MANCHESTER City being found guilty on 115 charges of breaking financial rules is of interest to everyone, but particularly to Reading fans. Between 2021 and 2024 Reading FC was most notable for four breaches of EFL financial rules, on a completely different scale. Reading broke the spending limit, known as profitability and sustainability, then broke the agreed business plan, compounding it by failing to pay player wages and HMRC on time. Guilty of four offences, docked 18 points, and effectively relegated. Those were the crimes and the punishment for Reading FC.
Manchester City’s main offence seems to be inflating their apparent income by £900 million, thereby raising the spending limit permitted by the Premier League, and then other offences totting it all up to a total of 115 breaches over a decade, rather than just the four.
It will be interesting to see whether the Premier League hits Manchester City as hard as the EFL hit Reading. I think we all know the answer to that. To help them, I’ve done some very rough calculations.
Eighteen points docked for four offences is 4.5 points per offence. That means Manchester City’s 115 offences should see them hit with a 513 point deduction. Yes, that’s suggesting the offences were of similar severity, but clearly Reading’s didn’t take us to the realms of £900 million. Let’s skip over that minor detail.
Every season 50 points keeps you safe from relegation in the leagues up and down the football pyramid. 513 points therefore equates to 10 relegations, so by my rock solid GCSE maths Manchester City should start next season in Northern Football Alliance Premier Division. Cramlington United are a couple of points ahead of Wallington at the moment, but who’s to say Erling Haaland and co wouldn’t be able to challenge them towards the top end of that table in 12 months’ time?
Treating Reading and Manchester City the same may sound ridiculous, but it wasn’t so long ago the teams played each other in the Premier League. Before the gross overspend by City, back in 2007, Reading beat them 2-0 in the Premier League thanks to a brace from Leroy Lita. Once the staggering duplicity was underway Reading lost to them twice, by the odd goal, in the 2012/13 Premier League season.
Reading aren’t the only smaller club to be hit with docked points for financial naughtiness. The EFL has not hesitated dishing out punishments over the last 20 years. It’s now time for the Premier League to show their muscles. If they don’t, and they won’t, every more minor financial slip up in the future will immediately lead to “look what happened at Manchester City”. It’s such a mess.
On the plus side, the hoo-ha has led to some terrifically entertaining social media content. Haaland wading through knee deep mud in a penalty box at a non-league ground, while Enzo Maresca says to camera “I didn’t sign up for this”, and Pep Guardiola’s face superimposed onto Manuel’s in the Fawlty Towers lobbying howling “I know nothing”, is well worth a watch, unless you’re a Manchester City fan.