I want to start by saying I am a Manchester City fan, and I feel it’s best to immediately address the elephant in the room.
On Sept. 28, the Premier League announced that an independent commission had found Manchester City (a.k.a. Man City) Football Club guilty of 114 financial breaches spanning from 2009 to 2018. The announcement comes three years after the Premier League (PL) charged Man City with 115 charges in February of 2023.
The number is staggering, and the term “financial breaches” is vague. Let’s break down what those 114 charges really mean.
The independent commission found Man City guilty of all 80 charges related to financial wrongdoing, which breaks down like this:
54 Counts of failure to provide accurate financial information
14 Counts of failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments
7 Counts of breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability regulations
5 Counts of breaching the Union of European Football Associations’ Financial Fair Play regulations
The independent commission also found Man City guilty on 34 out of 35 charges of failure to cooperate with the league investigation.
A main takeaway from the commission’s investigation was that it found Man City’s owners allegedly “disguising” Β£900 million (around $1.2 billion) in direct equity funding as sponsorship revenue. According to a Premier League official statement, the club was using “sham commercial deals” where sponsors were paying less than what was written in their contracts, and the difference was paid by Man City’s owners. This allowed City to spend more than the Premier League and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) permitted, but it’s unclear as of now where that extra money was allocated.
I understand this looks bad, like really bad. But Man City has appealed this verdict, assuring the club’s innocence.
City isn’t a stranger to appealing a guilty verdict, either.
Back in 2017, Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto obtained Man City-related files through a phishing scheme that a senior Man City official opened, thinking it was a financial report from UEFA. Pinto released these emails, and once journalists began reporting on the leak, both UEFA and the Premier League opened separate investigations.
I explained the Premier League’s investigation above, but UEFA found Man City guilty in February of 2020. Man City was issued a Β£30 million fine (around $40 million) and was banned from Champions League participation for two years. However, City appealed this verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and CAS found most of UEFA’s charges “either not established or time-barred.” This appeal reduced the fine to Β£10 million (around $13.2 million) and overturned the Champions League ban.
If the most recent appeal fails, City might face punishments or sanctions like fines, PL point deductions potentially large enough to relegate the club, or even outright expulsion from the league.
There has also been discourse on how to treat City’s success during this time period (2009 to 2018). Here’s a list of trophies City won in the aforementioned time period:
2011 FA Cup
2011-2012 Premier League Title
2013-2014 Premier League Title
2017-2018 Premier League Title
There are those online who are asking the question of whether City should be stripped of these trophies. Some even say they should be redistributed to the runners-up. I personally think the past can’t and shouldn’t be rewritten.
If City has won an appeal in the past, I believe they can win another. This is where the article will start to show blatant biases but also insight into the headspace of a Man City fan in this turbulent time.
I started watching soccer or “football” in 2022 due to the popularity of the 2022 World Cup. My younger sister Izzy, a long-time soccer fan, vehemently expressed that I needed to pick a club to support. I didn’t realize at the time what a massive decision that was. But in the moment, I vaguely recalled that Man City wore a light blue kit, a pretty color, and my choice was made. I had no idea Man City was second in the table at the time, but Izzy called me a “bandwagon” anyway.
Below is a photo of me receiving some Man City merchandise as an 18th birthday gift.
However, since I didn’t watch soccer during the years Man City “cheated,” I feel like I can’t have a formative opinion on the club’s success. That’s why I reached out to my friend Ben Lyons, who’s been a City fan since 2013.
If I’ve felt like I’ve had to defend being a City fan for years, Ben’s been doing it for over a decade.
He said, “I have had to defend myself as a City fan since the beginning. Fans of other clubs love to label us as plastic or oil club supporters, but in my case thatβs just not true. I became a fan of soccer when I was 7 and randomly chose Manchester City as my forever club on FIFA 13. I did not know if they were good, if they had money, or who any of their players were; I was just a kid trying to find a new hobby. And since that day Iβve been all in on City.”
I wanted to know Ben’s perspective on the charges. How did he hear about them? What was his initial reaction? How do the charges change the way he views the club’s success?
He answered, “My initial reaction was disbelief and sadness, because I didnβt want to believe something like that was true. Manchester City gave me so many happy moments, and the idea that those victories were due to cheating made me feel annoyed. Since then Iβve realized that I was still able to experience those times and the charges canβt take that away from me.”
He continued to say, “When you initially hear news like that, itβs hard not to look back on the past and think that maybe it was illegitimate, but I still love this club, and whatever happens to them, Iβll support them through it. As I previously stated, I still experienced all that joy from that club, and it canβt just be reversed. So, no, I donβt view this club any differently and will remain loyal.”
These past few weeks have been a rough ride for City fans everywhere. I have friends who have poked fun at me and asked me how it feels to support “cheaters.” I think they want me to feel shame or embarrassment, but I don’t feel those emotions. I just feel a sense of loyalty to my club, and that loyalty won’t waver whether the appeal is successful or not.
On Oct.11, Man City faced Liverpool in a Premier League match marking City’s first public appearance since the PL’s guilty announcement. The match was away at Anfield, a hostile environment on a regular day, but the stands were laced with vitriol that day.
There was a long banner spelling CHEATS with the E replaced with 115 British Pound signs. There were also signs poking fun at the rock band Oasis, who are famously Man City fans. The signs said things like “Look Back In Anger Shamchester” or “All of your stars are fading away,” poking fun at the band’s popular songs “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Stop Crying Your Heart Out.”
City fans came to Anfield with their own jokes as well. The away end was littered with inflatable bananas, a nod to a long-standing Man City fan tradition that dates back to 1987, when a fan brought an inflatable banana to a game to poke fun at striker Imre Varadi, who fans had nicknamed “Imre Banana”. The presence of the bananas symbolizes pride in the club’s history and signifies it’s not something City fans will be embarrassed about.
The banana joke also serves as a possible dig towards Liverpool, as it could reference when former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard slipped in a match against Chelsea during the 2013-2014 season. Liverpool would lose that match to Chelsea, and that loss would mark the beginning of a series of poor results for the club that helped City overtake them in the table and eventually win the Premier League title.
With seemingly all the pressure in the world on their shoulders, City prevailed.
After Ryan Gravenberchβs red card in the 62β minute, City would score three times in 15 minutes. Ending the match 3-0.
Haaland 65′
Doku 68′
Cherki 78′
In that moment, I couldn’t have been happier to be a City fan. It was euphoric to see such a definitive result after weeks of online abuse directed toward the club. It felt like a statement to the rest of the footballing world: you can berate us all you want, but in the end, the football will do the talking.
I think Ben sums it up best: “Iβm still a Manchester City fan because of everything theyβve brought me. Happiness, pride, entertainment, and even the sadness or anger. Theyβve made me feel every single emotion, and you canβt abandon something you identify so deeply with.”