The Pac-Man defence, as all high-flying financiers know, is a tactic borrowed from the enjoyably addictive computer game which means that if you feel you are under attack then you fight back even harder to scare the crap out of your enemies. It seems that in Abu Dhabi and at the Etihad the poor beleaguered executives of Manchester City have been at their Nintendo machines.
What place a Wolves or an Ipswich or a Burnley in this oil-rich, dollar-strewn new world?
How else to explain City’s private court case against the Premier League? City already face 115 charges brought against them by the top tier of English football but it’s not as if they have done badly out of top-flight football. They have won six out of the last seven titles and are said to have the highest commercial revenue of any club. But now they are saying: ‘You come for us and we’re going for you.’
The key part of the City claim relates to a loveable little feature called associated party transactions (APTs) – or sponsorships. Manchester City is now an offshoot of one of the wealthiest sovereign states on the planet, Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways is all over the front of the players’ shirts. City want to abolish all the APT rules, which would remove any ceiling on how much an owner can pump into a club. And don’t forget, a sovereign state’s funds are literally limitless.
Poor City say they are bound by the ‘tyranny of the majority’ and cannot pump as much money as they would like into the club. If they win this case – and I suspect a deal will be done to make the 115 charges go away – the entire fabric of the Premier League could be pulled apart.
What place a Wolves or an Ipswich or a Burnley in this oil-rich, dollar-strewn new world? The answer is that Sheikh Mansour and the family don’t really want to be playing Sheffield United or Luton Town: they want to be playing Barcelona or Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in