One of the biggest news stories from the world of football this year surrounds Manchester City potentially breaching financial rules.
Earlier this month, the English Premier League charged City with more than 100 breaches of financial rules, with the case to be overseen by an independent commission into the alleged breaches.
The charges relate to club revenue, including sponsorship income and not disclosing full details of manager and player contracts, between 2009 and 2016.
It’s unclear how long the case will drag on for and if found guilty, the defending Premier League champions could face punishments raging from a fine to a points deduction, or relegation.
Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba shares his views on these shocking turn of events.
VI: Sometimes I do feel pity for Manchester City because why now? Why are the Premier League bringing these charges in the second half of the season?
I think it’s a massive distraction for the team, especially the way Pep Guardiola had to come out and defend his club. Surely this could have been dealt with at the end of the season. It’s not right to put pressure on any team because of alleged financial irregularity that might have occurred many years ago.
I think the bigger clubs that have the money should be allowed to spend it. I’m a little bit worried because I’m looking at the comments coming from the big six clubs in England, and it seems they will all be happy if City are punished.
I personally believe that some of these big teams have been a little bit jealous about City’s resources in recent years. The Premier League should have done it differently and waited until the end of the season to investigate City.
Why are you putting pressure on the players, the manager of the club and the fans, for me, I feel very sad for City.
You look at all the effort that has been put into the club, bringing in class and showing the whole world that they play very good football, bringing in the best managers and players. They have contributed greatly to making the Premier League one of the best in the world.
Whether you love or you don’t love City, you must love their style of football. For them to be investigated for this financial regularity shouldn’t come in the month of February, for God’s sake, it should come at the end of the season.
If City get found guilty then I think it’s very bad for the Premier League because people will look at it and think why now? If it was Manchester United or Liverpool, would they be investigated at this time of the year? Would the Premier League be bold enough to investigate these iconic clubs in England at the same time of the season? They’ve seen what happened recently in Italy regarding Juventus being deducted 15 points for financial irregularities and they want to make a statement about it in England.
So I do feel that Man City are being made the scapegoat in this situation. The timing doesn’t sit well with me. Pep Guardiola’s style of play has progressed English football and the English Premier League so why do they want to destroy it?
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