Could the Manchester City fall out impact Belgian football? | OneFootball

It has been an eventful international break in England. While the national team ran world champions Spain close, off the pitch, the Premier League finally released its initial verdict on the scandal surrounding Manchester City. The club have been accused of producing sham contracts and financial doping over the past few years. Naturally, the club itself rejects these findings, and will appeal, but it looks like some form of punishment will be coming their way. Yet this will have ramifications beyond the Premier League and English football. Over the past decade, Manchester City have become a global brand, incorporating a number of sides beyond English football into their City Group family. All of them will now be wondering how the findings will impact them.

In Belgium, the City Group side Lommel have only just begun to find success as part of the wider group. After a few years of focusing on bringing in young players to flood the side, they switched tact and mixed experience with youth, earning themselves promotion to the Belgian Pro League under former Hibs and Bristol City manager Lee Johnson. So far, they have started the season pretty well, sitting in 12th with two wins, two draws and three defeats from seven games.

Even when the side was in the second tier, their financial advantages, or ability to spend at least, was obvious. Year on year they had the highest wage bill in the second tier, and in some cases they were paying players more than clubs in the top flight. Given the second tier lacks the same financial benefits from TV rights deals and sponsorship, it has been widely accepted that spending is required to get out of it. However, Lommel were spending without having much success, until, as mentioned above, they changed how they recruited.

Should City be relegated, either through points deduction or by being kicked out of the Premier League, one would presume this shouldn’t impact City Group clubs too much. The problem isn’t that the club lacks money, its more that it spent too much of its own money and tried to manipulate the rules in its favour. The money shouldn’t disappear overnight, and judging by the comments from owners and the top brass, they remain committed to the City project. Whether that translates to a commitment to the City Group as a wider family remains to be seen, as it is hard to gauge what advantage City have gotten from having Lommel within the family. No player has so far been placed in Lommel and then gone back to play for Manchester City. It is more likely that they just get moved into another of the City Group clubs. If we are being honest, compared to the likes of Troyes and Girona, Lommel would be the easiest one for the City Group to do without.

This is just opinion rather than based on any rumblings from within the club. As far as we are aware, it will be business as usual when Lommel return to action against fellow Pro League new boys SK Beveren on the 9th of October. However, many will be waiting to see what happens to Manchester City within the club, and they are likely already having conversations as to how different sanctions will, or maybe won’t, impact Lommel in the future.

The case is far from over, and it appears that it could get a lot messier given the reaction of Manchester City to the accusations.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson