Sunday Supplement discuss Man City being found guilty on all serious financial charges of PL rules

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Sunday Supplement on Manchester City's financial charges verdict: the Premier League faces a crisis of trust and credibility

The panel discuss the fallout from Manchester City being found guilty of serious Premier League financial charges, focusing on the appeal and sanctions, whether fans should bear the consequences with the club, and the impact on the Premier League's credibility and other clubs. The guests broadly agree that the case needs a rapid endgame while punishment must be handled carefully so it does not destroy the club and innocent fans; one predicts a transfer embargo could be the biggest long-term penalty.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT The Sunday Supplement panel of Riath Al-Samarrai, James Olley and Jack Pitt-Brooke discuss the news that Manchester City have been found guilty on all serious financial charges of Premier League rules. SkySportsNews SkySports manchestercity ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Transcript

Well, it can and obviously this is a game, you know, under normal circumstances, as Jack's alluded to, there's a fierce rivalry between the two sides anyway, it's a, you know, just objectively, it's a very difficult place to go and try and win any game of football at any time. And that's, I imagine, what Moresca will try and channel, but it's, you know, it's the sort of the sad twist of fate of these things that that the people who have perpetrated this upon City are not going to be the ones that face the the sort of visceral brunt of it from the fans. It's going to be the traveling fans who have supported a team that of which decisions have been taken of which they had no agency in and then the players and obviously the manager who's come in this summer and was not a party to any of it either. So the in in a sense they're all kind of there just having to try and ride this out as the front-facing um arm of of an entity that everybody is angry towards, but the people we're most angry about, we don't get to see or speak to. >> Yeah. the wrong the wrong people are in the stocks today, aren't they? I mean, so Rory's talking there about being dragged to the pillar. You know, it's sort of, you know, >> where's where's Sorano going to be? Where's where's Caldun Alma Barrett? Where are going where where where are the actual protagonists in this saga >> going to be today as opposed to >> 11 guys getting called all sorts on the pitch. And I think one of the other things about this is that, you know, Moresca in his press conference, you know, we'll talk when we win the appeal and I trust the club and all this sort of stuff that he he probably felt he had to say we're going to find out if the players believe it. >> Yeah, >> we certainly and it's interesting as well because you talk about the current players and Moresca sort of taking a lot of the the flack for this, but it's not even City players that are still at Manchester City that that are getting it. There's a piece by Mark McGrath and Telegraph this morning looking back at the match at Old Trafford yesterday and giving a little which almost gave a bit of a preview to the Man City players as to what they could actually expect wherever they go really in the Premier League because at Old Trafford yesterday Manchester United fans were very much taking aim at their what you know noisy neighbors as Alex Ferguson once called them. Omar Mammoosh he writes he got booed when he came on as a second half substitute having moved from City this summer. There was a reappearance of the Old Trafford ticker banner which used to be displayed to at the stadium to show the length of time since City last won a trophy. They bought a flag. Fans bought in a flag with the image of um Ru Pinto, the computer hacker whose leaks led to the Premier League investigation. There were songs of course. I mean I was at a non-league match last weekend and there were songs about Man City. We'll see you soon. So there's going to be this sort of thing everywhere that City go even when they're not playing as well for for players who have been a part of the the club previously. >> Yeah, it's going to completely dominate. I think it has well it has completely dominated all the conversation the last two weeks and I think that it's it's almost impossible to see any circumstances in which this is not the dominant story in the Premier League probably for the next well for years really because not just this season where you know the appeal will be held and the and we'll hear about the sanctions but it will it will run and run and run and run I think and then whatever happens to Manchester City next season whatever that in whatever division they're playing in it's kind of bizarre to that we don't even know what that is at the moment. Um that will be a hugely dominant story and then there'll be the future of the ownership and the future of the players and the future of the manager and legal cases. So yeah, I think we are I think everybody including you know not just Manchester City fans but the whole football world is really coming to terms with the fact that this is going to be really the only show in town for a very long time. >> Well, I mean there's a novelty factor about it at the moment, right? Because it's the first weekend back. But this is this is really corrosive and dangerous for the Premier League. this this state of flux that we're all in now. We're about to watch one of the biggest games of the season and nobody knows what it means. We don't know what it means. And while there's this novelty now, that will quickly become disillusionment and it could lead to apathy. And if we get to a point where enough of the sort of football fans in this country are not really sure what they're watching, what does it mean? does it possess the same level of integrity that we we've come to expect from it? People start to turn away from it and that's the ultimate I don't want to be kind of dystopian about it, but this is this is existential for the Premier League. So, the longer that this state of flux that we're in between City have been charged, but they protest their innocence and there's an appeal to the sanction to the conclusion of presumably an appeal against the sanction if we get that far. That process has to be completed as soon as possible because this is really really worrying for the state of the game and for the popularity of the game. >> But it it permeates further though, doesn't it? We we were we were we were talking off James and I were both at Arsenal yesterday. Arsenal go one nil down against leadeds and you can't escape the feel and it's like well you know what Arsenal have probably got a few points to play with here because yeah because of what's going to happen to City presumably between now and the end of the season. So it it is going to have that wider bearing on other matches that we're that we're watching that don't even involve Man City right now. >> Yeah, I think there would be some I imagine there would be some some nervous people if City were on the pitch to keep winning and then to be top of the table. Um and it would mean that City would effectively have would almost be denied this season Premier League title by the sanctions. I'm I'm sure that for the Premier League it would be easier and simpler and healthier if say Arsenal or were to run away with it or Arsenal were to compete with somebody else. >> Well, that's the key, isn't it? >> The prospect of of Moresca City running away with the title this season while we all know that this is happening. I mean, it feels a little bit like, you know, in Road Runner where he runs off a cliff and then he's suspended in midair for a second before he falls to the ground. That is how it would feel. I think that as James I completely agree with what James says that would damage the the kind of integrity and the popularity I think the Premier League in a really serious way >> because for the first time it feels as though the title is going to be decided off the field right if we all accept generally we think Arsenal and City before the start of the season everybody had probably had Arsenal or City to win the league objectively well if that's the case with the with the sanctions hanging over City as they are at the moment the title is going to be decided off the field and That is an unsustainable situation for the for the for the very popularity and future of the league. So the quicker that City we get to the endgame with City and everybody knows where they stand and everybody can start to try and put this behind them and that's not withstanding obviously all of the compensation claims that are going to come with this. But I think that's a separate issue. I think if we can conclusively say city are guilty or innocent, city are punished, this is their crime, this is the the sentence and we and the whole game can come to terms with that, everybody can start to move on because this this whole kind of nether zone we're in now is just is corrosive and dangerous. >> Yeah, city of course have lodged that appeal. There's 74 days now before that appeal has to be heard and my understanding is it's 30 days after it's been heard that the appeal decision has to be announced as well. So hopefully we are not too far away. It shouldn't it shouldn't drag on too long, but like you say, there's there's so many extra elements of what could happen post appeal. >> And the Premier League are pushing, I think, for a sanction to come now anyway. >> So that that's >> so it can run concurrently with the appeal. So at least we then know what the potential punishment is going to be and they can appeal that as well and it all just, you know, is expedited a little bit quicker. It needs to be. Um, from the very serious side of of of the situation we find ourselves into, um, the Manchester City fans who are certainly trying to lighten the mood a little bit when they go to Anfield this afternoon. Banana drama or banana drama depending on how you uh, you look at it. Manchester City fans are going bananas at Anfield today. Say the sport star Sunday, Star Sport on Sunday. Their clash with Liverpool being their first since they found guilty. They've decided to bring back the bananas, which have been a kind of quite surrealist element of City fandom for about 40s. No one seems to really be able to give you definitive reason as to why city fans have bananas with them. But Jack, as I think what you called it, a non-practicing City fan, a lapsed city fan, City fan from a former life, shed some light on why the the City fans are going to be wearing bananas, holding bananas to start. There was a big inflatable craze at Main Road >> and among City's traveling fans in the late 1980s. I think it was inspired by Imra Verd who played for City at the time. And so on and off through the years there'd been moments where City fans and and often kind of when you know at times when things were not going well for City would bring lots of inflatable bananas to the to the games as a joke. And I I think what it really I think what I think the roots of this is that I think city fans will know that Manchester City has existed funnily enough for 114 years before the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008. And there's lots of fans who go to these games who have been supporting City for much longer than Abu Dhabi own have owned Manchester City and who will be supporting the club for a long for you know far into the future as well. ever happens to them and they've been up and down through the leagues and they've obviously you've been down to what is now League One in the 989 season and they will have seen City win the Champions League in Estanbul in 2023. So I think that probably for a lot of those fans they want to I imagine there's a kind of subconscious desire to say look we've been through it all. We've been we've been here for a long time and we will stay here. And I think the bananas are probably a representation of that kind of harking back to the pre-Abu of Manchester City. >> I wondered if it was the irrefutable evidence. >> Maybe that we we're still waiting. >> The um the Sunday Mirror as well this morning has a a quote from a member of the 1894 group that was set up by City Fans saying it is to remind everyone it doesn't matter what league we end up in, we'll always be there. It's a bit of fun. the city fans are going there for a party. And we have I think this is quite important, isn't it? Because we know that there's going to be a tense atmosphere. We know that people are braced for hostility, but it's a reminder as well that fans are fans. They weren't party to any of this >> and that they're still there to support their team on the field. >> Absolutely. But I think I think I think how the Man City fans react today is going to be really interesting because we've probably certainly those of us who've written critical things about Manchester City in the past few years are very well acquainted with the militant wing of their social media fan base. But what about the matchgoing fans? How are they going to view this? because they're they're they're the ones who've been for one of a better terms, they're the ones who've been shafted as much as as as much as any sort of certainly within within the club. And how are they going to feel about it? What are they what, you know, now now that verdict's been reached? Because let's not let's not mess around with this too much because we we you know, we we've been adding all of the caveats for for three years. It's charged without a resolution. Let's wait for the resolution. Now that we've reached a point that there's been a verdict, we're talking about pending an appeal. But that verdict's there. That as we stand here today, it has been passed down that Manchester City won that one won their titles by cheating. Now, those fans are going to have a view on that. I I'm I'm very curious to see how they react. I would imagine very much that they get that they get behind that they get behind the team, but what about what about the people who orchestrated this? What's their reaction going to be in that direction? I I I I think that's going to be particularly interesting. perhaps something that we've all underestimated a little bit right now because we've all been sort of leaning into fury and we've been leaning into speculation about what happens next. But what about what about those Manchester City fans who are suddenly asking, you know, was it real? >> Yeah, the City fans >> I'm quite curious about Yeah, I think ultimately the City fans have been led up the garden path by the people who run the club over the last few years with their constant insistence that they've done nothing wrong and that they'll be vindicated. And I think I certainly think we'll see a very I think the City fans will rally behind the team on the pitch. I think the challenge for City fans, and this is something where I think they may be, this is where they city fans might have to do do something a bit different from what they've done in the past, is to draw a bit of a distinction between the fan base and the club in a traditional sense on the one hand and the owners and the people who run it on the other. And I think that I because I know a lot a lot of City fans personally who feel incredibly upset and angry and betrayed about this. But obviously, you know, football fans being football fans is always a bit of a tribal element and they don't want to they kind of struggle to maybe articulate that in public the way that they would want to. But I I think that City fans will probably have to start developing the language of saying that they're unhappy with the ownership and the people who run the club who have got City into this position because ultimately it's going to be the City fans who are left paying the reputational bill down the line, right? City fans will still be there when City have faced whatever punishment they're going to get. And I mean, who knows what's going to happen to the ownership of the hierarchy, but this is this label of cheats is one that City fans are going to carry with for generations. And that's something that Martin Samuel discusses in the Sunday Times today, sort of looking at the punishments that are being floated about, the potential punishments that are being floated about as we await to find out what the sanctions might be. And Martin is a really interesting piece. Martin actually kind of warning that if you go too harsh on City, you could have some quite consequences as to the repercussions of that. and he cites the fans saying that what if any unforeseen consequence of any punishment finishes not just a corrupt regime referring to the ownership but an entire football club Manchester City's executives did wrong that does not mean Manchester City should cease to exist it does not mean that those who follow the club who loved the club who grew up with the club in their family and their bones should be left with nothing so Martin raises a point of how do we punish the club without punishing the fans And can you do one without the other ultimately? >> No. >> No. Because you know these are the same fans that celebrated the takeover and have enjoyed the good times as a result of those owners. And unfortunately for those I don't blame them for this by the way, but unfortunately those same fans are going to have to deal with the consequences of of of the owners rule breaking. Um, I mean, Martin also makes the point in there that he thinks that the EFL there's there's a sort of debate about whether the EFL would actually take City in in the event of expulsion. Again, we were talking before we came. I I think they would in a heartbeat. I I I think the EFL would absolutely welcome Manchester City. What a story that would be >> for the for the EFL as an entity and for the clubs within it if you had Manchester City, say, in League Two trying to fight their way back. Of course, they would take them. So, you know, I he's he's absolutely right to make the point that the fans shouldn't bear the brunt of this and it it's a very sad state of affairs, but I think they're inextricably linked and tied to the the ownership and the club in a way that it's unavoidable that they're going to feel some of the consequences of this really. I think one thing that Martin one point that Martin made that I really agreed with was that I think he he's saying that if the if the city owners get forced out that I think the authorities will have to be very careful that what is left is something that would somebody would want to buy and that also could survive because if city are faced with you know huge debts and huge bills in the next few years from legal cases and and so on then it's suddenly it doesn't become a very attractive proposition it's not as simple as Chelsea be you know brahmovic being forced to sell Chelsea to the Todd Baldi Clear Lake Consortium a few years ago. And I think that I do understand the the emphasis that Martin has on making sure that what that the process is managed sufficiently carefully that there is something left that can be moved on to a different owner. >> There's also he points out the knock-on effect on other clubs. When we think of the transfer business Manchester City have done and clubs that are waiting for payment that's often spread over a number of years. You've got Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Everton, Bournemouth, Wolves, Crystal Palace. That's before you get to clubs in Europe as well. So there are huge knock- on effects if Manchester City was just to cease to exist entirely and completely fold. >> No, correct. But there's also we can we we apply the same logic, don't we, when we talk about the scale or they're cheating, whether it's Tony Pulis hoping above hope that he might get his hands on the 2011 FA Cup. But it's but it is it is it is that there's this there's the similar train of thought. Manchester City have promised monies to to clubs in fees. They owe money that that that has to be paid years from now. So you do have to be careful. But I think it's been one of the byproducts of it being an international break when this is broken is there has been a it is an unprecedented scandal. be it's an unprecedented scenario where we've had two weeks to do nothing except speculate on what come might come next and there has been this this this this this instinct of which many of us are guilty of certainly myself of you know we are escalating this this this punishment as we go along. It's sort of you know the bomb them back to the stone age sentiment around it. Now clearly there is going to be a sensible and non-existential solution to this. My my best guess and another thing we were talking about off air is the one of the less spectacular aspects might be transfer embargos that that could actually longterm be the biggest penalty Here.