Neither Everton nor Nottingham Forest have a sovereign wealth fund to fight for their cause.
So Everton is on the hook for more regulatory pain, while Nottingham Forest gets their first experience of the Premier League judicial system. Both deny financial malfeasance.
That being said, what kind of world do we live in when clubs that have allegedly transgressed, albeit lightly, can be punished, whereas Manchester City, a club facing 115 charges of financial irregularity, is still awaiting the outcome of those allegations, which date back 15 years?
We’ve seen in various contexts how swiftly authorities are willing to act when popular sentiment is sparked by a feeling of injustice.
If a television show spotlighting the Post Office crisis can compel the British government to act, why can’t the Premier League’s custodians take emergency measures to bring to a fair finish what many claim is an abuse of the system?
We’re talking about the national game here, a part of the English experience that affects millions of people. Sport, along with the arts, a lively media, democratic politics, an independent court, state welfare, the NHS, and so on, is a defining feature of British culture. It affects so many people and, as such, is the responsibility of the highest authority in the land.
In November, King Charles unveiled a football governance bill that will establish an independent regulator “to safeguard the future of football clubs for the benefit of communities and fans”.
While we wait for the bill to become law, the Prime Minister may respond to the Premier League’s latest punishments by doing what he did in the Post Office case: inviting his minister for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, Lucy Frazer, to restore a sense of proportion to the proceedings.
The Culture, Media, and Sport Committee meets on Wednesday to question Premier League and EFL executives Richard Masters and Rick Parry on the impasse in negotiations between the leagues over financial arrangements to protect the financial pyramid. While they’re at it, how about chastising the former for failing to resolve the City matter in a fair and timely manner?
It cannot be right that clubs such as Everton and Forest are held accountable while City effectively shuts down the process with an army of lawyers. Everton and Forest do not have a sovereign wealth fund to fight for their causes. Because they were the Post Office, the government was well aware of the atrocities committed by the organization. It is fully state-run.
The identified miscarriages of justice date back 20 years. They responded based on horrible optics rather than new knowledge.
City’s lawyers have every right to fight the club’s argument, but the foundations are nothing new. The charges deal with historical allegations extending back 14 seasons to 2009, which, in light of the treatment of Everton and Forest, appear out of sync with what fair treatment entails. This cannot continue.
Though no date has been established, the hearing is expected to begin in the autumn of this year. Who knows when it will end? Enough is enough.
Everton fans are already in open mutiny. Goodison Park is awash with banners screaming corruption. The City Ground is about to join the outcry. Meanwhile, City gallops on, carrying everything before them.
The City’s wealth has completely altered the competitive landscape in England.
They made Newcastle, a club struggling to spend even more money than City’s Abu Dhabi owners, appear second-rate at St James’ Park over the weekend.
Indeed, regardless of where City plays, home or away, the feeling is always the same: an unequal match that will inevitably end.
The delight of seeing City’s lovely rhythms is sapped by the predictability of results. The event stimulates neither the imagination nor the loins. It lacks purpose since the conflict is asymmetrical.
The Premier League is based on thrills and excitement, and the ability of lower humans to bloody the noses of champions.
The city has buried that idea. Great if they obeyed the rules. Less so if they’re discovered to have twisted them like Beckham.
Either way, we need to know. The authorities must act quickly to ensure justice is served, or the entire structure will fall further into disgrace, if not collapse completely.
