In the last 15 years, Man City have been the most successful club in the Premier League. They have the best manager in the world, they’ve got the best players, they’ve got the best scouting system, they’ve got the best training facilities.
Man City fans say they are the most hated club because rival fans are jealous of their success but that’s not the case. This post will list why Man City has become the most hated club by all other football fans in England.
Why Are Manchester United Hated in the English Premier League?
1) Man City are Suing Premier League
In 2024, Man City launched a legal attack on the Premier League where they are challenging the illegality of the league’s sponsorship rules and the method of which decisions are made by the competition.
The main legal challenge is on the clubs who make sponsorship deals with business linked to the club owners. Now, Man City want to rid of this rule because it’s one of the ways they inflate their money.
In 2010, City signed a controversial deal with Etihad Airlines who sponsored them for £400 million over a 10-year deal. Although, in a fair market value test, that deal would not pass.
When Newcastle was brought by Saudi Arabia two years ago, the sponsorship deal related to club owners was made even more strict because the league feared Newcastle could theoretically get sponsorship deals from Saudi companies for unlimited money, thus making their revenue look stronger, the same way Man City were able to do 10 years ago.
Man City want to get rid of this rule because clearly they are trying to make above the market value with sponsorship deals with Abu Dhabi companies and that’s how they’ve managed to make their financials look stronger the last 10 years.
2) The 115 Charges of Financial Doping
In February 2023, the Premier League charged Man City with 115 separate cases of financial misconduct. Such as hiding information, inflating sponsorship deals and illegal payments to players and agents.
Football fans knew from 10 years ago City were doing these dodgy financial stuff. When the league charged them finally in 2023, it confirmed what fans had been thinking for the last 10 years.
Now, Man City protested that they are innocent and this current crop of players in KDB, Haaland, Grealish, Foden and even the manager Guardiola may be innocent in all of this but the foundation of City’s success was built on those financial misconducts and the ability to get these players and managers through the misconducts. So that has to be recognized and that’s what they were charged.
Man City have dragged on the charges for a long time and in that time they’ve won two Premier League titles, and a Champions League. Other football club fans were happy the Premier League were actually brave enough to make these charges against City because taking on City doesn’t mean you’re just taking on the football club. They are essentially taking on the might of the whole state of Abu Dhabi, who’s able to hire the best lawyers and even have a pull on British government to have favours in their way.
3) Oil Money Owned
Next point of discussion of why Man City are so hated is the fact that they are owned by Abu Dhabi State.
So this is where it all began. City were a mid-table club that was beloved by the people of Abu Dhabi but in 2010, everything changed when Abu Dhabi bought them and made them rich instantly.
Any football club is entitled and allowed to have rich owners, nonetheless, what rival fans dislike is the sinister intentions of why Abu Dhabi actually bought Man City.
Abu Dhabi are a nation state. They are a dictatorial government and they have unlimited spending and wealth from oil and energy sources. They bought Man City to increase their reputation of Abu Dhabi globally and man city will be their driving force because everyone loves football and it’s such a global sport.
Rival fans hate that politics and international relations of governments are even involved in the game of football. So having a whole government royalty owning a club, it’s not surprising that they were going to bend the rules to get what they wanted.
Of course they were going to inflate their revenues because money’s never been an issue for them and they need to get around the premier rules to spend how much they like and of course they’re going to sue the premier league and criticize the premier league if things don’t go their way.
They are owned by a government state full of billionaires and royalty. They have never been told on what they can and can’t do.
4) Manchester City Online Fans
The final point of discussion as to why city are so hated is the online fans of Manchester City who are in complete denial and delusion of their club. There might be probably a quiet group of fans who don’t like the dodgy dealings of man city but majority of the online man city fans, the ones with big twitter accounts, the big youtubers and even popular journalists that work for the times, in the athletic, they are in complete delusion of their club.
They turn a blind eye to how their club have used illegal finances to bring success to the club. They turn their blind eye to the sports washing that’s happening using their club man city as the source but it’s probably easy to turn a blind eye because of the joy and success city owners have provided to the club and their fans. They’ve won trophies, they’ve improved the training program they’ve improved the training facilities and they’ve even improved the area of Manchester.
So when you do stuff like that, the people of Manchester and Manchester city fans are going to love the owners. When issues like the financial charges come about of course the fans are going to defend their club and their owners no matter what because they’re already in their good books but this makes Man City fans even more delusional when they defend their club and it even makes them more hated to the rest of the footballing world.
In the eyes of the City fans, any allegations made to the club are just a lie and they are going to defend the club. They think the rival fans are just jealous of their success and they think the premier league hate Arab ownership, but no, other club fans just think the club is a fraud.
There you have it. Those were some of the reasons why Man City have become the most hated club in England.
If you enjoyed reading this content, you can share to other football or sports lovers. See you on the next page.