AS the coronavirus pandemic becomes more and more a dystopian reality, we are a nation stoic but scared; fearful for the well-being of our loved ones and our elderly. Faced with a very real threat to our way of life that is unfamiliar and invisible we have retreated to our homes.
Amidst such an unprecedented global crisis it’s only natural things that used to matter a great deal no longer matter at all, and football can certainly be put in that category. Few have the appetite to discuss Liverpool’s virtually completed title bid any more and certainly nobody gives a fig about top four or relegation fights. Narratives that so recently had such a hold over us as to prompt heated debate and fall-outs are now an irrelevance.
To its enormous credit much of football has recognized this and in a swift period of time has kicked away the sand that its elevated plateau was built on. Last week Jose Mourinho was seen putting together care packages for the elderly residents of Enfield; a man who in a normally structured world is strongly suspected to be in possession of a God-complex. Numerous players meanwhile, who were previously considered unapproachable and 21st century royalty, have revealed their decent and ordinary true selves, mucking in and doing their bit by reaching out to the vulnerable or donating to foodbanks.
It is not only individuals who have come to the fore either. Clubs too have quickly reconfigured their purpose and this is reassuring to those old enough to recall a time prior to the game being gilded with enormous riches and a heightened status, when grounds would beat at the very heart of a community. Since the outbreak intensified to the point of entire sports being halted a wealth of Premier League clubs have stepped up to the plate, showing a highly commendable social conscience.
Manchester City – arguably the most gilded club of them all – has done as much as anyone and this is stated not to point-score because point-scoring is now utterly meaningless. It is pertinent though given what is to come in a paragraph’s time.
In the past surreal and frightening fortnight, City have joined forces with their neighbours United and donated £100,000 to local food banks. They have vowed to pay around a thousand matchday casual staff for the rest of the season. On Saturday it was announced that the Etihad is to be given over to the NHS to use as they see fit. In a stunning act of generosity the club’s manager Pep Guardiola has donated £920,000 for the acquisition of medical supplies to help fight the spread of Covid-19.
As already asserted they are far from being alone in displaying such benevolence as football sheds its corporate shackles and shows its human side. Watford too have offered their Vicarage Road stadium to a nearby hospital while Brighton and Bournemouth have forged an initiative for thousands of free tickets to made available to NHS workers when the world eventually rights itself. At the top of the table meanwhile Liverpool, Leicester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Wolves, Spurs, Arsenal and Burnley have submitted a joint application to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to stop Manchester City from appearing in next season’s Champions League while their appeal process regarding their two-year ban is ongoing.
Wait, what? It is an opportunistic power play so out of kilter with the present climate that it truly staggers. Indeed it is difficult to know where to start with this as from every conceivable angle it only confounds and repulses.
| John Mehrzad (Sports lawyer) on 8 PL clubs trying to stop City playing in next season's Champions League:
“It is only @ManCity who has standing before the CAS to apply for a ‘provisional measures’
The other Premier League clubs are not ‘parties’ to the current CAS appeal.” pic.twitter.com/IulMhKyCa3
— City Chief (@City_Chief) March 26, 2020
Let’s take it from the top. Way back in February, when coronavirus was third or fourth on the news agenda and people mainly cared about remembering to buy flowers for Valentine’s Day or whether Jordan Henderson was deserving of this season’s Player of the Year award, Manchester City were found to have broken Financial Fair Play rules and subsequently banned from European competition. Immediately they lodged an appeal to CAS and they wasted no time because it was very much disadvantageous to wait and remain in limbo.
It was all the better to find out their fate for sure with their short-term future to map out and a summer transfer window to plan for. Only of course this appeal has now been delayed. It’s been delayed because CAS have suspended their business as the planet fights an emergency that is killing some of its population.
Accepting that City absolutely do not benefit from any postponement – nor, it should be made clear, have they sought any deferment – leads us to conclude that the implication from the eight clubs that the Blues are trying to somehow take advantage of this horrible situation is not only incredibly insulting but also a sleight of hand. It is in fact they who are seeking to capitalize on tragic events, fearful that a prized and lucrative Champions League may now be taken, one that could have been theirs had City’s appeal failed.
Furthermore, reports of their grievance put them forward as ‘interested parties’. In fact they are not. From a legal standpoint only UEFA is while they are self-interested parties, looking for an angle. What nauseates the most from their putrid, self-serving attempt at a power grab is their timing.
Last week, from many quarters, football displayed the best of itself yet here in all of its glory is an example of hierarches thinking only of greed and themselves while the world around them suffers. Last week Manchester City held talks with legal representatives to find a way of offering their stadium to the national cause while Guardiola held meetings with his lawyers to determine how best to utilize his sizable gift.
Leading figures of their rivals also looked for counsel only for them their intention was to benefit in a season that remains entirely fictional for the time being such is the crisis we’re in. What later emerged from this sordid story is that Manchester City has become a ‘pariah club’ among the Premier League elite; an unpopular institution among its peers due to its perceived actions.
Let’s have history decide on who the real outcasts are. The club that stayed and helped in a time of crisis; or the ones whose only thought was to fashion a lifeboat for themselves, thinking purely of the sumptuous suppers to come.
