Manchester City should be relegated

THE EDITOR, Madam:

It’s not surprising that Manchester City Football Club has been charged by the Premier League for breaking financial fair-play (FFP) rules. What is surprising is that they allegedly broke those rules over 100 times, from as far back as 2009. Arsène Wenger foresaw this conundrum and labelled it “financial doping”.

Basically, they’ve been spending more than they earn and not accounting for what they spend. This could be because they are a small club, and manager Pep Guardiola has always complained that there aren’t any fans in the Etihad.

They were also banned from the Champions League by UEFA in 2020 for two seasons for similarly breaching FFP rules. This was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration of Sports and the club was fined 10 million euros. However, now that they are charged by the Premier League, a fine simply isn’t going to teach them a lesson. In the words of Arsène Wenger, sport in general is all about winning without breaking the rules, and if Man City broke these rules, then they should be punished.

In fact, just like Juventus and Marseille all those years ago, Manchester City should be relegated from the Premier League. As an Arsenal fan, I can forgive Wenger now for selling all our best players to rivals and pinching our wallets to pay for the Emirates Stadium, because he did not want to break those same rules.

Wenger was truly ahead of his time. His integrity and what he stood for have aged exceptionally well and prove his class on this matter. If Pep Guardiola decides to leave, Arsenal should hire him to be Arteta’s number two. Think about it, if Manchester City get relegated, then Arsenal surely will win the title. Wenger’s done it again!

KENDELL KARAN

Chaguanas