3 min read15 October
After Manchester City was found guilty of major breaches of Premier League financial rules, The Rundown podcast examines the political ramifications of a saga that has unleashed a crisis in the country’s biggest sport.
The panel also discusses the challenges facing the future of football, with a new report published this week warning that most clubs are “living on the edge of financial disaster”.
Joining host Alain Tolhurst are the shadow sports minister, Conservative MP Louie French, as well as Kieran Maguire, associate professor in football finance at the University of Liverpool, and Josh Bland, director of research at the football think tank, Fair Game.
English football was rocked late last month when an independent commission said City was guilty of 115 charges relating to financial fair play rules.
The game is waiting to see how the Manchester club will be punished, with a points deduction, transfer ban and expulsion from the country’s most elite league reportedly on the table. Some figures in the game have called for Man City to be stripped of the many titles they have won in the period covered by the independent commission investigation.
Man City, which is currently top of the Premier League, denies the charges and has launched a formal appeal.
The case has raised major questions about the growing influence of geopolitics in football and what critics refer to as ‘sportswashing’, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham facing pressure over his dealings with City’s owners during his time as Manchester mayor.
Burnham was criticised by figures within football after initially telling the BBC he would be “really concerned” if the saga resulted in the club’s Abu Dhabi owners selling up after the levels of investment they had put into Manchester.
His comments prompted accusations that he was effectively interfering in the case by suggesting the club’s ownership should not be punished too severely.
Although No 10 has since clarified Burnham’s comments, stressing that Man City is “not above the rules”, Tory MP French said they were “so inappropriate” and had “opened up Pandora’s box”.
“I jokingly said it’s the biggest own goal he’s ever going to score in his career because it has brought in the political element of the questioning and we have journalists poring over Manchester right now looking at everything that has ever happened to do with Andy Burnham and Manchester City,” he told PoliticsHome.
David Kogan, the chief independent football regulator, has said he would resign from his role if he believed he was being put under any sort of political pressure in his response to the Man City case.
Maguire told The Rundown that Kogan is “one of the most robust people I’ve ever met in my life” who would not be influenced easily.
“He is very direct, and that gave me a degree of confidence that he will be an independent regulator,” he said.
The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot
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