Abu Dhabi enabled Man City to compete with Europe’s elite, but it’s Guardiola, the players and the club that made them greatIt turned out to be rather anticlimactic, like one of those Netflix crime dramas that are churned out way too fast where you know exactly what’s going to happen well before the final few episodes. Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday mathematically gave the title to City, turning Sunday’s match against Chelsea — a 1-0 win in which Pep Guardiola essentially played his B-team — into a formality and the postmatch into a celebration, complete with festive and spontaneous pitch invasion.
It’s City’s third straight Premier League title, their fifth in sixth years and their seventh in the past 12, starting with the “Aguero moment” at 93:20. They defined the Premier League in the previous decade and are on their way to defining it in this one.
– Ogden: Why it’s hard to celebrate Man City’s dominance
Of course, there’s an elephant in the room. Some Manchester City fans will get annoyed at the mere mention of it, and it has to do with the club’s ownership and the way they have dealt with financial sustainability regulations over the past 10 years. They were found in breach of the rules in 2014, they were banned for two years in 2020 and while the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban (saying the charges were either unproved or time-barred), City were issued a record fine for obstructing the investigation. And, of course, the Premier League has charged them with over 100 counts of financial malpractice from 2009 to 2018 — if they are proved, in theory, City could be expelled from the league.
Here’s the thing, though. You can separate the two things: the job Guardiola, the club and the players have done on one hand, and who the owners are and how the club may or may not have violated rules on the other.
It’s entirely legitimate to have an issue with the owners, and the “state-owned” club tag matters, I think — especially since this isn’t a place with democratic elections. This is an absolute monarchy that chose to take a portion of the country’s riches and spend it on Manchester City. You may be OK with it, you may not be. Nobody held a referendum on whether it was good use Abu Dhabi’s money.
And yes, it’s rational to believe that City benefits from massively inflated sponsorships from companies owned by or related to Abu Dhabi.
Does it violate rules? Read the 2014 judgement and the 2020 CAS ruling and make up your own mind.
Is it likely they’re violating the spirit of the law? Possibly.
It is possible that they’ll be hit with some sort of massive punishment from the Premier League? Maybe, though given the diabolically slow pace of the deliberations — made slower by City’s many legal challenges — we won’t know for a very long time.
All of the above is part of the City story, and it’s pretty much indisputable that, without Abu Dhabi’s support, they would not have grown into a position where they can compete with Europe’s traditional elite.
However, it’s worth putting all of this into material context. City’s spending on wages and transfer fees is huge, but no more than the rest of Europe’s elite. For most of the past decade, City have been in the top five or six in Europe in terms of salaries and net transfer spending, but rarely No. 1 or 2.
In other words, they haven’t spent more than the superclubs, they’ve simply spent better. In fact, they’ve been a better-run club from a sporting perspective at pretty much all levels.
Racist abuse of Vinicius should be a call for concrete action, not petty point-scoringThe latest racist abuse directed towards Vinicius in Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat away to Valencia has brought the issue back to the fore. Unfortunately, these incidents are often an opportunity for soapboxes and point-scoring. There are broader conversations to be had, but the immediate priority, at least in the football sphere, should be to figure out the right concrete steps to eradicate this behaviour.
– Reaction: Real’s slump continues, but Vinicius gets first red card amid more racial abuse – WATCH: Game pauses as Vinicius points out abusive fans (U.S. only)
What do I mean by soapboxes? Big reflections on racism as a societal problem, whether in Valencia, in football or across Europe, for starters. Or whether the use of racist language is the same as racism, which is often systemic and inaudible. These may be good topics to debate in an academic or political setting, but for football they’re a waste of time and sit far above the sport’s pay grade. I don’t want football clubs to solve the problem of racism any more than I want a president or prime minister to play centre-forward for my football club.
Different institutions have different roles; while society and government battle to solve a problem that has dogged us for centuries, football can’t wait. It needs to act now, based on what works and what doesn’t, with concrete steps. (I’ll get to what I think those steps are in a minute.)
Bayern self-destruct against Leipzig, taking the title race out of their handsAfter 10 consecutive titles, could Bayern not win the Bundesliga? With just 90 minutes in the 2022-23 campaign, the answer is no longer in their hands. And they can blame it on the ugly collapse Saturday against Leipzig.
Bayern took the lead with a nifty move finished by Serge Gnabry, missed a sitter via Kingsley Coman and then basically collapsed after roughly half an hour. (The xG from the 28th minute on favoured Leipzig: 2.26 to 0.66).
The 4-on-1 counterattack — off a set piece, no less — that led to Leipzig’s equaliser was almost comical. Benjamin Pavard conceding a penalty for the Leipzig lead confirmed why he’s the ultimate feast-or-famine defender. And the sight of Bayern fans abandoning the Allianz Arena early showed just what they think of this side right now.
