think about that number for a second.

£830.69 million.

We’re not talking about somebody finding a few quid down the back of the sofa. We are talking about a figure approaching a billion pounds over that period.

Another extraordinary detail relates specifically to three seasons in which City won the Premier League, 2011/12, 2013/14 and 2017/18. They recorded £360 million of commercial income from Abu Dhabi based sponsors across those campaigns, but the commission found only £43 million was actually paid by those sponsors.

How can any football supporter look at figures like that and shrug their shoulders?

This isn’t about Liverpool being bitter because City won trophies. It isn’t about Manchester United, Arsenal or anybody else being jealous.

It is about the integrity of the competition.

City have continued to maintain their innocence, but even Lewis Steele, who covers Liverpool professionally and supports Manchester City, described that stance as “deranged”.

I find it increasingly difficult to disagree with him.

The Evidence Around The Case Is Damning

The financial figures aren’t the only part of this that shocked me.

The commission reportedly concluded that evidence provided by a number of important factual witnesses appearing on City’s behalf was false in key respects. More seriously, it concluded that certain witnesses gave evidence at the hearing which they knew to be untrue.

That takes this beyond an argument about accounting interpretations for me.

There have also been findings relating to alleged off-book payments, including arrangements connected to former manager Roberto Mancini, alongside the commercial agreements which were central to the case.

Then there is the timing of what happened this summer.

City reportedly knew about the guilty verdict in July.

What happened afterwards?

They spent enormous amounts of money during the transfer window. The Premier League itself reported Enzo Fernandez moving from Chelsea to City for around £125 million on deadline day, as part of another huge summer of recruitment.

That raises another set of questions for me.

Were City preparing for the possibility of restrictions being imposed later? Did they simply believe they could continue operating normally? What were incoming players told?

I don’t know the answers to those questions, so I’m not going to pretend that I do.

But the optics are extraordinary.

And while I’m angry about what this potentially means for Liverpool and every other club that competed against City, I do have sympathy for genuine City supporters.

They didn’t create these arrangements.

They bought tickets, travelled around the country, followed their team and trusted the people running their football club.

If supporters were repeatedly assured there was nothing to worry about, only to now read findings like these, I can understand why they would feel badly let down.

The Punishment Has To Actually Matter

Now we arrive at the really difficult question.

What happens next?

One suggestion reportedly raised by a former senior Premier League executive would involve points deductions of around 20 to 25 points per season for three to five years.

The thinking appears to be that this would prevent City realistically competing for the Champions League and leave them stuck somewhere in the middle of the Premier League without the knock-on consequences of dropping them through the football pyramid.

I can understand the logic.

I’m just not convinced it goes far enough.

If the breaches are as serious as the commission’s findings suggest, punishment cannot simply be whatever is most convenient for everybody else.

What message does that send?

Everton and Nottingham Forest have already experienced points deductions for financial breaches in recent seasons. Other clubs have made difficult decisions to comply with regulations. Supporters have watched teams sell players because they were worried about falling foul of financial rules.

If the system is going to have credibility, the consequences have to reflect the scale and seriousness of the offences found.

I’m not sitting here pretending to be a sports lawyer and telling the Premier League precisely what sanction it must impose. There are processes still to play out around punishment, and the distinction between the commission’s decision being a final award and the avenues available around the wider case needs to be treated carefully.

But I do know this.

It cannot be a slap on the wrist.

English Football Needs To Know The Rules Actually Mean Something

This is bigger than Liverpool.

Of course, as Liverpool supporters, we immediately think about the Klopp era and those incredible title races. We think about 2018/19 and finishing on 97 points only to come second. We think about 2021/22 and missing out by a single point.

But every Premier League club has operated within the same competition.

Every club that missed European qualification by a few points was affected by where City finished. Every club battling for prize money was competing in the same ecosystem. Every team trying to build sustainably was supposedly working under the same rules.

That’s why I keep coming back to credibility.

The Premier League has previously argued that its financial controls are there to protect financial stability, competitive balance and sporting integrity.

Those words have to mean something.

If regulations only really hurt the clubs without the resources to fight them for years, then what is the point of having regulations?

Manchester City have been one of the defining clubs of the Premier League era. Their teams have produced extraordinary football and some brilliant players have represented them.

But none of that can be allowed to override the rules of the competition.

The numbers emerging from this case are staggering. The findings regarding witnesses are incredibly serious. The scale of what has been described goes far beyond anything I expected when these charges were originally announced.

Whatever punishment ultimately comes, it has to be significant enough that every club looks at it and understands one simple principle.

Nobody is bigger than the competition.

Because if the Premier League cannot establish that after all of this, then I genuinely wonder what credibility its financial rules have left.