₦airaland Forum

Several times over the weekend, the same refrain escaped from the lips of various football broadcasters and analysts, who suggested that the struggle for the Premier League title this season has already become a ‘two-horse race’.

The comfort of denial, especially in a multi-billion-pound industry, is a powerful coping mechanism.
Maybe those broadcasters were talking about Arsenal and Brighton as the leading contenders for honours and, if that is the case, I apologise for my mistaken assumptions. Because if there is going to be a two-horse race for the title, neither of those horses should be carrying the colours of Manchester City.

City have indeed started the season in stunning form. Even by their own exalted recent standards, winning their opening seven league games, with Pep Guardiola gone and a new manager in Enzo Maresca at the helm, is an impressive feat. But it does not remove the shadow that hangs over the club. If anything, it lengthens it.

Perhaps it has been obscured by the wall of whataboutery, obfuscation and risible petro-state propaganda about a ‘red cartel’, but late last month, City were found guilty by an independent commission of the vast majority of 115 charges of financial wrongdoing levelled against them by the Premier League.

In any vaguely functional sports league, that would remove City from consideration for challenging for the title this season. Their punishment should have been handed down already and, given the scale of their cheating, that punishment would inevitably have taken them out of the race for the title.

The timeline of the case against City has been so tortuous and protracted that there is already uncertainty and pessimism about quite how long the rest of football will have to wait for the decision about what sanctions City will face and how long it will take to reach a judgment on the appeal they have launched.

It is unlikely, sources close to the process have told me, that City will face a doomsday scenario of being expelled from the Premier League and forced to start again in League Two at the beginning of next season.

Expulsion would plunge both the Premier League and the EFL into an unprecedented kind of chaos. It would be self-defeating.

It is thought that the Premier League are pressing for City’s punishment to be announced before the result of their appeal, which is unlikely to be decided before the end of January.

Soundings from insiders suggest the most likely punishment is a swingeing points deduction which will ensure City’s relegation to the Championship, plus a huge fine.

It is also possible that the punishment would include a further points deduction that would effectively confine City to the Championship for at least one more season. The EFL would not be obliged to accept that sanction for one of their clubs but it is probable that they would.

From there, City should be allowed to rebuild. The intransigence and arrogance of City’s owners have hardened opinion against them but they are already facing the kind of ignominy that will stain them for many years to come.

It is time for those imposing the punishment to try to find a solution that represents middle ground.

There is very little point in pursuing a Treaty of Versailles-type punishment.

The desire to humiliate the defeated might satisfy a base instinct but it does very little for the future well-being of the body politic. City must be punished, of course, but they must also be given a pathway towards rehabilitation.

Yes, there is a blood lust among some for City to be cast into the outer reaches of the football pyramid – Steven Gerrard, the former Liverpool captain, was candid in his hope that City be made to ‘suffer’ for what they have taken away from other teams and their supporters – but if that were done mid-season, it would effectively void this campaign.

If City were expelled from the Premier League, where would they play for the rest of the season? Would the club just be put into hibernation for six months? All their results preceding their expulsion would have to be made null and void. It would satisfy a desire for vengeance but at the cost of the wider health of the league.

It would also punish City’s supporters a disproportionate amount. This should not be about punishing City’s fans. It is about punishing the club’s ownership, which, the independent commission decided, was the author of the sustained period of cheating that gave City an unfair advantage over its rivals.

It is in that realm – and not in relegation to the Championship – that the most serious threat to the future of the club exists. Because, if City’s appeal fails, it is hard to see how a regime found guilty of such egregious deception could possibly be allowed to remain as custodians of the club.

If they did remain, it would fatally undermine the authority and purpose of the Independent Football Regulator. There is already some scepticism about quite how much power the regulator really wields.

If Sheikh Mansour and his cronies were allowed to continue, the credibility of its chairman, David Kogan, would be shot to pieces.

But then how do City survive without the Abu Dhabi United Group? How do they survive without the hundreds of millions in revenue that City now insist came directly from the Abu Dhabi government? Would another buyer step forward to rescue a club whose image has been so badly tainted?

The only clear answer to that is that the longer it takes to punish City, and the longer it takes for the result of their appeal to be decided, the more damage it does to a league paralysed by uncertainty and denial.

Holy2Glory:
You think Europeans are morons like Africans or Nigerians. If they relegate man City who are they going to watch on the pitch, you?

MEANWHILE JESUS IS LORD,
HE IS TO BE WATCHED AT ALL TIMES.

BlackViper:
As a Manchester United fan, this the only good news we can look forward to these days.

This news should console us after what happened yesterday when we were humbled by a club which was once owned by Michael Essien's wife.

Mattswaggz:
Lol.....didn't I say this earlier and some people were attacking me?.....I said at most it'll be points deductions + a light(easily payable)fine and hardly would there be any stripping of titles.

BlackViper:
As a Manchester United fan, this the only good news we can look forward to these days.

This news should console us after what happened yesterday when we were humbled by a club which was once owned by Michael Essien's wife.

This was a funny find. Thank you for the laugh.....up gunners!!!

Mattswaggz:
Lol.....didn't I say this earlier and some people were attacking me?.....I said at most it'll be points deductions + a light(easily payable)fine and hardly would there be any stripping of titles.

chicfarmer:
Who be this
All this punishment no reach? Division 3

LZAA:
Nothing light about this
Infact it's far worse
A point deduction that sends you 3 divisions down isn't light
Abramovich was practically chased out of Chelsea for far less

Truidstarr:
This is just a fantasy points deduction...what about the TV revenue that the premier league has recieved for 5 years with Man city matches already baked in? Will they reimburse those who purchased the rights? How will that even be determined? This will only bring the PL into disrepute.

Jakarta:
Man U make me form deaf and dumb hide enter house yesterday, my neighbors wan kee me with mocking, dem say if man u win na either past highlight, or rumors, say man u and winning dey keep serious enemies. Cry hook me for throat.

That aside, honestly I don't think this point deduction of a thing, will happen to Man city. This will shake the football world, and a true test to FA, and the EPL management. The Nigerian in me, they make me believe say, that thing no go happen.

BlackViper:
As a Manchester United fan, this the only good news we can look forward to these days.

This news should console us after what happened yesterday when we were humbled by a club which was once owned by Michael Essien's wife.

BlackViper:
As a Manchester United fan, this is the only type of good news we can look forward to these days.

This news should console us after what happened yesterday when we were humbled by a club which was once owned by Michael Essien's wife.

Jakarta:
Man U make me form deaf and dumb hide enter house yesterday, my neighbors wan kee me with mocking, dem say if man u win na either past highlight, or rumors, say man u and winning dey keep serious enemies. Cry hook me for throat.

That aside, honestly I don't think this point deduction of a thing, will happen to Man city. This will shake the football world, and a true test to FA, and the EPL management. The Nigerian in me, they make me believe say, that thing no go happen.