I've read and listened to a lot of the cognos since I became aware of the (not yet publicly announced) verdict. Comments that got me to stop and think were from Gabriele Marcotti of ESPN:
"Manchester City have one of the largest revenues in the world."
However we were in 2009, City have not operated at a deficit in many years. The EPL let City operate the last seventeen years; the league reaped the benefits of City's on-field and financial success.
"This is a bad look for the Premier League."
It is.
"I think this is going to damage the Premier League."
Yes.
"I think the Premier League found themselves between a rock and a hard place."
Yes.
"Think about how absurd this whole trial is."
By that Marcotti means:
1) The wrong-doing goes back seventeen years.
2) The investigation goes back eight years when Der Spiegel published "the football papers" on inter alia Man City. That is, the EPL start the investigation; a German news magazine did.
3) The hearing concluded twenty-two months ago.
4) The decision was made and communicated to City and the other league clubs two days ago--after twenty-two months of deliberation.
I want to stay within the four corners of what Marcotti said and what I have written today and previously.
City is guilty as sin. Period. Full stop.
It is a bad look for the Premier League. The whole enchilada from investigation to trial to deliberations to decision is "absurd."
The EPL is between a rock and a hard place in deciding punishment. No one, not Gabrielle Marcotti, not other cogno, not I, thinks that the EPL's dereliction is going to affect the punishment. But the charges go so far back, the investigation goes so far back, the deliberations have been so long, that the Premier League is in completely uncharted territory in deciding punishment. Again: NO ONE, not I, not a cogno, thinks that this is mitigation for City.
But. However. There is a saying in American, I don't know about Anglo, law that "Justice delayed in justice denied" and the Premier League did not break this scandal, they did not have an investigative team working on it since 2009 and just brought the case. It was Der Spiegel, for kaiser's sake. In that sense, it was a bad look for the NBA that the league didn't break the Kawhi Leonard-L.A. "Clippers" scandal, fucking "Pablo Torre Finds Out" broke it. We in the colonies, including NBA commish Adam Silver, thought that investigation took too long. That was a damn speedy trial demand compared to the EPL and City.
If this wasn't civil or administrative law, if this was criminal law, the Premier League would be an aider and abettor of City's malfeasance by letting it go on so long; by letting the trial process last from September 16, 2024 through December 6, 2024, twelve weeks; and by letting the verdict take twenty-two months (and still not official). For the eight years of its investigation, the Premier League let City compete in its competitions and win trophies without a word (Literally. This thing was tighter shut than a ten-year old's asshole.). That's not right! This was the fucking Court of Chancery in Dickens' time. The Court of Chancery was abolished. Manchester City is going to get creamed and the Premier League probably will not, but may be so badly wounded by this, that if not de jure abolished, they may be de facto relegated to a second-tier league with the impetus this gives to the original concept of the Super League. Follow your rules, Premie, dole out your punishment--it is deserved!--just don't cry if this most consequential ruling in the history of the game, is one of your last rulings of any consequence.
