Written by 
Afolabi Ezekiel – October 12, 2024
Manchester City won a fourth straight Premier League title in May, a feat that marked an unmatched dominance by one team in the most competitive and most football league in the world.
Manchester City’s run of success can be likened to Bayern Munich’s 11-year winning streak in the Bundesliga, PSG’s ten league titles in 12 years in France, and Celtic’s twelve league triumphs in the last 13 years.
If Manchester City extends their title winning streak, it will become a bigger problem for all of England’s top clubs as it will impact the revenues generated from the broadcast rights. It will also remove the competition that makes the Premier League interesting, and young football fans will tilt towards supporting Man City like it happened with Arsenal in the 1990s and Man Utd in the 2000s.
If you ask me if Manchester City’s continuous dominance is stifling English football, my answer will be yes and here are my thoughts in three subheadings.
Off The Pitch
Last season, the deciding the Premier League title winner dragged till the final day. The Premier League CEO Richard Masters snubbed City’s most important game of the season to watch Arsenal vs Everton, ensuring that the highest ranked Premier League personality didn’t end up handing over the trophy to a club they are investigating. This situation might not happen if one of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and United were favorites to win the title.
Aside from the 115 charges between City and the Premier League, there is a just concluded court case between Man City and some Premier League clubs claiming that City breached the league’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) regulations. The ruling states that the Premier League’s APT rules and amendments, which were introduced in December 2021 and February of this year respectively, are “unlawful” and in breach of UK competition law as they deliberately exclude shareholder loans (when a club borrows money from its ownership group, usually interest-free).
However, City and the Premier League both claimed victories when the ruling was published, how?
City in their official statement after the ruling stated that the Premier League “was found to have abused its dominant position” by the tribunal. City also highlighted that the panel has ruled two of the league’s decisions on the club’s sponsorship deals, relating to the Etihad Air Group and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Meanwhile, the Premier League according to The Athletic said that it “welcomes” the ruling. The league admitted that the ruling identified “a small number of discrete elements” of the APT which do not comply with competition law but claims it “(endorses) the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system”.
The Premier League added that the tribunal had deemed the APT rules “necessary” as a means of ensuring the efficacy of the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), “thereby supporting and delivering sporting integrity and sustainability in the Premier League”.
English Premier League also continued that it would continue to operate the APT system, “taking into account the findings” of the tribunal. It stated that the elements that do not comply with competition law “can quickly and effectively” be fixed.
Don’t forget that there’s also the 115 charges saga. All of this has shown the disinterest around Manchester City’s continuous dominance and winning a fourth successive title.
On The Pitch
On the pitch? it is easy to forecast that City will win the title and they would. Some would say “it is making the competition very boring”, which is not a lie, but these individuals are also ignoring the final day dramas that have happened in the last few years. For instance, last season’s final day drama was the fourth time in ten years that the league has gone down to Matchday 38, and City were involved in all four. It is also worthy to note that they had to complete a comeback in three of these games to win the game and the title. Is it really boring?
English clubs struggle when they face Manchester City, some teams struggle because they prefer to sit back and defend, others struggle because they have reconciled to defeat even before the game started. As good as Man City are, we have seen teams emerge victorious against them just because they were brave and refused to give up. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool versus City is always a memorable contest, Olé Gunnar Solksjær’s Man Utd always find their way against City in the league, Chelsea shared the spoils with the English champions in a 4 – 4 draw last season after Cole Palmer’s stoppage-time penalty against his former club, while Arsenal almost snatched a win against them despite playing with ten men for more than 45 minutes this season.
Manchester City are one of the most consistent teams ever, Arsenal lost and drew a game respectively in the Premier League between January and May 2024, yet it wasn’t enough to win the title. Liverpool is the first English club to finish a season with 97 points without winning the title in the 2018/19 season. This should motivate clubs and players to do more, it should make players more ambitious, it should make coaches more innovative, but most individuals prefer to complain.
Between The Fans and Their Respective Clubs’ Hierarchy
Under this subheading, we will consider a case study together, the Premier League fixture between Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester City, this game was played on the 14th of May, 2024. Football had Spurs’ fans rooting against their club when facing City because they preferred to lose than have rivals Arsenal win the Premier League title.
To start with, I am not criticizing anyone who chose to do that because it is entirely their choice. And to anyone who thinks they should be criticized: football deals with us in diverse ways, our experiences are not the same. For example, we have seen fans who wanted their team to lose a game so that the manager will be moved on, to an extent they are justified because that is the only way the club’s hierarchy would relieve the manager of his duties.
Spurs head coach, Ange Postecoglou, was annoyed by the atmosphere before the game, saying he will never understand not wanting your team to win.
Ange Postecoglou said the strange atmosphere affected the players against City. “It is what it is. I can’t dictate what people do. They’re allowed to express themselves in any way they want. But yeah, when we’ve got late winners in games, it’s because the crowd’s helped us.”
This is another proof that City’s continuous dominance can cause a rift between clubs and their fans.
Now the question I am leaving you with is this, if Spurs had been a top team last season, let’s say Spurs had the same chance of winning the title as Arsenal, would their fans worry about Arsenal’s chance of winning the title, thereby pitching their tent with City?