When the sonorous voice of Clive Myrie describes something as the ‘biggest sports story of the century’ in tones normally used for events in Kyiv or Gaza it’s probably time to sit up and listen. Or maybe not. The City saga – at root claiming that the club breached financial rules to pay its way from 2009 to 2018, when they won the Premier League three times – has been going on for eight years after all, and if Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, and the unfeasibly wealthy chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, know what they are talking about, it’s got plenty more time to run. God help us! And they do seem pretty bullish. None of this, ‘OK guv, you got us bang to rights, we’ll come quietly’ stuff.
Personally, I find it difficult to get worked up about this story. After all, the rules were designed to stop anyone bringing down the big boys of the Premier League. Those who want the book thrown at City argue that they cheated: they were able to turbo–charge their recruitment to catch up with the rest of the major clubs by overspending and hiding that spend, amid a bit of sponsorship here and a bit of investment there.
Well, who knows? Would they have been able to do it without sailing close to the rules, just by relying on Pep’s genius? We’ll never know. Would Pep have even joined, argue City’s opponents, if they were just a mid-table club? Would Haaland have followed suit? And none of us have ever brushed up against the rules. Have we?
That admirable Mauricio Pochettino, now the US team manager, expressed the bafflement of many when he remarked, ‘It is a huge sadness… We get into a situation where what got celebrated wasn’t that real; what seemed good maybe wasn’t so good, what didn’t look good maybe was good but couldn’t be good because of what happened.’ Well, you know what he means…
I prefer though to think of what City have given us: some of the most sublime football the Premier League has ever seen. It wasn’t bags of money running around playing football, it was some of the finest footballers ever to play in Britain: Haaland; Rodri – for years the best midfielder in Britain and the best player at the last World Cup; Bernardo Silva, the club’s player of the year in 2019; Vincent Kompany, one of the most electrifying players I have ever seen; Kevin De Bruyne, footballing perfection. We have never seen players like this, and we should celebrate it.
Any argument that the trophies are tarnished seems to me to be pretty rubbish. I agree with Rodri, now at Barcelona but absolutely central to City’s dominance, who insisted: ‘I can tell you everything was deserved, and I’m glad I could live through one of the best eras of English football.’
I prefer to think of what City have given us: some of the most sublime football the Premier League has ever seen
We know Andy Burnham enjoys his rugby league at Everton’s Hill Dickinson stadium, and he particularly likes the fact that he can sluice down a pint while watching, whereas he can’t when it’s his beloved football team. Now he wants all football fans to be allowed to drink at the game rather than just before or at half-time. How much drink do people need? The joys of Twickenham are cited where you can watch rugby and drink endlessly. But has he ever been? It is an ordeal. There are enough pubs and bars at the ground to keep a navy afloat, but once the game has started and you’re sitting down, you’re endlessly up and down as a stream of boozers shuffle past with trays of beer and then head off to the loo. No fun, Andy. Stick to the triple lock.
Lest we forget, it was good to see Warwickshire going berserk as they celebrated their victory in the County Championship, showing that at least the players think it’s something worth celebrating, even if cricket’s administrators don’t really agree. By way of compensation, poor Somerset, who finished second, saw three of their batsmen – Abell (307), Lammonby (229) and Banton (126 – batting for England) – complete innings totalling 662 runs on the same day. Hope for next year? Perhaps… Somerset have never won.
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