Former Chelsea and Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata had a wry response to the news that Manchester City had been found guilty for more than 100 breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. The serial second-place finisher broke off from lamenting about how he hadn’t won England’s top flight during his playing career with the mischievous question: “Or have I?”
It was widely reported on Friday that the interminable wait to discover the outcome of a tribunal which has been running for more than three years is almost over. City are thought to have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges leveled at them by the Premier League. This could lead to a wide array of punishments, including retrospective action concerning the seasons under consideration.
Among the most consequential breaches in the allegations against City relate to inaccurate reporting of finances between 2009 and 2018, which supposedly allowed the club to artificially inflate their revenues and avoid coming under fire from the Premier League at the time. As many as 35 of the charges also relate to a failure to cooperate with the competition’s investigations of these alleged breaches from 2018–23.
In the eyes of many, every pot of silver won by the club since the first allegation of rule breaking has been tainted, with even the seasons not directly in the window of consideration inextricably linked to the foundations built by what went before.
Mata, as he was keen to point out on ITV Sport during coverage of England’s defeat to Spain on Saturday, was at Manchester United when they twice finished behind City in the Premier League.
“That actually directly affects me,” the 2010 World Cup winner mused. “I have been lucky enough to play many games and win some trophies, but I’ve never won the Premier League ... or have I?”
“Twice,” he added after a helpful prompt from his fellow pundit Ian Wright. “Because twice we were second in those years. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think they [Wright and Roy Keane] are right. Whoever has been cheating needs to be punished.”
| Statistic | 2017–18 Season | 2020–21 Season |
|---|---|---|
| Man City Finish (Points) | 1st (100) | 1st (86) |
| Man Utd Finish (Points) | 2nd (81) | 2nd (74) |
| Juan Mata Apps | 28 | 9 |
Man City Face Questions From Much Larger Forces Than Mata
Beyond jibes from former players (and U.S. mayors), the most potent questions aimed at Manchester City will be posed by their fellow clubs.
Mata’s Manchester United were not the only team denied success during City’s era of tainted dominance. Liverpool and subsequently Arsenal have also finished as runners-up to the Abu Dhabi-backed enterprise, which also denied clubs Champions League qualification while even potentially impinging upon the chances of relegation for some sides.
“The Champions League in those days was worth a minimum of £30 million,” soccer finance expert Kieran Maguire explained to BBC Sport when analyzing the Pandora’s Box opened by this ruling. “I think by the time we got to 2018, it was probably worth £60 million or £70 million, and that’s in prize money.
“On top of that, you could claim for loss of gate receipts, loss of sponsor bonuses. This is highly unlikely, but it’s certainly being discussed. Players get bonuses for qualifying for the Champions League. Those bonuses, if you talk to people connected to the elite clubs, are normally in the region of 25%.
“An average salary in those days would probably, if you go back to 2012, be in the region of £80,000 or £90,000 a week. Twenty-five percent of that is four or five million pounds a year. That’s how the issues stack up.”
Why Man City May Not Have the Record Books Rewritten
The cascading consequences of this guilt are nearly incalculable, although that will be the task which the law courts may face if rival clubs sue City for compensation. Whether it will come to that, however, is another matter entirely.
To begin with, only four clubs reserved the right to seek compensation from Manchester City should they be found guilty of the Premier League charges before the statute of limitations deadline. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all undergone various structural changes since that decision was taken in September 2024, with several former City employees now in positions of power at those rivals.
It has been reported by BBC Sport that even among this quartet, there is “little appetite” for history to be rewritten. The short-term (and hollow) triumph of retroactively claiming a trophy from eight years ago could very well be unbalanced by longer, more serious repercussions regarding the reputation of the competition at large.
Serie A still hasn’t recovered from the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 when Juventus had two titles stripped after being found guilty of match-fixing. As Mata himself conceded, City may have allegedly manipulated the accounts, but “they won on the pitch.”
“It was very difficult to play against them,” he admitted. Whether his former employers and their rivals take the same stance remains to be seen.
