Manchester City Lost the 115 Charges Case and Appealed. The Accountants Are Winning the Season

For years now, English soccer has had a second season running alongside the real one. The first is played on grass by athletes. The second is played in a conference room by lawyers, and it has been going on so long that some fans started following it like a sport, with standings and predictions and a deep personal hatred of the other side's barristers.

Last month, the second season reached a result. An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial rules. Reports say the commission found the club had used sham commercial deals to make its income look bigger and its costs look smaller, by more than £900 million. The case dates to charges the league brought in 2023, and a famous number came with them: 115.

City says it was disappointed and surprised, and on October 1 it lodged what it calls a comprehensive appeal, saying the ruling contains clear errors of law and fact. Punishment, whatever it turns out to be, comes in a separate process that hasn't happened yet. So the verdict is in, the appeal is on, and nobody yet knows the sentence, which is the most English sporting outcome imaginable: everyone is upset and the match isn't over.

I'll admit I don't understand sports finance. I understand it about the way I understand my own taxes, which is to say I sign where they tell me and hope for the best. But I do know that when a team wins on the field and the fight moves to the accounting department, the most important player on the roster is no longer the striker. It's the man who knows what a footnote means.

The fans of the other clubs, meanwhile, are enjoying this the way you enjoy watching a neighbor's very expensive car get towed. It's not nice. It's not mature. But it's a lovely afternoon.