Man City ‘guilty’ financial fair play verdict will offer Arsenal vindication but little else

Man City ‘guilty’ financial fair play verdict will offer Arsenal vindication but little else

Arsenal will not be able to benefit after being robbed of the chance to celebrate a potential Premier League victory last season if Manchester City see their titles stripped

 

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 08: Erling Haaland of Manchester City looks upfield during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on October 08, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Arsenal have potentially been robbed of the chance to celebrate the 2022/23 Premier League title. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

 

Have you heard of Adam Nelson? Unless you’re one of the rare people who fall between the Venn diagram of football and shot putting, then the answer is probably not.

 

The American competed in the 2004 Olympics where he won silver only to find out that – Yuriy Bilonog, the Ukrainian who had beaten him to first place in Athens – had in fact been found guilty of doping nine years later. Bilonog got to stand atop a podium with his national anthem playing in front of adoring crowds in the Greek capital. Nelson later received his gold medal in an airport food court.

 

Sport is littered with hundreds if not thousands of these cases where winners have been found to have cheated after the fact. Each time it tries to correct the injustice, but each time it ultimately fails.

 

 

Nelson will never get to hear the Star Spangled Banner blaring out in front of his friends, family, teammates and supporters. He was robbed of the reward that comes for all the sacrifices athletes make to become the very best in their sport. Arsenal could fall in to the same category.

 

Manchester City are once again under the spotlight after UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin reaffirmed his organisation’s stance that their allegations that City breached its Financial Fair Play restrictions are “right.” City vehemently deny this, but with Pep Guardiola’s side facing 115 further charges from the Premier League, potential sanctions are a hot topic right now.

 

It’s worth noting that those hoping for swift justice against City are likely to be left disappointed. Many have drawn an equivalence between the 10 point deduction that Everton received for one breach of Premier League profit and sustainability regulations and assumed that City are therefore in line for an even heftier sanction too. There are key differences though.

 

City are contesting the charges brought forward by the Premier League. Everton, and also Nottingham Forest who were charged this month, are not. They have accepted their breach of the rules, meaning that the process of deciding a punishment can happen much quicker. There are also wide-reaching implications of City’s charges that mean any verdict brought against them must be bullet proof.

 

 

This hasn’t changed the fact that many people are calling for City to be stripped of their Premier League titles. As the second-placed team last season, this would leave Arsenal in line to potentially become retrospective Premier League champions.

 

When it comes to this a question rightly has to be asked if that really is enough. Just as Nelson was robbed of his big day in 2004, Arsenal have been robbed of their chance of an open top bus parade from Islington Town Hall through to the Emirates Stadium under the beaming north London May sun as the best football team in England. A chance to celebrate in a way that no one associated with Arsenal has been able to do in 20 years.

 

These days are what football is truly about. Mikel Arteta would agree. The Spaniard has won three trophies at Arsenal – two of those of have been Community Shields. Your mileage may vary on how important the trophy is, but there is little doubting that Arteta preferred winning in 2023 in front of fans to 2020 without anyone inside Wembley Stadium. “It doesn’t get any better than winning at Wembley in front of your fans,” he said.

 

 

If City’s 2022/23 title is eventually tainted by cheating then Arsenal have been robbed of the chance to celebrate a league title that they undoubtedly would have deserved. Memories that should have lasted a life time will never be.

 

This is why suggestions that City be stripped of their titles ring hollow. Ask any Inter Milan fan if they remember the 2006 Serie A title which they were awarded Juventus were found guilty in the Calciopoli scandal and they’ll tell you it doesn’t compare to their success in 2010. Football is about unforgettable moments of emotion that cannot be recreated retrospectively. Any attempt to do so in the 2022/23 season should be reconsidered.

 

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