Manchester City face ‘complete meltdown’ after possible major punishment for inoffensive Everton – Stan Collymore
The fact that the Premier League are looking for a “significant sanction” against Everton could mean “complete meltdown” for Manchester City, according to Stan Collymore.
The former England striker wrote in his Caught Offside column on 27 October that most people “feel a little bit” for the Toffees as “they’ve had a shaky time and they’ve never offended anybody” while coming from a “great footballing city”, and yet the league want a 12-point deduction if the independent commission finds against the club for a single alleged spending breach.
He believes this amounts to the Premier League sending a message as they gear up to take on City, who have over 100 charges against them, with the treble winners at risk of being sent to “the very bottom of the pile” if they are expelled from the top flight and the Football League follow suit.
Collymore said: “The Premier League are almost prepping the footballing public as to the severity. Most people would look at Everton and say they feel a little bit for them. They’ve had a shaky time and they’ve never offended anybody, and they come from a great footballing city.
“If the Premier League can go straight away bang 12 points that might relegate them for the first time in I think 70 years, they would have no qualms whatsoever in throwing the book at Man City. Even if just a quarter of those charges were proven, there is a situation where Manchester City will not only be bounced out of the Premier League, but thrown towards the bottom of the pyramid.
“The stakes are so great now it could mean an absolute meltdown for Man City, to the kind of proportions that Rangers suffered in Scotland when they fell foul of paying players via elaborate schemes.
“The Premier League only have the remit to be able to kick them out of the Premier League of course, but the Football Association and the Football League won’t want them in the top divisions of their competition either. City will go to the very bottom of the pile.”
Proxy
It should be said that both Everton and Manchester City have maintained throughout that they haven’t breached profit and sustainability rules, but the Premier League certainly believes they both have.
It is down to the independent commission to decide the sanctions if they do in fact find against the Toffees, so whether any punishment is as severe as has been suggested remains in question.
Each case should be heard on its own merit so it would be extremely unfortunate if Everton are being used as a measuring stick ahead of the main event against City.
It took Rangers four seasons for their phoenix club to get back to the Scottish Premiership after the oblivion of 2012, and another five to win another title.
If City, with their financial might, were sent to the bottom of the English pyramid it might be a similar timeframe for them to return to the top, but even a comparatively minor points deduction that relegates Everton once as been tipped to be far more ruinous.
777 Partners are thought not to be put off by the prospect of a punishment that sends the club down, but the stakes are still arguably higher at Goodison Park with one charge levelled against the club than it is for more than 10 times the amount at the Etihad.
In other Everton news, Simon Jordan has told Jim White what he’s heard on what happened as the Premier League presented at the commission hearing.