Manchester City has been found guilty of 114 of 115 Premier League financial rule breaches — and the same "fair play" framework now being weaponized against them was built by the old-money clubs to keep new competition out in the first place.
Financial Fair Play sounds noble enough. In practice, it's cartel enforcement. Legacy clubs get to spend what they've always spent; upstarts with new backing hit a ceiling. It's the same regulatory playbook Washington uses against American small businesses and disruptors: write rules that protect incumbents, then punish anyone who threatens the established order.
The Athletic first reported that an independent panel upheld nearly all 115 charges against City, covering financial conduct from 2009-10 through 2017-18, plus failure to cooperate with investigations from 2018 to 2023. Sanctions — which could range from points deductions to stripping titles — haven't been announced. Several Premier League clubs are already eyeing financial compensation, according to Heavy.
City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak pushed back hard. In a letter to fans, he insisted the club's "confidence and determination to prove the club's innocence are just as strong as they were at the beginning of this matter." City's official statement cited confidentiality rules and maintained the club has "scrupulously adhered to the established procedure."
They're promising an appeal — and they've beaten this playbook before. UEFA tried to discipline City in 2020, slapping a Champions League ban and a €30 million fine. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned it, ruling some violations were too old to punish and others weren't adequately proven, as The Guardian reported.
But the most revealing comment came from U.S. men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino, who managed Tottenham during the period in question. Pochettino didn't just call it "a period of deception." He pointed straight at the rigged enforcement: "Where were the controls?" he asked. He recalled Tottenham going 18 months without making a single transfer because they were complying with financial rules — "the only team in the history of the Premier League" to do so. "They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others," Pochettino told The Guardian. "That's why I say: it's all very strange."
Strange, or exactly how cartel enforcement works? The rules bind the challengers while the enforcers look the other way for the right players — until the politics shift.
Former Manchester United star Roy Keane showed no sympathy. "It was the club's choice: they chose to cheat," he said on ITV, per Heavy. "Whatever titles they've won in recent years, they deserve to be punished." Ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright echoed him, pointing to clubs "doing things properly" that lost out.
Yardbarker noted the case remains in a "holding pattern" — the Premier League hasn't officially announced findings, and rushing to sanctions before appeals play out could create chaos. If City are sanctioned then later cleared, the damage to the league would be catastrophic.
City broke the rules — 114 times, according to the panel. But Pochettino's question lingers: why were those rules enforced with an iron fist against clubs trying to build within the system, and with kid gloves against the club allegedly rigging it? The answer isn't fairness. It's power.
