Seamus Coleman says the Manchester City case is “killing” the Premier League, and the former Everton captain wants to know why his club and Nottingham Forest were dealt with so quickly when City’s has dragged on for years.
Coleman, 38, made 435 appearances for Everton, including a club-record 374 in the Premier League, and was in the dressing room when the points deductions landed. Speaking on the Overlap Fan Debate, he went back over those seasons and then turned to City, who were found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them in September.
The timing is pointed. Forest are exactly who Manchester City face at the City Ground on Saturday, and the commission’s findings are still hanging over every game Enzo Maresca’s side play.
What did Seamus Coleman say about Man City?
Coleman made it clear his frustration is about the waiting as much as the verdict. He said: “I think the biggest issue with it for me is, this is supposed to be the best league in the world, and whether City are guilty or not, it’s just killing the league, it’s killing the season, it’s killing every team, because you’re just waiting to see what’ll happen.”
He went on: “And if they continue to win titles, the best league in the world having that massive question mark over it is strange. I know we’re talking about lawyers coming in and getting involved, but how Everton and Nottingham Forest could be dealt with so quickly, so efficiently, I know we said, yeah, hands up, we got it wrong, but surely, it shouldn’t get to this point for the best league in the world.”
Why does Everton’s punishment still sting?
In November 2023, Everton were hit with a 10-point deduction for a single PSR breach, at the time the biggest sporting sanction in the history of English top-flight football. It was cut to six on appeal, and a second deduction of two points followed later the same season, making eight in total.
Coleman said the speed of it was what hurt. “We weren’t in a great place as a team back then, so a 10-point deduction for us at that time, people might forget, nearly guaranteed relegation for how we were playing,” he said. He added that the original 10 points being cut to six told him “it wasn’t right to begin with.”
He was just as angry with the people running Everton at the time, saying players and fans were “getting punished” because of bad decisions made higher up the club.
Did City cost Everton a Champions League place?
Coleman thinks the City years did affect who finished where, but he is not chasing anything. “Looking back, it did affect Champions League positions. It’s very hard to say because that time’s gone by,” he said. “Obviously, yeah, we were affected Champions League-wise and that, but I’m not going to be knocking on anyone’s door chasing lost bonuses or that.”
The commission found that between 2009-10 and 2017-18 City used “sham” agreements to inflate revenue and cut costs, as part of a scheme to hide more than £830million of secret funding. City have appealed and still say they can clear their name. No sanction has been given yet, and a decision on the appeal and the punishment is expected in the New Year.
Where does the Man City case go from here?
Coleman is not the first to speak up, and he will not be the last. Gareth Barry, who made 175 appearances for City, said the club have to be punished if the verdict stands, and some Premier League clubs now want a second investigation into City’s books from 2018.
Is Coleman right about the Man City case?
On the waiting, yes. Whatever anyone thinks of the verdict, the years it has taken since the league went public with its allegations are too long for a competition that sells itself on being the best in the world. City fans feel it too: every win this season comes with someone asking whether it will count.
Where we would push back is the comparison. Everton and Forest were PSR cases, and Everton, by Coleman’s own account, held their hands up. City’s is a nine-season case built on 115 charges, and the club have fought it from the start. That will always take longer. The question is not why City’s case was slower than Everton’s. It is why the rules allowed it to get this big before anyone acted. If the sanction lands in the New Year, at least Maresca’s players will finally know what they are playing for.
