They started the season in style. They are the only team in England to have the full number of points after four matches, the gunner Haaland has already scored nine goals. And team leaders such as Foden and Rodri are still missing from the lineup.
Photo: ČTK / AP / Paul Terry
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola with the club’s biggest star, striker Erling Haaland.
Also, do you see nothing stopping the trophy machine called Manchester City on their way to a record fifth Premier League title? They have no competition on the lawns yet, but it is possible that a decision from the green table will stop them.
It was on Monday that the long-awaited investigation began due to multiple violations of financial rules. Manchester City is in danger of having points deducted, which they had to deal with last season in Nottingham (minus four points), Everton (minus eight) and currently Leicester City can also be affected. In extreme cases, exclusion from the competition may occur.
Citizens coach Pep Guardiola also commented on the sensitive topic. “It is clear to me that all our opponents wish to punish us. I have been reading and hearing about it for many years. However, as a club, we reject any blame for a long time. We believe that we have done nothing wrong, and that is why I am glad that the final investigation is starting,” Guardiola told the British media.
However, we will definitely not get a decision in the coming days or weeks. It is not even certain that the summary of the independent tribunal, which will examine the club’s alleged offenses against the financial rules of the Premier League, will be known before the end of the season.
One of the best football clubs in the world, according to the management of the competition, deliberately concealed some accounting data and failed to meet the conditions of financial fair play in a total of 115 cases between 2009 and 2018. The fact that he refused to cooperate with the investigators should have added to his burden.
The Arab Sheikh Mansour, a member of the ruling family from Abu Dhabi, acquired the club in September 2008, and not only the rivals, whom Manchester City has gradually matched and then overtaken since then, are asking whether the financial injections were really within the allowed rules.
After all, four years ago, the European Football Union (UEFA) took a shine to the club, which awarded Manchester City a two-year ban from participating in European cups and a fine of 30 million euros. Even then, there were numerous financial violations, especially the artificial increase of sponsorship contracts.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, to which the English club appealed with lawyers, canceled the severe penalty a few months later and reduced the financial penalty by a third, to 10 million euros.
“That’s also why we now deserve an apology for how everyone slandered us and claimed that we were lying,” coach Guardiola stated at the time.
Even before he became a coach in Manchester, the club even paid 60 million euros for another violation of European rules of financial fair play. It is therefore not surprising that some opponents look at the English big club in recent years with suspicion.
Coach Guardiola’s brilliant ideas, perfect tactical thinking and innovations cannot be denied, with which he is able to surpass determined opponents year after year. The players led by Haaland or De Bruyne, on the other hand, have resilience and a hunger for success. However, the behind-the-scenes moves that the inspectors regularly focus on remain illegible to the public.
“All allegations are false,” the club repeats resolutely. It points out, among other things, that the information comes from stolen e-mails published by the German Der Spiegel in 2018.
The current allegations, which were announced by the Premier League in February 2023, followed a four-year internal investigation. Now, a year and a half later, the interrogation begins, which, according to the BBC, should last approximately ten weeks.
According to the rules of the English league, there can be various types of punishments: from a fine to the deduction of points to the withdrawal of titles or relegation to a lower competition.
The Premier League is keeping the investigation in top secret mode. There has been an unwritten information embargo on the whole affair since the allegations were made public, but this is fueling rather than allaying the doubts of all parties.
“We’re prepared to hear a lot of speculation over the coming weeks about what kind of punishment we will or won’t get. But we have to wait. I understand that some people are happy..,” Guardiola hinted at repeated questions from journalists. He also emphasized that the club is still innocent, although he took a slightly different tone in May 2022.
I called on the management to tell me about those suspicions. I looked them in the eye and I trust them 100%, so I always defended the club in this regard. But I also told them: If you lied to me, I will pack my things. I will leave and we will no longer be friends,” he said.
During the era of Arab owners, Manchester City won eight championship titles, several domestic cups and in the 2022/23 season won the coveted Champions League for the first time in history.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
