I think I may be going out on a limb here, but am I the only one who feels slightly nauseous over the ‘holier than thou’ diatribe that is being spouted in the media and across the airwaves, by fans and pundits alike, over the Manchester City charges debacle?
Let me make it clear, I have no affiliation with, or specific warm feelings for, Manchester City!
Yes, I lived in Manchester for five years, but I also resided in and around Liverpool for five or six years and ask anyone who knows me how much The Unbearables make me feel. There is no love lost there!
Indeed, Manchester City broke my heart in the 1976 League Cup Final, as I was stood right behind Dennis Tueart’s spectacular overhead kick as we lost 2-1!
My first experience of Wembley watching the Toon. It would be many years before that feeling was erased. But I digress!
Newcastle United, along with Villa and Forest, are sitting where Man City were in 2008. Gazing through the bars of a fence keeping us out of the playground occupied by the self-proclaimed elite. The difference in 2008 was that the elite were a gang of four: Man U, Arsenal, The Unbearables and Chelski. It is now a gang of six: Man U (>£1b in debt), Arsenal, The Unbearables (almost £300m in debt and financially secure only because the owners have given them an interest free loan), Chelsea (they’ve admitted skullduggery so that’s ok, take a light slap on the wrists and a suspended transfer ban. Oh, and they still find ways to buck the rules: selling hotels and women’s teams for example that then result in immediate changes to said rules to prevent others doing the same), Man City and Spurs (just because they’ve got a nice stadium, nothing to do with football prowess).
I’ve heard plenty of Toon fans over the last few years saying just spend the money and take the penalty it’ll be worth it! I’m guessing that was what faced Manchester City back in 2008, how to climb over the fence into the promised land. They chose a way that was every bit a creative as Chelski/Chelsea (in both guises), or Man U or The Unbearables with their financial manipulations or Spurs with their use of the NFL and a host of pop stars to generate income (the benefits of which are afforded to them, by the way, by being in London and not being located in the provinces – see later comments about the origins of shared gate receipts).
And before we start getting all nostalgic, the real issue is that the game sold its soul decades ago.
Look at the rumours about Cloughie and his bags of cash, and about Leeds in the 70s and who can forget the lifetime ban handed out to George Jobey (yes there are strong suggestions there are family connections) who was banned for life in 1941 for making illegal payments to players to sign for his Derby County team! And let’s not even start to look at our European counterparts (Real Madrid having training grounds allegedly bought at inflated prices by the local authority to clear off unimaginable debt). It’s nothing new, it’s just that Manchester City (along with others) have seemingly developed it on an industrial scale and have been caught.
I remember saying to a mate of mine who is an Unbearable, that Man City being taken over in 2008 would spell trouble for them as Manchester City would start taking one of the Champions League spots and none of the top four could afford to be out of that competition for more than a season. Response? The elite changed the format of the CL to ensure they had more chances to qualify and so reduce the jeopardy! Is that not corruption?
Prior to 1983, home clubs shared a portion of their league match ticket revenue with visiting away teams (traditionally a split of roughly 75% to the home team, 25% to the away team. Apparently, the original concept was to share the money to prevent the big city clubs from having too much of a financial advantage (Spurs are you listening). The change in 1983 was instigated by, yes, you’ve guessed it, the big clubs, the elite!
Oh, I could go on and on.
If the playing field was even and the punishments were to be fairly and consistently administered, then anyone found guilty should be dragged over the coals just like Manchester City should be. However, the suspicion remains that this will not be the case, just ask the blue half of Merseyside about the swiftness of the punishment dished out to Everton compared to the never-ending rumblings over the Man City case!
My own take on it is that Man City’s owners may well have broken a few rules (well 114 to be precise) but you cannot deny the level of investment they have delivered into the infrastructure in the area around the Etihad! Can the same be said of the owners of Man U, The Unbearables, Arsenal, Chelsea or Spurs. I think not!
So, I suggest a few out there should get off your high horses and start smelling the coffee. Manchester City are guilty of breaking the rules, but they have done good things for the community they bought into and let’s not forget they brought Pep to the PL and transformed football in this country. There might be a separate discussion needed on whether that was for the betterment of the game. I would suggest that it has!
I for one would love to see the self-proclaimed be challenged by Villa, Forest and of course Newcastle United. Just level up the playing field and stop them protecting themselves. If clubs go under in the pursuit, so be it. Ask Blackburn or Leicester fans if they’d swap their moments in the sun on the basis of where they currently find themselves and I’m guessing they’d say no, they would not swap the glorious memories of those successes!
Football is about hope and ambition. Don’t stifle it for the benefit of a handful of elite parasites! Let’s not get too carried away with punishing Manchester City, there are greater evils to address in the game, not least of which is the ability of the self-proclaimed elite to stop the rest of us competing. In my opinion that is far more damaging to the game than Man City breaking the rules to break into the self-proclaimed and their land of plenty. What Manchester City have done is shed a light on how hard it is to break into that monopoly, as Villa, Forest and ourselves are only too aware!