Man City MUST be punished otherwise the Premier League as we know it is dead

It was always a matter of when and not if Manchester City would make their play. 

Having denied all allegations of wrongdoing over the years, the Premier League champions decide now that it was the RULES that were wrong all along in a 165-page legal document.

They argue they are victims in all of this, claiming the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules are discriminatory and that rivals only approved these being brought in to stifle their on-field success.

It is alleged that the APT rules and the Fair Market Value (FMV) are discriminatory towards clubs under Gulf ownership. 

The document goes on to say the APT rules are a “tyranny of the majority”. 

City claim the voting system upon which the Premier League’s decision-making process has been built, which requires two-thirds of the clubs to support a rule change, is damaging the minority. It allows the majority to exert control over the direction of the English top flight as well as determine the rules that every club has to follow. 

As The Athletic’s Adam Crafton said in a Tweet, a tyranny of the majority is a democracy. The Premier League is supposed to be a competitive league, why wouldn’t City want it to be as fair as possible? 

City dominate despite 'oppressive' rules

Furthermore, it is quite bizarre for City to wage war against the current system when,

per Deloitte

, they were the team with the second-highest revenues in world football last season.  They would surely have more of an argument if they struggled to appear in the rich list despite claiming six of the last seven titles in England.

The rules can’t be that oppressive when Pep Guardiola’s side have been able to dominate both domestically as well as in Europe. 

Instead of slowly building a brand and reaping the rewards down the line, they wanted to quickly turn City into a European juggernaut. That should’ve been their long-term goal. 

Their owners have known the rules and regulations all along. If they weren’t happy, they could’ve sold the club or looked at legal ways to raise these concerns. 

City facing 115 charges

Instead, they are facing 115 charges relating to breaking rules, generally speaking, everyone else has followed.

They should be punished. If they aren’t, the Premier League as we know it will end. 

It really is as simple as that. Because new rules may come into play, but rich owners know they can do what they want and it all counts for very little. 

Rules are there to be followed. They might feel prohibitive and weighted more to the established clubs but the reason for that is, without sounding disrespectful, they’re just bigger so have more of a platform. 

Can you imagine what would’ve happened had every other club completely disregarded the rules?

It would’ve put teams on the brink of oblivion by overspending and becoming overly reliant on owner bailouts to stay afloat.

It wouldn’t have been sustainable and multiple clubs, some with a storied history in the English game, would now likely be extinct. 

City threaten their own fans

City’s stance of ‘you made us do this’ should be totally disregarded. Threatening to charge more for tickets,

despite having the fifth most expensive season tickets for the 2023/24 campaign

, really holds no weight at all.

If their owners want to punish their own fans, the fans who have been brainwashed into thinking they’re saving football, let them do it. If they want to petulantly cut spending on youth development, so be it.

If they’re going to limit the women’s team budget, they’ll have to deal with the consequences. 

Every other team has to balance things out. They have to make the tough decisions.

City should be no different. 

You really shouldn’t be able to buy success or use money to create history in the way they have. They need to deal with the fallout of this.

They want to be a big club. It is time to act like one instead of throwing their toys out of the pram whenever they are inconvenienced.