Carragher gives reaction to Man City charges as ‘crucial difference’ emerges over alleged PL breaches
There was more than a hint of sarcasm from Jamie Carragher in his reaction to the news that Man City have been referred to an independent commission by the Premier League over alleged breaches of its financial rules.
The Citizens have been charged with alleged breaches between the 2009-10 season to the 2017-18 campaign with the Premier League releasing a long statement explaining the situation.
Man City are alleged to have breached league rules requiring provision “in utmost good faith” of “accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”.
The league says the accurate financial information required related to “revenue (including sponsorship revenue), its related parties and its operating costs”.
The second set of breaches listed refers to alleged breaking of rules “requiring a member club to include full details of manager remuneration in its relevant contracts with its manager” related to seasons 2009-10 to 2012-13 inclusive.
The second set of alleged breaches also refers to requirements for a club to include full details of player remuneration within the relevant contracts, for the seasons 2010-11 to 2015-16 inclusive.
The third section deals with alleged breaches of Premier League rules requiring clubs to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations, between 2013-14 to 2017-18.
The fourth set of alleged breaches relates to the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules in seasons 2015-16 to 2017-18 inclusive.
Finally, Man City are alleged to have breached league rules requiring member clubs to co-operate with and assist the Premier League with its investigations, from December 2018 to date.
Reacting to the news, Carragher wrote on Twitter: “This can’t be right, Man City bring in more commercial revenue than Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Man Utd & Liverpool. (Shrug emoji)”
City were banned from UEFA competitions for two years by European football’s governing body for alleged breaches of its FFP regulations in February 2020, but the sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July of the same year.
But chief football writer for The Independent Miguel Delaney has warned: “A crucial difference between Uefa and Premier League is that alleged breaches can’t be ‘time-barred’ – no restrictions on length of time since alleged offences.”
Delaney added: “Figures involved don’t seem to think any prospective punishments would be retrospective or ‘looking backwards’ (ie stripping titles) but this is all described as ‘unprecedented’.”
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