A photo of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United bosses sitting at the same New York dinner table in October 2017 is being held up as the “smoking gun” in the ‘Red Cartel’ theory that has taken hold around Manchester City.
Former employees of the club reportedly believe the picture is Exhibit A in their argument that the three red-shirted clubs worked together against City, more than five years before the club were charged with breaching Premier League financial rules.
According to ESPN, City have declined to comment on the alleged cartel, but people at the very top of the club are said to have no doubt about what their rivals were trying to do.
Who was at the New York dinner?
The photo shows Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, Liverpool owner John W. Henry, and Manchester United owners Avram and Joel Glazer with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, all seated together in a New York restaurant.
Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, the other two ‘Big Six’ clubs besides City, were not there either. Their absence, and City’s, has been explained away on the grounds that none of the three had American owners at the time.
The club’s hierarchy have reportedly never bought that explanation, and some supporters have now joined them. Frustration is growing among City fans over what they see as the part those three clubs have played in the club’s troubles, and because all three wear red, the supposed alliance has been given its nickname.
What City insiders are saying
A source with links to the club put the feeling inside the Etihad bluntly: “From day one, United, Arsenal and Liverpool have been terrified of losing their ability to dominate everything from the Premier League to the transfer market. Chelsea was already a problem for them under Roman Abramovich, but Sheikh Mansour came along [in 2008] and changed everything again, and the red clubs have been in a battle against City ever since.”
That takes the row a long way past the 114 charges themselves. It is the same sense of grievance that Alfie Haaland touched on when he called the coverage of the charges “very one-sided”, even if not everyone connected to the club agrees, with Gareth Barry saying City “have to get punished”.
Wenger and Henry said it out loud in 2011
The cartel talk is not helped by what was said six years before that dinner. In 2011, the former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger called on UEFA to look into City, which they did without success, and suggested the club were manipulating the regulations.
Wenger said: “We must have done a bad deal. It raises the real question about the credibility of financial fair play. That is what this is all about. They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want. It means financial fair play will not come in. It is as simple as that.”
He added: “Plus, if the financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price. It cannot be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled because that would mean it’s better not to do it and leave everybody free.”
Henry then backed him up on social media, writing: “A club’s best player has to be worth at least 10% of your naming rights. Mr. Wenger says boldly what everyone thinks.”
Does the Red Cartel photo actually change anything?
On its own, a dinner photo proves nothing about the charges. But it tells you plenty about the mood. City’s hierarchy never accepted the explanation for who was left out of that room, and a picture of three rivals’ owners and executives around one table, with Wenger and Henry’s old words alongside it, is exactly the kind of thing that hardens that view.
The verdict has caused fallout everywhere, with TV 2 even walking away from an Erling Haaland interview over questions on it. For fans already angry, the Red Cartel story only adds fuel. Whether it ever matters outside the Etihad is another question entirely.
