I'm sure we all think it's great that historically significant clubs like City are backed with the spending and legal power of small countries, and regularly circumvent the rules. They've been a real win for football.
I know we dont like it but
1.they don't have the spending and legal power of small countries
2.they don't regularly circumvent the rules, they did so once and were fined for it. They were accussed a second time and acquitted on appeal.
3.they have been a real win for the premier league, possibly football as a whole
Look at the premier league from 2000 to the take over and the few years after before their spending catapulted them into the top 4
The top 4 was pretty fixed us, arsenal, liverpool and chelsea.
It would have stayed that way indefinatley without a team being bankrolled from an outside source, because the champions league money meant we and the other three could outspend all our rivals and importantly buy their best players.
The team could have been anyone, it was manchester city. I would much preferred it not to have been our cross town rivals, but it is what it is.
The reason english football is so popular is because many different teams win and we were in danger of losing that. and turning into la liga
for clarity there have now been 7 different english champions since the start of the premier league , in spain there have been 4 and la liga is dull as dishwater because of it.
Before the money went to man city the premier league had 4 different champions, the same as la liga and would not have changed significantly without outside money for a different club.
For the period after the money went into man city, the premier league has had 5 different champions of which 3 hadnt won the premier league previously, la liga has had 3 different champions and they were the same as previously
and for some historical context, there have been 24 different english champions and only 9 different spanish champions since the start of league football in both countries.
Football is only interesting if there is hope of getting to the top.
We do not want to be la liga (dominated by 2/3 teams) or the bundesliga (bayern have won the last 8 years), serie A (Juve have won the last 9).
The enemy isnt sugar daddy clubs its UEFA and FFP, which will turn us into la liga with 4 dominant unchanging teams after a period of adjustment following the investment in city. It will not be shaken up again because the type of investment city had is no longer allowed. The premier league will then stagnate and slowly die.
we need FFP to be updated so that clubs cant borrow excessively but can have outside investment.
If that was in place in the early years of this century the glazers could not have bought us and loaded us with debt and then sucked money out of the club for the next 15 years.
sorry for the rant but i do feel strongly about this