Inside Man City: Reactions of players and agents revealed as ‘tough lessons’ coming amid contract discrepancies
There’s ‘a cloud hanging over’ the City Football Academy (CFA), where the ‘nerves’ are palpable after Manchester City were found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules to plunge the club into crisis.
The Premier League has confirmed that an independent panel has found City guilty on all charges related to breaches of their financial regulations over a nine-year period.
It was found that City had arranged “sham” contracts with commercial partners to inflate revenues and reduce costs to the tune of over £900m.
City maintain their innocence and are expected to appeal the ruling but the so-called ‘irrefutable evidence’ that the club bosses insist will prove their innocence is, well, refutable.
We wait to learn the Premier League punishment and just how much City will have to pay their rivals in damages. It could all be over by January.
Etihad Airways have piled further pressure on the Premier League, threatening legal action over the ‘damaging implications’ of the commission’s findings, while making a telling blunder in their 307-word statement.
Expulsion is one of several punishments available to the independent commission, but 15 of the 20 Premier League clubs would have to vote in favour of such a punishment for it to be carried out, meaning City could get off scot-free.
Amid the bombshell news and significant updates on the story, seemingly by the hour, CEO Ferran Soriano called for business as usual in an unblinking video statement, but ESPN report that there’s ‘shock’ among the employees and players of Manchester City over the ‘strength of judgement’ against their club in what is a ‘worst-case scenario’.
It’s claimed that many people at the club want to give the club chiefs ‘the benefit of the doubt’ and many are therefore ‘choosing to believe’ Soriano and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who have worked to ‘create a family feel and shared purpose’ at the club.
But there is ‘a cloud hanging over the CFA’ and ‘the mood is nervous’ amid ‘genuine worry about what the future could hold’.
The same is true of the players, the report states, many of whom are away on international duty, though some have had direct contact with the club.
One first-team player’s agent told ESPN that his client is “calm” and ‘happy with the public reassurances by senior executives’, but another ‘has privately questioned the sense in punishing current players who were not at the club when the alleged transgressions occurred between 2009 and 2018’.
A third agent insisted the players ‘knew what they were signing up for’, while another is evidently feeling pretty smug about insisting on some sort of clause in his client’s contract.
“There may be a few tough lessons for players whose agents focus purely on how much their client is paid,” he said.
The report adds:
‘Sources have told ESPN that other clubs are monitoring City’s situation carefully and work is already going on in the background to find out what protections — if any — players have in their contracts, and whether or not they are accessible for transfer talks. Questions are also being asked privately about whether there’s an appetite — even at this early stage — to consider alternative options away from the Etihad in the future.’
