One report I read has it that the independent commission's written verdict will heavily criticize the league along with, of course, City. That too is warranted. The EPL put it's Profit and Sustainability rules into effect the season after the season after "Aguerrooo!" I called them then, I call them now, the anti-Manchester City rules. The league put them into effect and then ignored them, allowing City to play on in all of its competitions.
However this resolves it is now beyond a one v one dispute between one short pants football club and one booby league, calamitous as that may be for both. To use the nomenclature of geopolitical conflict, not inappropriate here!, the issue has become one of "containment". To borrow a term from warfare, there is grave risk of "collateral damage". To put it in medical terms, there is a "cancer" and it has "metastasized."
To be direct and not metaphorical, the relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom is now implicated. Manchester City are owned by Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a private equity firm founded in 2008, at the time of the purchase of the club. City are the crown jewel in a global necklace of football clubs operated by City Football Group. The necklace is not merely for Sheikh Mansour's vanity. It is a projection of "soft power" by Abu Dhabi: to improve the Emirates image, to do well by doing good, to get favorable media coverage, to fix trade between the UAE and UK with a bejeweled clasp. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Andy Burnham, is a former mayor of Manchester. He has vouched for the good work of Sheikh Mansour in the city, not just in the success of the club, in the revitalization of East Manchester. Burnham met with representative of Abu Dhabi in July. The latter expressed deep concern over the investigation and pending verdict in Premier League v Manchester City. Now the Prime Minister, Burnham has warned against "jumping to conclusions" in the case even as the case has reached a conclusion (save punishment). The UK Culture Minister has jumped to the conclusion that while foreign investment in the UK is welcome, including in its cultural manifestations of football clubs, all owners of such entities must obey the rules. So we have a disagreement in jumps in the UK government.
All of this informs my impotent conclusion that the cancer must be excised, that the Premier League must force ADUG to sell Manchester City FC. It was a mistake to permit a prominent arm of a foreign government to insert its full length into the viscera Great Britain's sporting culture. It was a mistake to allow Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to buy and control Newcastle United. But confining ourselves to the case at bar, there is no other sanction that will excise the cancer, not a fine (laughter encouraged), not a points deduction, not expulsion or suspension from the Premier League; none other will do but removing the current ownership of the club. This is not to say that those other "normal" sanctions should not be imposed, only that this is not a "normal" case, that along with those, a forced sale must occur to ensure that club and cancer do not come back. The sale, of course, must be made at fair market value. Forbes places City as the seventh-most valuable soccer club in the world at $5.5B. There are billionaires who are not arms of foreign governments who will pay $5.5B for a club that, according to Deloitte in its 2026 report, generated the sixth-highest revenue in the world, $939M.
The "bottom line" to use the financial term is that ADUG has not obeyed the EPL's rules, will not obey the rules in the future, will fight this sale as tenaciously as they have fought the investigation, verdict, and coming punishment. ADUG did these things and the Premier League brought this case. And the war came. Both must contend with the consequences of their actions. The league is debased. The boat will sink the water regardless of punishment. The Super League is coming. Since the Premier League is going to get the same fight, why not just be done with ADUG altogether?
