They may have lost out on yesterday’s crown, but there is no denying that the most fascinating brand of football this season in the English Premiership was exhibited by my favourite team, Arsenal Football club. Moneybags Manchester City, bankrolled by Abu Dhabi billionaires, may have unfairly elbowed out Arsenal to the title yesterday. I may be biased because I am an Arsenal fan but I will posit that just like Zanu PF, Manchester City have their own baggage regarding the legitimacy of this title and others in the last few years.
They have an albatross of 115 charges hanging over them and the legitimacy of their crown will always be contested and disputed until those outstanding legitimacy issues are comprehensively dealt with. Manchester City, the moneybags from the Etihad, the Wicknell Chivayo of the English Premiership, have used the power of their purse to bully the football world by literally buying football talent around the globe, in the process flouting financial fair play rules. The 115 charges will always remain a legitimacy blot and asterisk; painfully so in the two seasons where the accused and their pending charges have robbed Arsenal of the title.
Put simply, there are 115 reasons why City’s title triumph is a blemish on the integrity of football as a popular global sport. So too was the integrity of football as a sport and the chastity of fair competition seriously harmed by the behaviour of Tottenham, whose fans joyously sang for their team’s defeat to Ma.
