After all this time, I've been wondering how best to address the Man City elephant. Or even larger creature. Leviathan. As with the international break recaps, going over old ground feels...redundant. This issue has been talked, written and meme'd to death, and yet...it still feels so seismic and so live. What everyone knew to be true is now official. Barring an unlikely reversal on appeal, City are cheats. Deliberate, systematic, unrepentant cheating over the best part of a decade (proven) and likely longer (unproven).
But still unpunished. So, there's a shock (maybe at the fact they were found guilty, not that they were cheating...) and a righteousness to the discourse. But no justice. No closure. Our media landscape - of which football media is a part - needs to fill a void. Literally, and legally I believe, to hold a broadcasting licence you cannot have more than a certain amount of dead-time. Print and online media needs content to drive eyeballs to drive revenues. So people talk. They broadcast with no motivation to manage the quality of their output. This saturates the space. The same talking head who'll explain to you why the full back should have tucked in to block off a passing lane is now opining on legal minutiae AND geopolitical deliberations. I for one, did not know Joe Hart was such a polymath. Or Gary Neville. Or Simon Jordan. Or. Or Or.
Years ago, I read a book called The Undercover Economist (Tim Harford, columnist at the FT I think). It's a popular book explains economics to dumb dumbs like me. The book starts by talking about a cup of coffee. It states the premise that nowadays, the world is so complex that there is not a single person in the world who knows how to make a cup of coffee from scratch. The market relies on people trading their skill and expertise in one area for that of another person in another, and bish bash bosh, you buy your quadruple espresso/CaramelFrappaMatchaLatte. This has influenced what I've looked for in my search for information. I want to understand the process from a lawyer - actually an appropriate lawyer with knoweldge about sports law and CAS and the PL process. Not ProbateLaw123 from Twitter. I want to know about the relationship between Abu Dhabi and the UK (Andy Burnham specifically...). I can take the temperature of what public sentiment is regarding "fair" - but you have to view it through the lens of what's their agenda? What is their driver? City to be liquidated? The PL to be protected? Their own club to benefit somehow. I cannot abide the stupidity that some say (and then quickly walk back) regarding punishments can only be prospective. That football cannot look at how other sports do things and learn (oh hello VAR).
Also, the absolute whataboutery. Pure mudslinging to obscure the issue. The intent/fairness of the rules is irrelevant. That's what you created, signed up to and then deliberately ignored.
Here's my thinking:
Punishment serves two purposes. To deliver consequence for wrong doing and to deter others from repeating. This is pretty foundational stuff.
As such, cheats cannot prosper. A punishment usually needs to be proportionate, but when the offence is sustained, the coverup is ongoing and the remorse level is negative, it needs to be draconian.
This can of course be retrospective AND prospective. In fact, it needs to be.
The baseline is all success in this period is removed. I don't believe in reawarding - that's far too complex and, regardless, trophies won in the court are not the same as trophies won on the pitch (oh hello Afcon). You make like the Tour de France and vacate the titles with a big, mark of Cain asterisk as to why.
Then you punish in the now. The issue is the fruits of the crime continue to flourish. So the options are two in my opinion. Either you uproot the entire tree (ie liquidate the club - de facto with a huge fine that either forces Abu Dhabi to pay massively or, more likely, they default and the club is done) or you impose a multi-year penalty (er....tree surgery?) to try and restore the status to what it would have been without cheating. Neither are without serious negatives. Destroying Man City (ah la Rangers for example) ruins lives. A multi-year penalty further distorts competition. Equally, the PL are not the EFL, so what happens there? If City are relegated (not expelled), do they go to the Championship?
Then there's the civil claims. How many clubs were affected and suffered material losses as a result? Individuals who's careers took a different arc. They deserve recourse too.
Finally - there's who is liable? Obviously the club will receive a punishment as an entity. What what about the individuals involved? There are actual crimes committed here, let alone the fit & proper directors test. How does this continue to play out?
The noise is towards settlement. But this strikes me as an act solely to reduce the timeframe around which this drags on. City have thrown everything at the PL for years, without success to date. So it seems like the PL is happy to move slowly but convincingly - which makes me think their desired outcome is a near extinction level event for Man City. This doesn't make me happy...but it maybe feels just.
PL back now so let's get ready to get annoyed about.....
Let's get statty:
This week, 24 people played
Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (24/24)
Most disputed predicted result: Spurs vs Aston Villa (12-6-6 split)
Highest odds: Josh Daniels (7,927/1)
Lowest odds: Geoffrey Skolnick (539/1)
Average odds: 2,866/1
Best predictors: Loads of you (5/10)
Worst predictors: Steven Daniels & David Brickman (2/10)
Average score: 3.79/10
Best predicted result: Man City WIN (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Brighton & Coventry WINS (0/24)
Everyone's score:
Leaderboard (>2/3; 4/5)
To this week's predos:
Good luck all
