Manchester City have been found guilty of the charges brought against them by the Premier League three and a half years ago, a verdict that has cast a shadow over a period when they were the most successful club in English football and cemented themselves among the global game’s elite. The commission examining the case described a ‘disguised funding scheme’ and a ‘concerted campaign to falsify’ the club’s financial accounts, with City found guilty of ‘sham’ contracts and misleading accounts. Central to the case is the commission’s determination that £830m was falsely pumped into the club by its owners under the guise of sponsorship income.
Between the summer of 2009 and January 2018, City spent about £1.2bn on new players. It was a period in which they won seven major trophies: three Premier Leagues, one FA Cup and three EFL Cups, having previously gone without a significant honour since 1970. The players signed during that time included some of the world’s best, among them Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Fernandinho and David Silva. Long-time captain Vincent Kompany had joined before the era in which the club breached financial rules.
The £830m the commission says was falsely added to City’s books does not represent all of their income, and the club’s revenue was also spent on things other than transfers, including player wages, utilities, insurance, infrastructure, marketing and foundations. Yet the figures underline that City would not have been able to buy the quantity and quality of players they signed had they not been conducting the campaign to falsify their accounts, as the commission described it. If their financial power had been reduced by that £830m, their transfer spend would have been massively reduced. That could have meant fewer signings, or signings of a lower quality, and potentially no Aguero, no David Silva, no Yaya Toure and no De Bruyne.
Because the seasons cannot be replayed, the outcomes of that era exist in a kind of mixed reality: the world watched them happen, but their legitimacy is now in doubt. Some fans have taken to calling it the asterisk era. There is a possibility that City could be retroactively stripped of the honours they earned during the period, and some clubs are seeking legal advice over potential financial compensation.
City have until Friday to mount an appeal. If that appeal is unsuccessful, the club will at some point be given some sort of punishment, but whether sanctions will rewrite the past in any way is unknown. The uncertainty extends to the present and future. Fans do not know whether the football they are watching is ‘real’ or not, or whether City are actually top of the league and in a title challenge or will be docked points later in the season. If they are linked with another team’s star player, it is unclear whether the transfer could happen or whether they will be unable to make deals at some point. There are also questions about whether they will be in the Premier League next season or be expelled, requiring a significant rejigging of the pyramid to accommodate them elsewhere.
The wider questions are just as unresolved. Is anybody else breaking rules right now, which fans will only find out about in the future? Does the potential for years of results to be retroactively kiboshed undermine the Premier League’s popularity with fans, players and sponsors? And can the action fans watch week in, week out ever fully be trusted again? The answers will determine the future of the biggest league in the world’s most popular game.