THERE is one subject which makes Premier League executives suddenly become very, very careful with their words — Manchester City.
Ask a chief executive what they think of the 130 financial breaches brought against City and you get the same answer: “I can’t comment.”
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Ask when they think the verdict will come: “I can’t comment.”
It is almost as if somebody has handed every Prem chief executive the same script. But privately, of course, people talk.
The biggest frustration among the other 19 clubs is not simply that the case has taken so long, or it has cost so much money.
It is that they have almost no idea what is actually happening.
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The Premier League have published the charges. But the evidence behind them is not public. Nor is City’s detailed defence.
So the clubs are effectively being asked to wait patiently for a verdict in a case whose workings they cannot see.
Football hates a vacuum. When there is no information, speculation takes over.
The Premier League formally announced the charges in February 2023, after a four-year probe.
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Is the case taking so long because the evidence is so complicated? Are the three members of the independent commission divided?
Have they reached conclusions on some charges but not others?
Or have they actually reached a verdict and are simply taking enormous care to make the judgment legally watertight so that it cannot be challenged?
Nobody outside that room knows.
And that, ironically, is why there is so much speculation.
The allegations are hardly trivial.
At their heart is the Prem’s claim City deliberately misrepresented aspects of their finances and remuneration, potentially allowing them to comply with financial rules when, the League says, they should not have.
There are allegations concerning sponsorship income, remuneration connected to Roberto Mancini through an Abu Dhabi company, and player image-rights deals.
City deny wrongdoing and are entitled to defend themselves.
Now Mauricio Pochettino has raised another uncomfortable question, saying Tottenham should be awarded the 2017 title after Chelsea were punished for historic breaches involving agent payments.
I understand his argument. If clubs break the rules, there has to be a consequence. Otherwise rules are little more than suggestions. But I am not convinced you can simply hand the title to the team finishing second.
Football is not a school exam where you disqualify the winner and automatically give the prize to the runner-up. Spurs finished seven points behind Chelsea.
You would have to establish not only that Chelsea broke rules but that the breach justified removing the title and that Spurs should inherit it. That is a high bar.
What Pochettino is absolutely right about, though, is that punishment has to mean something.
A fine, however large, can look rather different to a football club than a sporting sanction.
And that brings us back to City. If the allegations are ultimately proven, the question is not simply: How much should they pay?
It will be: What sporting consequence, if any, properly reflects what happened? That is why this case matters so much.
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I am not suggesting for a second that an independent commission should rush a decision simply because football is impatient. But patience has a funny quality when you are the person paying for it — and the other clubs have been paying.
They have already spent tens of millions. If City win, the other clubs will have to pick up their legal bill, estimated to be around £100million. Then comes another extraordinary detail. When the decision is reached, the Prem board and City will know the verdict three days before it is made public.
City know. The Prem board knows. Everyone else waits.
And still, officially, the answer is: “I can’t comment.”
Perhaps that is right. But when people are denied information, they start guessing.
That is why I suspect the other clubs are less interested in some grand conspiracy than they are in something much more mundane.
They want to know what is taking so long. They want to know what they are paying for and when it will end.
If City are cleared, football needs to accept it. If found guilty, football needs to accept that too, and deal with the consequences.
But after all these years, all the charges and tens of millions spent in legal costs, the Prem is entitled to expect its independent process to reach the finishing line.
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Not because City deserve to lose or because the other clubs deserve to win. Simply because eventually, even in football, there has to be an answer.
Right now, there isn’t.