Simon Jordan is not interested in docking Manchester City points or stripping their titles. He wants the Premier League itself torn down and started again.
The former Crystal Palace owner put the argument to listeners of talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show as English football tries to work out what to do with Manchester City after an independent commission upheld 114 of the 115 charges brought against the club.
“Really, the only way to evolve this game is to disband the Premier League, recreate it with a whole new set of rules that are fit for purpose rather than tacking on rules that have existed for 125 years and keep trying to finesse them to meet ownership models that are so much more sophisticated now,” Jordan said.
His case is that patch-and-fix regulation cannot keep up with state-backed ownership and billion-pound sponsorship structures. The game, in Jordan’s reading, has outgrown the governance built around it.
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‘What does stripping titles achieve?’
Pressed on whether Manchester City should also be stripped of trophies won during the charged period, Jordan was dismissive.
“Just out of curiosity, what does that achieve? They’ve been slaughtered.”
“I don’t think it’s pointless. I just don’t know what it achieves. It’s about what we do now going forward.”
That puts him at odds with rival fans and some former players who want the record books rewritten, but it is consistent with his main point: back-dated punishments cannot repair a system he says is already broken.
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The verdict behind the row
The 114 guilty findings were handed down on 29 September, covering the seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The Premier League’s independent commission found that Manchester City used sham commercial contracts to inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than £900m over nine seasons, with more than £830m of secret funding from the club’s Abu Dhabi owners disguised as sponsorship.
“This disciplinary case and this decision are the most significant in Premier League history,” chief executive Richard Masters said, adding that the ruling showed City “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade”.
Manchester City have rejected the ruling and will appeal.
“The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions,” the club said.
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From fines to disbandment
Jordan’s position is the most extreme public reaction yet. In the past week, pundits, rival supporters and former players have cycled through fines, points deductions, relegation and even expulsion as possible sanctions.
Football finance analyst Kieran Maguire has said the eventual punishment should “add a zero” to the deductions handed to Nottingham Forest and Everton in previous cases, suggesting a range of 40 to 60 points.
Tony Pulis, whose Stoke side lost the 2011 FA Cup final to Manchester City during the charged period, told the BBC he did not expect trophies to change hands but added: “I still feel cheated.”
The same commission will set the sanction at a separate, private hearing, and City must file their appeal by Friday. No date has been set for either hearing.
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