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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the English Premier League (EPL) hierarchy has its way, Manchester City will be made an example of for their alleged breaches of the league’s financial rules.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current EPL champions face about 100 charges relating to financial malfeasance over a nine-year period (between 2009 and 2018). According to the league, the Citizens were dishonest about figures in their books.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Emirati-owned side were crowned EPL champions three times during that period and some circles have called for the club to be stripped of those league titles.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The club is accused of not providing the league with accurate financial information relating to revenue and expenditure.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, the Manchester side is said to have fibbed about how much they were paying an unnamed manager during this period, with said manager’s remuneration allegedly much higher than what was stated in his official contract.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Accusations are that Manchester City have artificially inflated the money coming into the club, with particular respect to commercial and sponsorship deals,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Radio.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The Premier League appears to be claiming the money was actually coming from the club owner, which doesn’t count towards FFP [financial fair play], but was being disguised as sponsorship income,” Maguire added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The other charges are in relation to Manchester City being alleged to have artificially deflated the costs of running the club by having managers on contracts with another company connected to the owners so that they only put through a small element of the true cost of managing the club through the books.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The club has vehemently denied the allegations, which will be dissected and reviewed by an independent panel to be appointed by Murray Rosen, who chairs the league’s judicial wing. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Manchester City is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast number of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with,” said City, which the Premier League has also accused of not cooperating.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position. As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”</span>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<strong>Visit <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=in_article_link&utm_campaign=homepage\"><em>Daily Maverick's</em> home page</a> for more news, analysis and investigations</strong>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<h4><b>Why all the fuss?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is all to do with financial fair play.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This tool was conceived in 2009 by the governing body of European soccer, Uefa. Its purpose? For the continent’s clubs to operate a sustainable business model, or face punishment from the governing body.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The measures followed the arrival in European football of wealthy owners, who pumped large amounts of their own money into their clubs to try to obtain success. This left clubs that depended on income they made themselves at a disadvantage. Uefa was trying to limit the damage this trend was causing to less wealthy clubs across the continent. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">English club Chelsea benefited immensely from their then owner billionaire Roman Abramovich pumping his own money into the club before these rules were eventually introduced in the 2011/2012 season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abramovich bought the London club in 2003 and immediately went on a spending spree, during which the Blues splurged £153-million (about R3-billion) on players in the first transfer window of him being in charge. It was an unprecedented occurrence in the Premier League at the time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester City were taken over by wealthy owners five years after Abramovich’s arrival in European football. In 2011, more money-stacked owners arrived in Europe when the Qatar Investment Authority took over French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when Uefa decided to act and finally implement FFP, which, in its purest essence, says teams should not spend more than they make.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is designed to ensure teams that lack the financial muscle to compete with wealthier clubs do not take part in competitions already feeling licked by rich counterparts. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When we first discussed financial fair play, it was Chelsea [that attracted questioning]. Then you have Manchester City. Then it was PSG,” said current Fifa president Gianni Infantino when the rules were implemented. He was Uefa’s general secretary at the time. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Our responsibility is to have a system that works for more than 630 clubs and not look at one club and neglect the rest,” Infantino added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clubs that were already profit powerhouses, such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, would still thrive though – having established their riches through decades of success when FFP wasn’t around and financial dealings were not scrutinised.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/chelsea-v-manchester-city-premier-league/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1568989\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GettyImages-521573248.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"353\" /></a> Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich looks on from the stands during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on 16 April 2016 in London, England. (Photo: Paul Gilham / Getty Images)</p>\r\n<h4><b>Twice bitten, not shy</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s not the first time City’s financial affairs have been the subject of legal action.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three years ago, the club successfully appealed a two-year suspension from European club football handed down by Uefa, after the governing body’s financial control wing found them guilty of “serious breaches” of club licensing and FFP rules.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City took the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the ban and reduced a fine they had received from €30-million to €10-million.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CAS said the alleged breaches had happened too long ago, without Uefa acting. In legal lingo, they were time-barred offences. And that was that.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/arsenal-fc-v-manchester-city-premier-league/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1568990\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GettyImages-1466501757.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"431\" /></a> Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on 15 February 2023 in London, England. (Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)</p>\r\n<h4><b>Witch-hunt?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Possible punishments for the new alleged offences include a points deduction, being barred from signing players, being fined or even expulsion from the Premier League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latter is the least likely. However, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hinted that that is the punishment other teams in a league that City has dominated in recent seasons would like to see.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“My first thought is we have already been condemned. What’s happened since Monday happened before with Uefa: we were condemned, we already have the accusation, now we have charges,” said Guardiola.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without letting us [have the] opportunity to defend ourselves, in the words of my club, my owner, my chairman, my people. They explain everything [to me] during these three or four years. You know exactly on what side I am.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no timeline indicating when the case will end and there is a large amount of material to be processed by the independent panel. With the option to appeal should City be found guilty, it is unlikely the case will be concluded this season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means City’s onslaught on a fifth league title is still very much alive. For now. </span><b>DM168</b>\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-18-da-leaders-back-steenhuisen-ahead-of-april-federal-congress-but-phalatse-confident-of-winning-leadership-race/dm-18022023-001-indd/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1569699\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1569699\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DM-18022023-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"947\" /></a></p>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the English Premier League (EPL) hierarchy has its way, Manchester City will be made an example of for their alleged breaches of the league’s financial rules.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current EPL champions face about 100 charges relating to financial malfeasance over a nine-year period (between 2009 and 2018). According to the league, the Citizens were dishonest about figures in their books.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Emirati-owned side were crowned EPL champions three times during that period and some circles have called for the club to be stripped of those league titles.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The club is accused of not providing the league with accurate financial information relating to revenue and expenditure.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, the Manchester side is said to have fibbed about how much they were paying an unnamed manager during this period, with said manager’s remuneration allegedly much higher than what was stated in his official contract.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Accusations are that Manchester City have artificially inflated the money coming into the club, with particular respect to commercial and sponsorship deals,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Radio.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The Premier League appears to be claiming the money was actually coming from the club owner, which doesn’t count towards FFP [financial fair play], but was being disguised as sponsorship income,” Maguire added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The other charges are in relation to Manchester City being alleged to have artificially deflated the costs of running the club by having managers on contracts with another company connected to the owners so that they only put through a small element of the true cost of managing the club through the books.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The club has vehemently denied the allegations, which will be dissected and reviewed by an independent panel to be appointed by Murray Rosen, who chairs the league’s judicial wing. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Manchester City is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast number of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with,” said City, which the Premier League has also accused of not cooperating.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position. As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”</span>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<strong>Visit <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=in_article_link&utm_campaign=homepage\"><em>Daily Maverick's</em> home page</a> for more news, analysis and investigations</strong>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<h4><b>Why all the fuss?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is all to do with financial fair play.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This tool was conceived in 2009 by the governing body of European soccer, Uefa. Its purpose? For the continent’s clubs to operate a sustainable business model, or face punishment from the governing body.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The measures followed the arrival in European football of wealthy owners, who pumped large amounts of their own money into their clubs to try to obtain success. This left clubs that depended on income they made themselves at a disadvantage. Uefa was trying to limit the damage this trend was causing to less wealthy clubs across the continent. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">English club Chelsea benefited immensely from their then owner billionaire Roman Abramovich pumping his own money into the club before these rules were eventually introduced in the 2011/2012 season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abramovich bought the London club in 2003 and immediately went on a spending spree, during which the Blues splurged £153-million (about R3-billion) on players in the first transfer window of him being in charge. It was an unprecedented occurrence in the Premier League at the time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester City were taken over by wealthy owners five years after Abramovich’s arrival in European football. In 2011, more money-stacked owners arrived in Europe when the Qatar Investment Authority took over French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when Uefa decided to act and finally implement FFP, which, in its purest essence, says teams should not spend more than they make.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is designed to ensure teams that lack the financial muscle to compete with wealthier clubs do not take part in competitions already feeling licked by rich counterparts. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When we first discussed financial fair play, it was Chelsea [that attracted questioning]. Then you have Manchester City. Then it was PSG,” said current Fifa president Gianni Infantino when the rules were implemented. He was Uefa’s general secretary at the time. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Our responsibility is to have a system that works for more than 630 clubs and not look at one club and neglect the rest,” Infantino added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clubs that were already profit powerhouses, such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, would still thrive though – having established their riches through decades of success when FFP wasn’t around and financial dealings were not scrutinised.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1568989\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/chelsea-v-manchester-city-premier-league/\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1568989\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GettyImages-521573248.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"353\" /></a> Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich looks on from the stands during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on 16 April 2016 in London, England. (Photo: Paul Gilham / Getty Images)[/caption]\r\n<h4><b>Twice bitten, not shy</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s not the first time City’s financial affairs have been the subject of legal action.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three years ago, the club successfully appealed a two-year suspension from European club football handed down by Uefa, after the governing body’s financial control wing found them guilty of “serious breaches” of club licensing and FFP rules.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City took the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the ban and reduced a fine they had received from €30-million to €10-million.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CAS said the alleged breaches had happened too long ago, without Uefa acting. In legal lingo, they were time-barred offences. And that was that.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1568990\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/arsenal-fc-v-manchester-city-premier-league/\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1568990\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GettyImages-1466501757.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"431\" /></a> Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on 15 February 2023 in London, England. (Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)[/caption]\r\n<h4><b>Witch-hunt?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Possible punishments for the new alleged offences include a points deduction, being barred from signing players, being fined or even expulsion from the Premier League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latter is the least likely. However, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hinted that that is the punishment other teams in a league that City has dominated in recent seasons would like to see.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“My first thought is we have already been condemned. What’s happened since Monday happened before with Uefa: we were condemned, we already have the accusation, now we have charges,” said Guardiola.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without letting us [have the] opportunity to defend ourselves, in the words of my club, my owner, my chairman, my people. They explain everything [to me] during these three or four years. You know exactly on what side I am.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no timeline indicating when the case will end and there is a large amount of material to be processed by the independent panel. With the option to appeal should City be found guilty, it is unlikely the case will be concluded this season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means City’s onslaught on a fifth league title is still very much alive. For now. </span><b>DM168</b>\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.</em></p>\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-18-da-leaders-back-steenhuisen-ahead-of-april-federal-congress-but-phalatse-confident-of-winning-leadership-race/dm-18022023-001-indd/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1569699\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1569699\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DM-18022023-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"947\" /></a></p>",
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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich looks on from the stands during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on 16 April 2016 in London, England. (Photo: Paul Gilham / Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on 15 February 2023 in London, England. (Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)