The Premier League announced on Tuesday that Manchester City have been found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the league’s financial rules over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018.
Like many teams who were in the league during that time, Aston Villa have a right to feel aggrieved by Man City’s actions, which the league says “artificially” inflated revenues and reduced costs by “more than £900m”.
Other clubs will have different stories as to how they have been hurt by these breaches. The rise of Man City during that period directly coincided with Aston Villa’s decline, and multiple key players were poached between 2009 and 2018.
In the summer of 2009, City signed Villa’s captain Gareth Barry for £12m. The independent commission says that for the 2009/10 period, Manchester City claimed £27m in sponsorship revenue, but £22.5m of it actually came from Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), which owned the club.
Villa went on to finish one place and three points behind City that season in 6th place, and it was the last time they would finish in the Premier League’s top six for another 14 years.
Man City signed James Milner from Villa for £26m in summer of 2010. £28.5m of their reported £41.75m sponsorship revenue came from the owners that season, when Villa finished 9th as their descent began down the Premier League table.
Jumping ahead to the summer of 2015, Villa sold their captain to Man City once again as Fabian Delph joined for £8m. For the 2015/16 period, over £120m of City’s £136m of reported sponsorship revenue came from the owners.
Villa lost a crucial player to their survival the season prior, and were relegated at the end of the 2015/16 campaign. They were in the Championship for the rest of the period which City have been charged, but that does not mean they ceased to be impacted.
It can be argued that Manchester City’s misstated accounts for those nine years helped build a platform for everything that came after, even if they were not breaking any rules from the 2018/19 onwards. There is a potential snowball effect of their dishonesty.
Outside of the period of charges, Villa lost the Carabao Cup final to City in 2020 and sold another captain to them in Jack Grealish in the summer of 2021 for £100m.
Had these breaches been found and punishment enacted sooner, could Villa have finished 6th instead of 7th in Emery’s first season, giving them a Europa League spot instead of Conference League?
Would Villa have finished a place higher in 2024/25 and qualified for the Champions League for the second straight season? They only finished five points behind Man City, and missing out on Europe’s premier club competition meant Villa lost out on a big chunk of revenue.
Are some of these arguments a bit of a stretch? Possibly, but the point is that if these breaches had not occurred, the chain of events could have gone very differently from 2009 onwards for not only Villa, but countless clubs who will feel they unfairly lost revenue and trophies.
It is an embarrassing situation for the Premier League. Their statement confirming the decision of the independent commission was scathing towards Man City, regularly using the word 'sham'. City are still protesting their innocence and will surely appeal, meaning this could rumble on for a while yet.
But for fans of clubs like Villa, who have wealthy owners but are limited from spending due to the financial rules, the rule-breaking from Man City will be infuriating, and they will be wanting to see justice served in a significant way if the commission’s decision stands up.
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