It’s done. In 15 years, £1.074 billion, and 115 charges of rule-breaking later, Manchester City won the Champions League and became the second English team to win the treble in the process.
While it’s undoubtedly a massive achievement considering how many unknowns there are across a season, it is hardly an underdog story of perseverance that Pep Guardiola is so intent on labelling it.
Manchester City have always marketed themselves as a symbol of resistance against the established order. It is certainly a curious move, considering the “symbol of resistance” has enough resources to buy the whole of the Premier League if they want and still have spare change.
The only symbol of resistance Manchester City are is the one against the due process of law. In many ways, their success, supercharged by a state with intentions far beyond sporting success, is bad for football. Here’s why:
You can get away with it
It is an open secret that money trumps everything, not just in football, but life in general. Manchester City’s defiant stand in the face of financial doping allegations is a shining example of the same.
Since the takeover in 2008, Sheikh Mansour has pumped over a billion GBP of his own money into the club, never expecting, or wanting a return. In the same period, Glazers have taken nearly the same amount out of Manchester United, either through debt repayments or dividends.
That’s a net swing of more than £2 billion. You could almost buy Chelsea with that money.
It becomes problematic when Manchester City fans and the club personnel wear the financial doping allegations as a medal of honour. What started as a joke became a reality when Lord Pannick, the lawyer representing Manchester City in their fight against the Premier League had a banner of his name hung in the Etihad Stadium. Manchester City’s “army of lawyers” has already won one fight, against UEFA. It won’t be a surprise if they win another, this time against the Premier League, proving once again that they’d rather win cases off the pitch than play fair on it.
Invitation for more autocrats – Fan ownership becomes a utopian dream
It is a difficult position for Manchester City fans too who have been there and seen everything before the takeover. Football, by its nature, is an intensely tribalistic sport. Any slight against the club is taken by the fans as a slight against themselves.
Such an environment makes it ripe for anyone looking to become “God” to a set of people to buy a football club. Do good with the club, and its success will wipe away all your sins. In fact, you will have an army consisting of millions defending your every move, even beyond football.
Roman Abramovich was treated as a martyr by Chelsea fans despite links to a regime that has orchestrated one of the worst wars in Europe in decades. Sheikh Mansour’s name is sung by City fans as an ode to the benefactor whose resources brought them to this stage. Newcastle fans were wearing Keffiyeh, the Arabian headdress, within a week of Saudi Arabia’s PIF owning the majority stake in the club.
The “God complex” is a common factor in autocrats of nations. Therefore, those rulers of the nations who subject the people of their own nation to numerous atrocities will be attracted by football clubs. They see the impact Sheikh Mansour and Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan have had at Manchester City and how UAE’s image has done a complete 180 in many people’s eyes.
Fan ownership was anyways becoming a utopian dream. It won’t be long before football will become a playground for a proxy war between autocratic rulers of the world. So much for being “The working man’s game”.
Injustice to the players and manager
Kevin de Bruyne is arguably the best attacking midfielder in the world. Erling Haaland is a goalscoring prodigy who will break hundreds of records before he hangs up his boots. Even Pep Guardiola, for all the noise of him being a chequebook manager, has this City side playing football like rarely seen before.
These players and the manager deserve to have success that doesn’t come without an asterisk. Pep Guardiola shouldn’t be held accountable for human rights abuses happening in the UAE. However, by pure association, and the siege mentality phenomenon, he is forever linked to this regime. Repeatedly defending his club and his honour, as an extension, has led to an unhealthy debate about Pep Guardiola the person.
While the talk should be about how a revolutionary manager has changed football to an extent where every young coach aspires to be like him, it is instead about the asterisk that will accompany this success throughout the players’ careers. Manchester City will again say they don’t care about the outside noise, but their actions, notably the booing of the PL and UCL anthems, suggest otherwise.
The whole narrative is an injustice to the players and the manager but is a narrative that needs to be kept alive.
