Earlier this month, a body called the Fifa Ethics and Regulations Watch, which describes itself as an “independent” organisation that monitors the work of world football’s governing body, published an Ethical Premier League Table.
The FERW has no links to Fifa, despite its name loosely suggesting otherwise, but tries to play on its name for legitimacy. The FERW appears to view the world through partisan eyes, having recently criticised the proposed takeover of English second-tier football club Derby County by the Dubai-backed, UK-registered Derventio Holdings. It said the purchase was “not good news for the game of football”.
The group has also praised the Premier League for placing on hold the takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi-led consortium, while last month it hailed Qatar for "putting an end to modern slavery" for changes the country had made to punitive employment practices relating to construction of the 2022 World Cup stadiums. In those stories alone, it is easy to detect FERW's broader worldview and the bias it holds.
Manchester City placed at the foot of the FERW-compiled league table, which seems like a prejudiced exercise in seeking to portray the club and its ownership as being bad for the game. The FERW said its methodology was to rate teams on the basis of sponsorship, ownership, employee and community links, among others.
The rankings devalue the decades of work City have undertaken in communities in Manchester, promoting education, wellbeing and inclusive sport and the 12 years of stewardship by the Abu Dhabi owners that have not only transformed the club’s fortunes on the pitch, but have helped revitalise part of the city, creating jobs and opportunities in the process.
City were also marked down by FERW for being sponsored by an airline, Etihad, despite the fact that the carrier has long been active in promoting grass roots and community sports at home and abroad. Last year, Etihad was a partner for the Special Olympics. Remember, too, that the UAE's other main airline, Emirates, has been title partner for the FA Cup in England since 2015, channelling funds and support into non-league football. Neither airline could or should be portrayed as unhelpful actors in sport. Airlines from around the world have sponsored football clubs for years.
The table also seem to sidestep one of the summer’s key issues.
Earlier this year, some Premier League clubs, notably Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, sought to furlough non-playing staff during the pandemic to take advantage of UK government funding, before reversing their decisions after being roundly criticised. Good sense won the day in both of those cases, but the ethics of making the move in the first place are questionable. FERW made no comment on the matter. Both clubs later made big investments in players over the summer. In the same moment, City put community values first.
The club also donated the use of the Etihad Stadium to the National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic and have assisted with the provision of goods to food banks. Neither of those two initiatives are unique to City, but they also highlight the strong moral compass that tends to govern decision-making at the club.
FERW’s prodding could be read as part of a rolling discourse of attacks against City in certain circles.
Eighteen months ago, the club was accused of trying to break English football after securing an historic domestic treble of trophies. City were playing such a superior brand of football at the time under manager Pep Guardiola that critics claimed that the club was destined to destroy the English game.
Times have moved on, of course, and City are no longer league champions nor FA Cup holders, and have yet to find consistency this season. Now, every time another team scores against the club, commentators will remind audiences that City have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on defensive players and yet still can’t stop conceding. City are somehow cast as all-conquering behemoths and free-spending defensive incompetents at the same time. But they simply can't be both.
City successfully overturned a two-year ban on European competition issued by Uefa for unsubstantiated breaches of financial fair play earlier this year. In the months prior to the hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the club's chief executive Ferran Soriano said the club would establish its innocence. He was proved right, but that has not stopped the falsehoods from being produced by others.
Last week, Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, once again trailed a fabrication about the club operating outside the rules. City’s critics rarely let the truth get in the way of a good story. In their minds, the club is guilty even after being proved innocent.
When City won the League Cup in March some commentators accused its long-time supporters of being happier when the club was a 1990s poster-child for dysfunction and Maine Road, the club’s old ground, was a place where failure and self-destruction on the pitch were the only certainties.
Again, that is just a lie. They were terrible years of crushing failure. Time may have made the memories of those days a little more palatable, but no one would really trade them for the glory days of the Guardiola era. Pointedly, he reminded the world last week that the big crowds the club played in front of in the bad old days illustrated “how special the club is”.
No amount of lopsided data modelling by an organisation that says it is “growing rapidly with followers and supporters” or propagating of falsehoods by biased critics should unpick or disrupt the good work going on in the blue half of Manchester.
Nick March is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National
