It will be interesting to see how the Premier League's charges against Manchester City develop as the process goes on.
The league levelled 115 charges at the club earlier this week, relating to the division's financial restrictions. Essentially, City have been accused of being dishonest about their levels of income and expenditure over a nine-year period, extending from 2009-2018.
The club themselves have denied any wrongdoing.
Manchester City have long thought of themselves as an anti-establishment force in English football, challenging the previous hierarchy which they felt unfairly benefitted the traditional giants of the game in Manchester United and Liverpool. They felt that many of the financial laws in the game were implemented in order to stop new clubs competing among the established elite.
The question now is whether they stayed within the rules in their quest to improve on the pitch.
Gary Neville & Jamie Carragher disagree over Manchester City charges
While supporters of many clubs have welcomed the charges handed to Manchester City, they have found an unlikely sympathiser in Gary Neville.
Speaking on The Overlap, the former Manchester United man admitted he had some sympathy for City as he agreed that the laws within football made it difficult for new clubs to mix it among the traditional big wigs in the game. He compared the situation to Blackburn in the 1990s, who were allowed to spend huge amounts of money under Jack Walker without any interference from the authorities.
They are determined that they’ve not done anything wrong, and I feel as if they don’t like the idea of the established elite not liking what they are doing.
Clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, the historic and traditional big clubs, don’t like this idea of the newcomer coming on the block and doing what they’re doing...
On the financial side, I do have some sympathy for Manchester City.
If you look at what Jack Walker did in 1992, 1993, 1994, that was financial doping but, it was deemed to be something completely different because he was a local businessman who pumped money into his club.
I’m not a fan of the FFP. It means you’ll always have the same clubs at the very top, because their revenues are higher and you’ll always have the lower clubs lower down because they can’t compete with the revenue.
We do need sustainability and cost controls in football, and I think this is one of the biggest decisions in the next 12 to 18 months.
However, Jamie Carragher was not convinced by that argument.
The ex-Liverpool defender said this situation was not really comparable to that of Blackburn in the 1990s or Chelsea after Roman Abramovich's takeover, due to the fact that they were no financial laws in place for them to potentially break.
No it's not (seen as completely different to other clubs spending in the past). The rules weren't there then.
The Chelsea and Abramovich thing, there were no rules there. Jack Walker could do what he wanted, anyone could.
It's not where you're from in the world or whether you're a local businessman. It's the fact that there are are rules there and at the moment, they're sanctioning City for breaking them.
Manchester City will fight these charges all the way, as they did with the sanctions they were handed by UEFA in years gone by. On that occasion, they had a two-year ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
However, Premier League laws dictate that CAS will have no part to appeal in any appeals on this occasion.
It will be interesting to see how things go in the months and years ahead, with fines, point deductions, and even relegation all on the table as punishments should the charges be proven.
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