- ‘Foul..!’ - 1st October 2026
- Value judgement part two - 1st October 2026
- Rocket man - 30th September 2026
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 43 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, covering sports stories was rare, as players or managers would often become angry with direct ‘newsy’ questions, but now the biggest one of all has broken, which he would have loved to have got stuck into – how glamour club Manchester City broke the rules.
What Manchester City may have done is incredible, and this could all drag on for ages yet.
An appeal must be lodged by tomorrow, which is the start of it, and the beginning of the fightback, because officials claim to have “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” proving innocence.
For City fans, however, it looks grim as their team faces the prospect of being relegated, or even losing most of its recent titles, as they have been found guilty of all charges related to breaches of financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.
The news has made headlines around the world. It is also rumoured that other clubs which lost out to City are lining up legal cases of their own, as they reckon they were put at a disadvantage.
Rival fans are out for blood. On call-in radio shows they demand that City be stripped of its titles, expelled from the Premier League (PL) and handed nine years of points deductions to atone for nine years of financial doping.
The PL has recently handed out four and six-point deductions for SINGLE breaches of its financial rules, and the scale of City’s alleged cheating means serious punishment is the only way for the PL, one of Britain’s biggest global brands, to save its reputation.
The true doomsday scenario for City is that other clubs come looking for compensation. In July Burnley successfully sued Everton, which had been found guilty of breaching the PL’s financial rules, for more than £30 million in lost earnings.
Its argument was that Everton had cheated to employ the players who kept it from relegation, and sent Burnley down.
With that precedent set, some clubs have been rumoured to be lining up similar cases against City.
The difference is that, whereas Everton was competing at the bottom of the league, City tends to compete at the top, where the financial rewards are far greater.
So potentially City could soon have several clubs suing it to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Amid the mess, spare a thought for City fans (and I count myself as one of them, having supported the club since I was eight).
Many followed the team through years of pain, enduring grim trips to places like Grimsby and suffering in the shadow of more glamorous teams like Manchester United (MU), before seeing their team crowned European champions in Istanbul in 2023.
On one fans website, the consternation of City supporters is clear.
Steve: Nothing to see here, we won the trophies on the pitch not in the boardroom. We play as a team, not as over-rated individuals and prima donnas. I’m sure if you scrutinise every club up and down the land since time began there are questions to be answered, which City have openly done. The truth is nobody likes a winner, and we do that with bells on!!
Brian: It is hard to imagine how the players are feeling now, but as the appeal progresses, fans must now support the team with voices full of pride and encouragement. Man City will rise from the ashes. Man City are a team to continue to believe in.
Kevin: I find the whole situation ludicrous. A set of Premier League clubs don’t like the idea of a new team breaking into their cartel, as it will affect the money they are making. They then try and punish a club’s owners for putting money into the club and local community by changing the rules. I support the Man City club management and urge them to continue to take these charlatans on.
Flynn: As a City fan, I don’t know how to feel as I want to have faith in the club, but seeing all the updates makes me feel uncertain about the future of Manchester City.
Colin: I feel sorry for the players. They weren’t to know they were bought and paid through finances that weren’t genuine and they went on the pitch and performed and won. So, while the club should be punished, don’t tarnish the legacy of the players and managers.
Justin: I don’t personally think they should lose their trophies, as talent and coaching by and large won those, but a demotion might be on the cards.
Sam: At the end of the day the owners have lied to us repeatedly and destroyed our club. For the club to move on it will need a change of ownership and removal of anyone involved in this. Sadly we will forever be tarnished by these events.
These comments underline the fact that there are certainly direct ‘newsy’ questions to ask here, although presumably officials at the Etihad won’t like them.
A story is a story is a story, and my identity as a journalist comes before my identity as a Man City fan…
The memories of Phil’s decades-long award-winning career in journalism as he was gripped by the rare disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’ (in which there is ONE sports story!). Order it now!
Tomorrow – during his long career, for him new evidence has always been crucial, and today fresh information is emerging from a review of mental health care of children, which has found that there has been a significant rise in distress among youngsters, and that different models of care are having to be tested in Wales to support them.
