OPINION - Why Man City's legal challenge to Premier League is a serious threat to future of English football

Manchester City’s unprecedented legal challenge to the Premier League feels like an existential threat to the English game.

If City are successful in their extraordinary attempt to blow up the rules determining the fair value of commercial deals, it would effectively wash away any financial controls governing top-flight clubs and, with them, any semblance of a level playing field.

Without the current rules, Abu Dhabi-backed City could effectively earn limitless sums through sponsorship deals with parties linked to their ownership, paving the way for unfettered spending.

The Premier League’s new spending rules would be rendered meaningless; no point in limiting City to spending 85 per cent of income when their owners can determine exactly how much that is. Only Newcastle, who are backed by the Saudi state, could possibly hope to compete.

City would have the spending power to extend their already-tedious dominance indefinitely, killing the sense of jeopardy which is a cornerstone of the Premier League brand.

It would cease to be a competition in the truest sense of the word and, at some point, that would cease to be interesting to fans and broadcasters.

City’s gall is, frankly, breathtaking and among the many unsavoury aspects of the 165-page legal document, seen by The Times, is their attempt to rip up the Premier League’s voting structure, which requires a super-majority of 14 clubs to pass new rules. City describe this as “the tyranny of the majority”.

This case will inevitably have implications into the separate hearing, set for October or November, into City’s alleged 115 breaches of Premier League financial rules — and it is easy to wonder the extent to which the club’s latest move is a bargaining position.

Whatever the case, City appear willing to spark civil war among clubs and blow up the structures governing the top-flight rather than face accountability.