Originally published at The Crux
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If the world is fallen, then the world of soccer is deep underground, somewhere near the earth’s core. It is gauche, it is stinkingly rich, and it is detached from reality.
The deplorable moral state of soccer in the United Kingdom was thrown into greater relief this week, after the Premier League announced on Tuesday that Manchester City have been found guilty by an independent commission of breaking a slew of financial rules between 2009 and 2018.
The scandal has sent the soccer world into Armageddon, and thrown the very integrity of the English game into doubt.
Even the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has chimed in. His intervention highlighted the geopolitical ramifications, because City are owned by Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Burnham said he would be “really concerned” to lose City’s owners from the English game.
When Burnham was mayor of Manchester, the City ownership pumped millions of pounds into the city. Critics have said this is a cynical aspect of the “sportswashing” project the UAE were running, the idea that autocratic governments launder their reputation in Western countries through sport.
“They’ve been such a huge partner in the building
