Manchester City’s Financial Fair Play Scandal Opens The Door For Unlikely Champions League Contenders.
English soccer is currently experiencing one of its biggest scandals in recent years, involving the now infamous powerhouse club Manchester City. A relative also-ran prior the club being bought by a group of powerful sheikhs from the UAE, Manchester City rose to the top of European football by assembling the best team money could buy. Since the acquisition, City has dominated the English Premier League, winning four titles this decade.
In 2017-2018, the Sky Blues (as City are nicknamed, for the color of their uniforms)posted the most dominant points total in Premier League history, racking up 100 points. The following year, they became the first club in English history to win the “treble,” that is, to win the Premier League as well as English football’s two most prestigious knockout tournaments, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup. Their dominance knew no rival, in England at least.
City did it by assembling a collection of talent that few in Europe could match. Elite midfielders like Yaya Toure and Kevin de Bruyne set the table for a devastating attack headlined by Sergio Aguero, already one of the most prolific goal scorers in the history of the Premier League. In net, for much of their championship years City boasted the talents of Joe Hart, winner of four Golden Glove awards for the EPL’s best goaltender. However, the recent scandal may have ruined their aspirations to add the greatest title in Europe to their mantle- the Champions League.
In response to the unprecedented wave of new spending by club’s like City and Paris Saint-Germain (owned by the state sports company of Qatar), the European football governing body, UEFA, imposed new “financial fair play” rules. These dictated that leagues could not spend a certain amount of money beyond what the club took in from revenue, simultaneously limiting the amount that ownership could inject into the club above and beyond revenue.
What has recently been revealed is that City got around these rules by disguising money injected from ownership as sponsorships. As it just so happened, City’s primary sponsor, the airline Eithad (City’s home stadium in Manchester is named for them), is based in the UAE and partially owned by the UAE government, making it easy to overstate sponsorship money that was in fact coming directly from City’s UAE-based ownership. It was only in early 2020 that UEFA’s investigation came to a head.
UEFA’s ruling against City was swift and harsh. Manchester City was banned from competing in the Champions League for two seasons, on top of harsh fines. Not only does this deprive City of a chance at trophies, it could cause players to want to leave the club or not sign there, and speculation is already rampant that their legendary head coach Pep Guardiola will leave for greener pastures now that he can no longer attain Champions League glory with City.
Beyond the impact of the scandal on City itself, their elimination from eligibility for next year’s Champions League opens up a host of new possibilities for its rival English clubs. As the Champions League currently stands, the clubs that finish in the top four of the EPL table earn the right to compete for the European crown the following year. City currently sits comfortably in second place, well behind overwhelming frontrunner Liverpool, but solidly in front of third place Leicester City. But their ban from next year’s Champions League opens up a spot to a contender that few even expected to be in this position to begin with.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ recent history has been far from the championship glory of City. Wolves, as the West Midlands-based club is nicknamed, has not won a first division title since 1959. In the modern era, Wolves have struggled to remain in the Premier League, relegated to the second division in 2013. In recent years, the club has seen a turnaround as they themselves came under new ownership in 2016.
Under new coach Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves announced to the football world that they were back by winning the EFL Championship title in 2018, which guaranteed them a spot back in the Premier League. Furthermore, they showed that they belonged back in their first EPL season, finishing seventh in the table, their best first division result since 1980. City’s ban gives them a golden opportunity to take their success to the next level.
City’s ban means that, for once in the EPL, finishing in fifth place will be enough for a team to earn a spot in the Champions League. Wolves is as close to that spot as possible without actually being in it- they are equal in points with fifth place Manchester United, with United’s superior goal differential currently acting as the tiebreaker. Wolves recently made a huge statement win, defeating perennial top four contender Tottenham Hotspur.
The race for the last Champions League will be hotly contested. United, once the class of English football, have struggled by their lofty standards since the retirement of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson. They are highly motivated to benefit from the misfortunes of crosstown rival City. Despite their loss to Wolves, Tottenham remains in the hunt for a spot.
Further down the table, there are other unlikely contenders that would love to pull off a Cinderella run to a Champions League spot. Sheffield United are perhaps even bigger underdogs than Wolves, but at just two points behind them and Manchester United, have a legitimate chance to get to a top five spot in their very first season back in the Premier League, their first season in the top flight since 2011. And lurking just behind them is traditional power Arsenal and fellow upstart Burnley. For much of the English Premier League’s history, the top four spots were a fixed hierarchy, with four or five clubs far and away at the top of the pecking order. But the fall from grace of Manchester City has opened things up, making for a top five race that should keep football fans on the edge of their seats.
