One sentence, above all others, jumps out of the 165-page document detailing Manchester City’s legal action against the Premier League. He lunges right at you, shouting his evangelism of his greed and unbridled lust for power.
It is a phrase that lays everything bare. It captures the slack-jawed wrath of Abu Dhabi’s monarchical autocracy, which owns a club that was once considered the natural home of ordinary Mancunians but has now become a plaything for rulers unwilling to accept limits on its power.
The document, the Times reported on Tuesday, says City claim they are being restricted by “the tyranny of the majority” in English football and want to be freed from their shackles so they can realize their true potential.
City, of course, are a club already enjoying an unprecedented level of dominance in English football. Last month, Pep Guardiola’s side won their fourth consecutive Premier League title, a feat never before achieved in 136 years of top-flight football in this country.
And yet, that is not enough for City’s owners. They still claim they are victims. They still claim they are being discriminated against. They insinuate that they are victims of barely concealed racism.
Manchester City has initiated “unprecedented legal action” against the Premier League
City seeks to end associated party transaction (APT) rules, which they say are illegal
The Premier League (pictured CEO Richard Masters) previously accused the club of 115 breaches of spending rules.
And with each sentence, the dangers of state ownership of our football clubs, the dangers that so many warned about and whose warnings went unheeded, become increasingly clear. English football, it is increasingly evident, is heading towards cataclysm.
“The tyranny of the majority”: what a terrifying phrase. A phrase for our football times. A phrase that tells you what a sorry position the Premier League is in. A phrase that tells you how close English football is to collapsing in on itself.
“The tyranny of the majority”: this is what we traditionally know as democracy. It is a system that City’s owners, despite all their attempts at sports-washing, view with deep and lasting suspicion and that they are now trying to dismantle in English football.
The tyranny of the majority, as City’s owners call it, is at the heart of our political system, but it is also at the heart of our football league and at the heart of many of the most successful sports leagues. For many, I suspect, it is not a phrase that appears in many internal City memos.
Apparently, the city’s owners would prefer the tyranny of the minority. Or how about a tyranny of one? If they blow up these rules, that’s what we’ll get, although one could become two if Saudi Arabia is free to pour the vastness of its state wealth into Newcastle United without any scrutiny.
It is also possible that if the referees rule in favor of City, the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League for alleged financial violations will be hidden below the waterline. That shadow has been hanging over City’s achievements for a long time and they want to get rid of it.
Those who have long argued that clubs should be allowed to spend whatever they want, that there should be a free-for-all that allows state teams to blow all their rivals out of the water and thus destroy what was once the only system of sales. Premier League point, he may be about to get his wish.
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour (centre) pictured alongside President Khaldoon Al Mubarrak (right) in 2023.
If City are successful in the two-week private arbitration hearing that begins on Monday, the repercussions will extend far beyond the club’s attempt to end the league’s associated party transactions (APT) rules, which according to They are illegal, and their intention to claim damages. of the First Division.
If City succeed, it will mean much more than the end of the league’s desperate attempt to maintain the illusion of competition in English football’s top flight by clinging to a watered-down version of revenue sharing and feeble efforts to limit spending.
If City are successful, it is likely to signal the end of the Premier League’s democratic system that requires the agreement of at least 14 clubs, or two-thirds of those voting, to implement rule changes.
The city’s legal argument holds that that gives the majority unacceptable levels of control. Poor City, operating within the rules that allowed them to win the Treble last season, secured that fourth consecutive league title and came within one game of winning a Double Double.
This is a moment in our game as significant and dangerous as the moment City and five other leading clubs signaled their intention to join a European Super League in April 2021.
If City dismantle the league rules, the way will once again be clear to lead a breakaway. Perhaps the rest of the so-called Big Six, and Newcastle, feel emboldened by City’s rebellion, particularly as plans for an independent football regulator have been halted by the approach of a general election.
City celebrated their fourth consecutive top-flight title last month and were just one win away from becoming the first team to achieve a Double Double.
City may split. Perhaps this is the beginning of a great schism in English football. Perhaps other clubs would try to follow them and set up a rival league. Perhaps the Premier League could try to expel them.
At this point, all bets are off. It may be, as many have also warned, that the regulator is too late.
Still, at least now everything is clear. This amounts to a hostile takeover bid. It’s an effort to prove that might is right and that, with enough money and enough lawyers, you can line up the rest of the game.
City wants to destroy everything. If they win this case, we could also move the Premier League headquarters to the Etihad and abandon the pretense that anyone other than City is running the English game.