THE EDITOR: It's not surprising that Manchester City Football Club has been charged by the Premier League for breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. What is surprising is that the club allegedly broke those rules more than 100 times from as far back as 2009.
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger foresaw this conundrum; he labelled it as 'financial doping.'
Basically, City has been spending more than it earns and not accounting for what it spends, which could be because it is a small club, and Pep Guardiola always complains that there aren't any fans in Man City's Etihad Stadium.
I was very upset when Wenger sold our best players to City at the birth of its oil takeover, not knowing there was much more in the mortar, despite winning the league a couple times during that period.
City was also banned by UEFA in 2020 from the Champions League for two seasons for similarly breaching FFP rules, which was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration of Sports and fined ten million euros.
However, now that the club is charged by the Premier League, a fine simply isn't going to teach its management a lesson this rounds. In the words of Wenger, sport in general is all about winning without breaking the rules and if Man City broke these rules, then it should be punished.
As a matter of fact, just like Juventus and Marseille all those years ago, City should be relegated from the Premier League. I expect Chelsea FC to be next after its crazy transfer-window buying recently, because it has been spending haphazardly as well.
As an Arsenal fan, I can forgive Wenger now for selling our best players to rivals and pinching our wallets to pay for the Emirates Stadium, because he did not want to break those very same rules.
Wenger was truly ahead of his time. His integrity and what he stood for prove his class on this matter. If Guardiola decides to leave, Arsenal should hire him to be Mikel Arteta's number two. Think about it, if City gets relegated, then Arsenal surely will win the title. Wenger's done it again!
KENDELL KARAN
Chaguanas
The post City should be relegated appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
