Former Arsenal players could potentially be owed up to £30m after Man City found guilty
Manchester City’s situation has caused all sorts of ripples throughout the Premier League.
City have been found guilty of 114 financial rule breaches, and it looks like they may be about to have the book thrown at them.
There’s been talk of City being relegated, being stripped of titles and receiving hefty fines.
On top of that, there’s also talk of rival clubs claiming compensation for lost earnings based on league positions, European qualification and potentially even sponsorship revenues.
Arsenal are one of the teams affected, especially when it comes to European qualification.
Indeed, Arsenal missed out on the Champions League three times during this period when City had occupied one of the top four spots.
Arsenal players could have grounds for compensation claim
Arsenal could claim some money back, and some of their former players may also have claims to make.
Indeed, Champions League money also filters down to players in the bonuses in their contracts.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and the Football, Mark Ogden noted that players could ultimately go for City to try to reclaim some of those lost earnings.
“But in terms of the legal action, you mentioned United not qualifying for the Champions League that year (2016). So in their eyes, that will have cost them 30, 40 million pounds, for instance,’ Ogden said.
“Even little things like United’s deal with Adidas at the time, if they weren’t in the Champions League, it went down 25%, maybe it’s 10 million quid. Match day revenue.
“So right to the top, you’ve got all these big clubs that will say that, I’ve heard 200 million pounds per club being mentioned over the period of that time. But then it goes right down to what you were saying before about your title bonus. You might laugh about it, but if it’s a significant sum then players might think, well, I want my slice of this. It’s massive.”
Of course, Ogden is talking about bonuses around Manchester United winning the league here, but the same applies to Arsenal players and lost Champions League earnings.
It was noted by the Arsenal Supporters Trust when analysing the club’s accounts during this time that the Champions League bonus pool was around £10m per season at one point, so with three seasons of Champions League football missed out on, that’s a £30m pool that Arsenal players could be able to claim.
Of course, it’s unclear how the Premier League are going to rule after the appeals process, and which seasons will be counted in all of this, but this is certainly a situation to keep a close eye on.