Arsene Wenger accused Manchester City of bending UEFA’s financial rules 15 years ago, and his comments couldn’t be more true now.
On September 25, news first broke that Man City had been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges brought against them following an independent commission.
The Premier League then released a lengthy statement on September 29 confirming that City had breached financial rules between 2008/09 and 2017/18 – a period in which they won three league titles.
Arsene Wenger questioned Man City’s sponsorship methods back in 2011
An independent commission found that the club arranged the “sham contracts” as well as “relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs”.
According to the Premier League, City were found to have arranged disguised funding schemes worth more than £830million with commercial partners.
As a result, there have been calls for the Cityzens to be stripped of the three league titles they won during that period, while points deductions, expulsion/relegation from the top flight and a transfer ban are all punishments potentially on the table.
Arsene Wenger, who managed Arsenal from 1996 to 2018, has seemingly known about their cheating all along, as he accused Man City of attempting to bend UEFA’s financial fair-play rules in 2011 after they agreed a £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways.
He believed that Michel Platini, UEFA’s president at the time, was duty-bound to investigate the deal and ramped up pressure on his fellow Frenchman to follow through.
“It raises the real question about the credibility of the financial fair play,” Wenger said via The Guardian in July 2011.
“That is what this is all about. They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want. It means financial fair play will not come in. It is as simple as that.
“I can understand how they do it, but it raises the real question. The difficulty and the credibility of financial fair play are at stake.
“Plus, if the financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price. It cannot be doubled, tripled or quadrupled because that means it is better that we don’t do it and we leave everybody free. That can be defended as well, but if they bring the rules in they have to be respected.
Wenger’s comments couldn’t be more true 15 years later, as 54 of their 114 charges were related to providing accurate financial information, which specifically covered the accusations of artificially inflating sponsorship and commercial revenues.
Arsene Wenger says Man City’s legacy is ‘worthless’ now
City continue to pledge their innocence in the case after releasing a lengthy statement on social media, but in Wenger’s eyes, the club’s legacy is “worthless” now after seeing his initial worries come to fruition.
“Man City may be lucky. They may just get a fine and a transfer ban,” the 76-year-old said after they were found guilty. “But I trust England.
“A country that respects tradition and history so much may never accept Manchester City in the same way again.
“Nothing they achieve from now on will ever be celebrated in the same way.
“Their entire club’s legacy is worthless now.
“At every match, they’ll be called ‘cheats.’ Nobody will respect them, and their players will know that anything they achieve will never carry the same meaning.
“That is the real punishment. Not just what happens to Manchester City in the courts or on the pitch, but what happens to the way people remember everything they achieved.”
Man City have until Friday (October 2) to appeal against this verdict, and it should take no longer than 12 weeks to conclude after it is filed. Then, their punishment will become clearer.
COURTESY: sportbible.com
