Who said international breaks are boring? Actually, I said that. In my defence, however, they generally are quite boring, even with the new Nations League tournament. The first international break of the 2026/27 season, a daunting three weeks spanning the end of September, proved different though.

It produced stories so spicy, there was a meme circulating across social media that ‘we don’t want club football to return.’

MANCHESTER CITY’S COLOSSAL MESS

The first and the most significant bombshell dropped when the anonymous third party commission investigating Manchester City and the 115 charges of financial irregularity levied on them by the Premier League delivered its verdict against City.

The 115 charges consisted primarily of the club failing to provide accurate financial information pertaining to inflows and outflows, namely revenues and payments to players and managers. Other charges were merely implications of the former, namely, breaching multiple articles of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

Finally, there were about 35 charges of the club not cooperating with investigators and withholding information. The commission found Manchester City guilty on 114 of the 115 charges.

The financial impropriety charges against Manchester City and FC Barcelona have the potential to rewrite the history books and change the two biggest football leagues on the planet. Here’s why

Now how did we get here? A slight recap.

In 2008, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan bought Manchester City after its previous owners were caught in a corruption case in Thailand. He’s the son of UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed. And as is customary in that part of the world, Sheikh Mansour serves as the Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister of UAE, while his brother is the current President.

Being the Vice President comes with its perks: Mansour oversees the Central Bank of the UAE and the Emirates Investment Authority. You can guess where I’m going with this.

Manchester City invested heavily in its squad soon after the takeover, bringing in the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero. Big players soon brought in trophies, the pinnacle being that ‘Agueroooo’ goal to clinch the Premier League title for 2011/12. This soon became a normal — City has won eight league titles out of 14 since 2012, along with seven EFL Cups, four FA Cups and a UEFA Champions League.

In 2018, the German investigative magazine Der Spiegel published a report detailing financial irregularities in the City infrastructure, obtained through phishing attacks carried out by hackers. City refused to comment on “out-of-context materials purportedly stolen.” An investigation by UEFA brought about a two-year ban from European competition, which was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Then came the independent commission formed by the Premier League’s Judicial Panel, which took three years to come to their decision.

Manchester City was, according to the findings of the commission, deploying sham contracts, which essentially ballooned up sponsorship deals on paper without getting that revenue. The delta? Funnelled in by the Sheikh. Similarly, some officials and players were paid more than what City’s financial books stated. Again, the delta being paid off by the Sheikh. In an age where FFP rules dictate a club cannot spend more than it earns, and where clubs like Everton are docked 10 points by the Premier League for a £20 million overspend, a question pops up: how did City get away with alleged gross misreporting of more than £900 million for over a decade?

There are two things to bear in mind here. For the most part of the decade, Gianni Infantino was the General Secretary of UEFA. It is rumoured that he used his influence to sweep everything under the carpet, making sure no anomaly makes it to the media. The hacks that led to Der Spiegel’s report contain email correspondence between Infantino and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, an Emirati statesperson appointed chairman of Manchester City. The most powerful man in world football approved, facilitated and helped protect the blatant smash-and-grab by the sheikhs, most famously covering up FFP breaches by City in 2014.

Secondly, the rise of City closely mirrors that of current British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Burnham is Mancunian and served as the mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 till he became prime minister in 2026. During his mayorship, he attended hospitality dinners with Al Mubarak, supervised official contracts with companies owned by Sheikh Mansour, and saw the UAE pump millions in real estate and economic development, in line with his vision to eradicate homelessness.

He even showed public support to Manchester City on an official tour to Japan. And now as prime minister, he has issued a statement saying he hopes the Emiratis do not pull investments from Manchester as a result of the guilty verdict.

Manchester City has filed an appeal against the decision of the independent commission, claiming clear material errors of law, principle and fact. The result of the appeal is expected in the first quarter of 2027, with huge implications regardless of the outcome.

If the decision is upheld, City could possibly be stripped of all their titles since the UAE takeover, fined, and relegated to the lower divisions, which would spell the end of the club as it is. If the decision is reversed, it would probably just confirm to many the modern reality that deep pockets always prevail.

BARCELONA’S REFEREEING MESS

The second major news from the international break featured FC Barcelona and the infamous Negreira case. The Negreira case centres on payments worth €7.4 million made by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018 to the official bank accounts of companies owned by Jose Enriquez Negreira, then serving as the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Spanish Football Federation. The payments coincide with a period wherein Barcelona was accused of benefitting from preferential refereeing.

Both the club and the individual deny allegations of bribing and sports corruption, maintaining that the payments were for analytics and refereeing advice. The Barcelona Provincial Court dismissed one of the charges in 2024, maintaining that Negreira was not a public figure and hence bribery charges cannot be upheld.

So why have the charges come back? Well, bitter rivals Real Madrid presented a hardly believable 50,000 pages worth of evidence to UEFA to reignite their disciplinary investigation into sports corruption charges. The criminal case against the same allegations also remains open in the Spanish courts, with hearings scheduled for November.

The Negreira case adds to the financial mishaps that have plagued Barca under presidents Josep Bartomeu and Joan Laporta. And the new evidence submitted by Real Madrid has caused further divide, as evidenced by the backlash over Vinicius Jr’s red card in the first game after the international break.

Current La Liga president Javier Tebas has become embroiled in the situation too, calling the campaign by Real Madrid TV Nazi-esque propaganda. Real Madrid has officially condemned the statement and demanded Tebas resign.

While the Negreria case resembles the infamous Calciopoli scandal that saw Juventus relegated in 2006, it is much harder to prove, since there is no documentation of payments to match referees. If the court deems the payments to Negreira influenced refereeing in Barca’s favour, Barca could also be facing a nullification of trophies in the seasons the club was allegedly favoured, a docking of points which could result in relegation, and significant fines.

RONALDO’S EGOTISTICAL MESS

In the middle of all this, even CR7 and his ego seem like small fish. Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of a training session and left the squad after an altercation with new Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus over not being played in a match. A 1,700-word Instagram post ensued from Ronaldo, before he was suspended for 30 days by the Portuguese FA.

People may call it pettiness at 41 years of age, but the real fight for survival is elsewhere.

The writer is a sports enthusiast with a background in supply chain management. X: @tahagoheer

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 25th, 2026