{"id":787462,"date":"2026-09-30T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787462\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T13:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:30:16","slug":"the-man-city-scandal-is-the-biggest-in-sporting-history-but-is-it-a-good-day-for-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787462\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man City scandal is the biggest in sporting history \u2013 but is it a good day for football?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independent<\/p>\n

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.<\/p>\n

Join today<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Already a member?
\n Log in<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

As all of the continent\u2019s biggest clubs gathered in Copenhagen, their executives couldn\u2019t help trying to catch a glimpse of one man. Ferran Soriano<\/a>, in his usual role representing Manchester City<\/a> at the European Football Clubs general assembly, was described as looking like \u201ca walking statue\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some counterparts even felt that he was repeatedly putting headphones in his ear to appear to be on the phone, so he wouldn\u2019t have to engage in awkward conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whether true or not, Soriano had arguably said enough<\/a>. While the rest of the world was by then poring over<\/a> the Premier League<\/a> independent commission\u2019s excoriating decision in the City case<\/a>, the club had issued a video to staff in response. It somehow went even further than the official statement, which had remarkably described<\/a> the panel\u2019s \u201copinion\u201d as \u201cunsafe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ManMan City CEO Ferran Soriano has referred to \u2018a conspiracy\u2019 against the club (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Soriano referred to \u201ca conspiracy theory\u201d<\/a> while insisting City will \u201ctake all necessary action to protect the club and seek compensation from any party that tries to damage it now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many executives noted that the Catalan wasn\u2019t blinking, as they themselves could barely lower their own eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Sources also state that, despite this attempt at reassurance, many staff were \u201cperplexed\u201d by the video.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t hard to see why. The aggression of this response, after the emphatic nature of the Premier League\u2019s decision<\/a>, seemed too extreme a digression from English sporting culture. This feels too far.<\/p>\n

\"SorianoSoriano (left) and Man City\u2019s response has been described by \u2018deluded\u2019 in football circles (PA)<\/p>\n

Even on social media, it was evident that many fans were properly angry at the ownership for the first time. It was as if this was tapping into something deeper.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s name was being blackened, toxified.<\/p>\n

One description of the response was already doing the rounds in football circles. It wasn\u2019t \u201cdefiant\u201d, as City might have imagined, but \u201cdeluded\u201d. There didn\u2019t even seem to be the same fear of City\u2019s immense legal might.<\/p>\n

Was it really \u00a3100m worth of fees for\u2026 this?<\/p>\n

When will the irrefutability of the comprehensive body of evidence become apparent? If it hasn\u2019t been presented, it is going to take exceptional circumstances to introduce it to any appeal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Of course, that might be precisely when such legal might become apparent. There does remain the possibility that this is overturned, that City\u2019s lawyers outline a problem with the process. Maybe an appeal to the High Court even brings the farce of a retrial.<\/p>\n

City might well shove talk of \u201cdelusion\u201d down people\u2019s throats. Except, will anyone actually swallow it?<\/p>\n

If City end up overturning another case on the basis of process or a technicality, as with the 2020 Uefa case<\/a>, rather than the strength of the evidence, it will change very few minds.<\/p>\n

This has been too comprehensive. It also marks another major difference from the Uefa case, since the decision has actually been published.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis has turned into the biggest scandal in sporting history (PA)<\/p>\n

Everyone can see what appears to be evidence of industrialised cheating. Maybe the most sophisticated system of industrialised cheating football has ever seen.<\/p>\n

That is why, given the sport\u2019s unique global popularity, this could well be the biggest ever sporting scandal. Half of the Premier League\u2019s history is open to revision, like the Tour de France<\/a>. Even in football terms, it feels like the only comparison is the Qatar\/Russia World Cup bidding scandal.<\/p>\n

This of course has the same geopolitical dimensions, given the stakes for Abu Dhabi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The manner in which City\u2019s playbook is an extension of their owners\u2019 \u2013 and how the state responded to issues like the defiance of arms embargoes in Yemen and Syria \u2013 should not be forgotten. The sense now, as intimated in the leaked emails that sparked all of this, is that they would be willing to bring the whole Premier League down if they cannot play in it in the manner they like.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe presence of Man City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Abu Dhabi gives this case geopolitical dimensions (PA)<\/p>\n

Or, as City lawyer Simon Cliff once put of Uefa, the risk of \u201cthe destruction of their rules and organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n

It does at this point look like what the owners are often described as: spoiled royalty, too accustomed to absolute power.<\/p>\n

If this appeal does go on years, as Soriano also said this week, it would make a joke of the Premier League. No City game, after this outcome, could take place in anything like a normal football setting. There\u2019d be a cloud and uncertainty over everything, the belief in the final result on which sport is dependent totally distorted.<\/p>\n

Would the ownership or club leadership care\u2026 even to a small extent?<\/p>\n

It is as you arrive at such questions that it is impossible not to wonder how absurd it is that we are even at this point; that football let interests like an autocratic state in; that a mere sport \u2013 popular as it is \u2013 is wrestling with powers way beyond itself.<\/p>\n

\"HowHow did football even let autocratic states into the sport\u2019s tent in the first place? (PA)<\/p>\n

This may not just be a reckoning for this iteration of City, then, but also a reckoning for an entire era of football and the Premier League. It is an inevitable end point for former chief executive Richard Scudamore\u2019s regulation-light, ownership-model-neutral stance.<\/p>\n

Existential problems were allowed go so deep that they were eventually going to burst out.<\/p>\n

This was always the great threat, that those figures more mindful of the game\u2019s responsibility and integrity always warned of.<\/p>\n

But can it actually go on?<\/p>\n

For all the residual fear of Abu Dhabi\u2019s might, the threats that they can wield with real geopolitical edge, there is also a sense this is actually too much.<\/p>\n

The situation already has echoes of Enron, or News of the World; that this is all too toxic.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore\u2019s regulation-light era is coming home to roost (Getty)<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, City\u2019s name has been sullied for a generation. A club is always separate to the owners, but they have been dragged down.<\/p>\n

For all that fans have revelled in glory, and even acted with hostility to anyone criticising the ownership, City are victims of this too.<\/p>\n

Was all that glory, tainted as it now is, worth this?<\/p>\n

It is almost like a grotesquely caricatured version of the old \u201ctypical City\u201d, that the club will somehow see something go wrong. Here, they\u2019ve gone from a position of unparalleled power at the peak of the game to this, an emotional nadir and so much uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\"IsIs all of Man City\u2019s glory now tainted for the fans? (Getty)<\/p>\n

Might the ownership decide to sell? As one geopolitical expert says, \u201cthe one thing that Gulf autocracies like Abu Dhabi won\u2019t accept is embarrassment or shame. But will they use up political capital to preserve City when so much else is at stake? They already lean heavily on the UK to ensure they evade accountability in Sudan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Might the independent football regulator look at the scale of this and decide that this is as rogue an owner as you can get, and force a sale?<\/p>\n

And, from all that, there\u2019s another question.<\/p>\n

Is this a good day for football or a bad one? Maybe it\u2019s both. Maybe the club ending up owned by a fan trust is one virtuous outcome. As a football scandal, though, this is all on its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[40018,59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-file-photo","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}