Manchester City and FFP: Its Not the First Time Our Growth Has Upset the Elite

Manchester City fans have become accustomed in recent years to negative stories appearing about the Club in the press.

These are often placed by the established elite of clubs to further their own aims – to try and undermine the growing brand of City. The revelations published last Friday about the 2014 Financial Fair Play negotiations imposed by UEFA upon Manchester City contained absolutely nothing new. In fact just about every word was already firmly in the public domain.

Yet the story has been gleefully seized upon by journalists who are eager to try and maintain a status quo and use absolutely anything they can find to destabilise our Club – tactical fouling, empty seats, oil money…. blah,blah,blah.

Yes it is not the first time Manchester City have fallen foul of the people who run the beautiful game. Over a hundred years ago the decision makers at the FA were upset at the rapid and sudden growth of City and how this brash new Club were pushing aside some of the more famous Clubs in the league. This triggered interest in City by the FA who spent a couple of years trying to limit the growth of the club. The FA was successful and Manchester City’s development was put back by at least 20 years, at a time when they were right on the cusp of becoming the biggest football club in the country.

In 1903/4 Manchester City seemed to appear almost out of nowhere. A brash Northern working class Club became runners up in the FA Cup Final and the FA decided this achievement was out of place and started an investigation into the affairs of the Club. It yielded nothing but did not stop what happened later on.

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The First Division championship of 1904/5 was hotly contested and until the final game of the season City were in the running. This last game was against Aston Villa and tempers boiled over and there was an altercation between the Villa Captain and the City star player, Billy Meredith. The Villa player claimed in the aftermath, of a game City lost and so ended their title hopes, that Meredith had offered him a bribe.

The FA immediately commissioned an investigation and Meredith was banned for a year. This ban was later extended. The FA investigation found that Manchester City had achieved their massive rise by paying extra inducements to the players. At the time there was a wage cap in football and there was a maximum player salary. By the end of the 1905/6 season City had the indignity of having their entire first team squad auctioned off at the Queens Hotel in Manchester in order to pay the fines.

Manchester City protested at the time – saying every club did the same, and there was considerable evidence to suggest this was the case. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was City were to be stopped.

Many of the Manchester City star players signed for Manchester United at auction and to add further insult to injury went on their to win their first title. Manchester City were forced to rebuild from available players and endured some of their worst defeats in history. At the time City actually seemed to believe they would rather their best players stayed in Manchester even if it meant helping out United.

light. Related Story. Man City and the History Lesson

So there is a long and rich history of Manchester City threatening the elite by massive expansion and facing attempts to weaken them. In the past these attempts caused City a delay in their plans but we stand today in testament to the injustices we have suffered, as one of the greatest teams in the current footballing world.