Day of Judgement
The "Day of Judgement" is the popular nickname used for a date, particularly 27 May 2024, in which The Football Association, the governing body of English football, imposed a historic and landmark punishment on the Premier League club Manchester City for 115 breaches of the Premier League's Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. In this, following a roughly three-years-long investigation, The Football Association found Manchester City, owned by Abu Dhabi's City Football Group, guilty of a total of 115 breaches of the league's financial fair play rules, namely from the 2008-09 season to the 2017-18 season, making it the heaviest punishment ever imposed on a football club in Premier League history.
In their decision, announced just two days after the conclusion of the 2024 FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Manchester United with the latter emerging victorious by 2-1, The Football Association imposed, among other measures, a two-window transfer ban and a record £1.5 billion fine, an amount derived from a previous £10 million fine by UEFA and multiplied by 115, the total number of charges. However, the most drastic punishments saw Manchester City expelled from the Premier League and their titles accumulated from 2009 until 2018, which consisted of three Premier League titles, one FA Cup title, three EFL Cup titles, and two William Carter Shield titles, stripped from the club's possession and, in turn, handed over to the runners-up in all four competitions. Consequently, Manchester United was awarded two Premier League titles, Liverpool with one Premier League title and EFL Cup title respectively, Stoke City with one FA Cup title, Sunderland and Arsenal with one EFL Cup title each, and Chelsea with two William Carter Shield titles in total. Meanwhile, as a result of their expulsion from the Premier League, existing English Football League rules resulted in Manchester City being relegated down to the fifth-tier National League while the highest-placed Premier League team in the relegation zone, namely Luton Town, was otherwise spared from relegation in a one-off instance with Manchester City's expulsion treated as a substitute to their apparent relegation. Consequently, given only Premier League clubs could represent England in the UEFA Champions League, Manchester City is de facto excluded from the tournament until they return to the top flight of English football. To that end, their spot in the 2024-25 season was taken up by Tottenham Hotspur, whose spot in the UEFA Europa League was, in turn, awarded to Chelsea who, following the result of the 2024 FA Cup Final, was joined by the cup winners Manchester United in the tournament, thereby leaving Newcastle United with England's sole spot in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Meanwhile, given that the National League is not under the English Football League, Manchester City is also barred from participating in the EFL Cup although they otherwise remain eligible to compete in the FA Cup which is open to all English football clubs.
Considered widely to be the harshest and most severe punishment ever imposed on an English football club since financial fair play rules were introduced, the decision has been met with near-unanimous applause from the English footballing community who heralded The Football Association's response towards such a severe violation of its rules while critics, including the Emirati government which owns Manchester City via the City Football Group, have decried the punishment as "unfair" and "excessive". Historically, the decision came around three years after a separate financial fair play violation ruling was handed to Manchester City by UEFA in 2021 which saw the club fined a total of £10 million and banned from all UEFA competitions, particularly the UEFA Champions League, for two whole seasons. Sir William Carter, a former Manchester United player and a vocal critic of Manchester City, described the decision as a "watershed moment in English footballing history" while BBC Sport's Gary Lineker instead described the decision as "perhaps the clearest message sent out by The FA that blatant cheating, irrespective of the perpetrators, will not be tolerated and will be dealt with harshly". Likewise, amidst a potential strain on diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jacqueline Carter said, "Regardless of whether a particular country is an ally of us or not, existing diplomatic relations will not be a pass for them or any other foreign entities to simply come and flout the rules governing England's most prestigious sport. To put it simply, one either plays by the rules or suffers the consequences for breaking it". Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola, the head coach of Manchester City, said that he "wholeheartedly" accepted the ruling issued by The Football Association, adding that he will continue to lead Manchester City back to the Premier League from all the way down in the National League. Otherwise, Rob Edwards, the head coach of Luton Town responsible for securing the club's first-time promotion to the Premier League, said that he is "eternally grateful for the rare second chance", adding that the club would "come back stronger and ensure that the next season would not be their last in the Premier League".
Given that the club is set to miss five seasons of top English football, Manchester City's expensive and star-studded squad, a stark contrast to its newfound opponents in the lower leagues, was thus subjected to considerable reshuffling, with the older players in the squad such as Scott Carson, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, and Bernardo Silva reportedly being set up for likely transfers before their contracts expire while the club's younger talents including Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Julián Álvarez, João Cancelo, Oscar Bobb are allegedly set for temporary loans to other clubs, reportedly in order to ensure that said players are always playing at high levels of football while awaiting the club's return to the top flight.