🔗 Share this article

Celebratory first birthday! How has it been? Has passion grown or faded? Have you counted down the days? Enlightened, content, balanced, reminiscent of a wellness influencer jogging peacefully at dawn?

Perhaps, to offer another perspective, your stomach turns at the prospect of leafing through the predictable tribal arguments involving dense regulatory disputes you might feel physically ill.

Either way, as of this week one year since the start of the Manchester City charges tribunal. Recall that saga? Initially 115 counts, now exceeding 130. Think of the atmosphere of seriousness that today appears dated, the kind of thing you might see on a clip-based nostalgia show.

“This contradicts the spirit of competition and the imperfect yet vital system of regulated markets”

A year is a long time in tribunal world, not least because if you follow football in any way. Therefore, it should be commemorated through ritual observance, similar to ancient traditions of honoring ancestors.

But it’s driven by more than nostalgia—apprehension, awe, and concern about coming events. It mirrors the top division’s predicament after twelve months of huge costs and exhausting stress.

This has by now become something of a joke in wider sporting circles. Why has it taken so long? The charges relate to financial reporting, employee remuneration and sustainability. It shouldn’t be this complicated, right?

In reality, it’s immensely difficult and typical for high-stakes legal disputes. From an insider’s perspective, there’s a ton of convoluted material to sort.

However, it’s no laughing matter. By now that basic expanse of time is significant in itself. Prolonged proceedings equal soaring fees. Reports suggest the EPL’s lawyer bills may reach £200 million.

Let’s emphasize that there is no evidence Manchester City have used complex litigation tactics to prolong and fatigue the other side. Such accusations are unfounded.

Anti-SLAPP legislation addresses frivolous litigation, termed legal harassment of critics. Matters escalate into bureaucratic knots. Additional motions appear. Deals are proposed, fees used as leverage.

This process has been identified by parliament as a threat to democracy. Again there is no evidence City have any interest in this.

Well, there’s only arms-length and disputed evidence, such as leaked historical emails implying the chairman preferred investing in legal battles.

Then there are the unforeseen outcomes stemming from further legal actions regarding related-party deals.

The true objective was ambiguous. The EPL believes it avoided major damage, since it could have paralyzed the system.

This can’t continue indefinitely. It’s a crisis for the top division, that functions as a media outfit, not a judiciary. It’s torture for the boss, who probably imagined managing media contracts.

By now City and their world-class squad of legal experts have maneuvered the EPL into a difficult position. If harsh sanctions are applied, which increasingly just feels unlikely, the possibility of challenges looms.

Additionally, the period brought wider transformations, challenges to structures and models. Should you really attack and possibly smear your top title winners?

Broadly, it appears to benefit the powerful elite: a win for wealth influence, where regulations are optional for the rich.

And also for populism, for hard power masked by obfuscation. It’s distasteful how emotive language is used attached to the case by the club’s representatives.

Add the laissez-faire ideological drivel, the “economic liberty” phrases repeated endlessly by people who don’t understand what a free market is.

But then, this is just a glimpse through the lens of the autocratic billionaire life. This is “the state is us”. It’s the opposite of sport, and of the flawed but necessary machinery of semi-regulated capitalism.

At this stage, the ideal result for the football industry is perhaps a negotiated agreement and fuzzy resolution. Realistically, the main goal is to end it.

What’s clear is that City’s ambitions won’t be truly damaged, that the prospect of punishment has already lent it purpose and drive. Challenging the elite, protesting the establishment, it’s thrilling stuff.

A year later, it’s difficult to imagine a resolution where defeat, even symbolically, would matter.