Manchester City FFP: Uefa must demand an explanation… the club have questions to answer

“Coming soon on Amazon Prime: All and Nothing — the documentary sequel which reveals how Manchester City bought their way into football’s elite without any meaningful punishment!”

City, obviously, won’t go that far, but for a club that allowed television cameras behind the scenes of their remarkable 2017-18 season and recently unveiled a ‘Tunnel Club’ offering “unprecedented access” at the Etihad Stadium, some transparency in the boardroom would be welcome now.

It is as yet unclear to what extent City will contest the damning version of events being drip fed into the public domain by German magazine Der Spiegel this week, but the sheer volume and detail of these latest allegations demands a thorough investigation by Uefa.

Financial Fair Play is far from perfect. It has been a reasonable success in curbing excessive losses, partially slowing spiralling wages and deterring fly-by-night investors. But its construct in doing so leaves the system vulnerable to exploitation by the financially creative. In addition, FFP makes it harder for the nouveau riche to compete at the summit, thereby protecting the established order.

City forced their way in as the door was closing and are now a permanent fixture in the Premier League title race. Their Manchester neighbours, United, may currently reside outside the top six, but it is virtually inevitable that they will rejoin City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal to maintain a stranglehold on the English game (and the European football that comes with it).

Leicester’s 2016 title success proves anything is possible, but the miracle of that season is really the exception that proves the rule, not evidence by itself of a genuinely competitive annual race.

Fans of clubs outside the top six — let alone those in the Championship and below — can only ultimately aspire to the magical wonders of seventh place.

That is not entirely City’s fault, of course, but the game’s organising bodies have a duty to protect the integrity of competition from inherent greed in whatever form it may take. And the concern exists that UEFA are so fearful of a breakaway European Super League — an intermittently publicised but very real danger in the long term — that it does not feel adequately robust to enforce severe penalties.

Take City’s failure to comply with FFP in 2014. They were fined £49million — a not inconsequential figure, but barely a dent in the £1.5billion one of the leaked documents states was the Abu Dhabi investment to the end of the 2014-15 season.

In Pictures | Man City vs Southampton | 04/11/2018

There were transfer restrictions and an enforced reduction in City’s Champions League squad but, remarkably, they were given £33.4m back three years later merely for complying with the original sanctions and further limiting their losses.

City’s relentless, fast-tracked, decade-long climb is not without soul. They have done fine work in regenerating east Manchester and are among the shrewdest operators in football.

And on the pitch, under Pep Guardiola, they are undeniably the best team to watch in the division. City in full flight are an irrepressible force of nature, scything through bewildered opponents with style and swagger.

If it turns out there is substance to these latest allegations, City must be forced to explain whether they spent in the right way or if there was a systemic attempt to circumvent rules they — and the rest of Europe — had signed up to.

Der Spiegel cites something called ‘Project Longbow’ and a pertaining email, in which the club’s chief legal adviser, Simon Cliff, noted that a longbow was “the weapon the English used to beat the French at Crecy and Agincourt”. As FFP was the mastermind of then UEFA president and former France captain Michel Platini, the target appears clear.

They allege ‘Project Longbow’ was a model which “allows for many of the operational costs to be shifted either fully or partially away from the club”, implicating the club in concerted deception to comply  with FFP.

The publication is also promising further revelations regarding City’s wider conduct which surely demand more than the dismissive statements the club are offering.

Transparency cannot solely be on City’s terms. All or Nothing admirably showcased the  record-breaking aspect of City’s success. Now to shine a light on  the rule-breaking part.