‘Is the greatness of the Premier League a myth?’: Ed Aarons answered your football questions - kaiyun

With the Premier League back on Saturday, football writer Ed Aarons answered your questions on what the Man City verdict means, whether referees will be stricter, and whether Don’t Look Back In Anger was prophetic

Fearandloathingpart2 asks: Given the political pressure that is inevitably going to be placed on Man City, do you think the independent regulator will take action? If they don’t, they lose any credibility but it just seems unlikely to me they’ll take serious action against the ownership. Am I being too cynical? Any thoughts?

MademoiselleK asks: Surely given the guilty verdict on City they should be suspended for the rest of the PL season pending the outcome of their appeal. Only five games in the PL could simply annul the results so far and drop to a 37 club competition. If they are allowed to play on then what happens when their appeal fails - presumably months down the line. Docking them points at that stage makes the league a joke as you will have a club whose serial cheating has already ruined the credibility of English football’s showcase competition which is watched by billions worldwide.

Ed says: I don’t think you’re being too cynical, although it must be said this is probably the biggest challenge the new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) chair David Kogan could possibly ever have faced and it has come less than a year after he was appointed to the new role… The IFR is able to re-assess the suitability of owners, directors and executives and Kogan said in a statement that “we will use these powers where appropriate, in the interests of protecting the sustainability, honesty and integrity of English football where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing by individuals.”

However, the political ramifications that were highlighted by the reaction to Andy Burnham’s comments last week that he would be “really concerned” to lose the City’s owners from Abu Dhabi were an indication that this all goes well beyond football. It puts the IFR in a tricky situation, although it is meant to be independent and Kogan will be keen to show that.

Ed says: There has already been an interesting case involving the team that you may be referring to in your question if my instinct serves me right?! The decision to award Sunderland a penalty against Arsenal last month enraged Mikel Arteta and his reaction was probably an attempt to try and put doubts in the officials’ minds the next time they are confronted with a similar situation. Quite clever really given how many goals Arsenal scored from corners last year… Referees are definitely on the lookout for miscreants at set pieces but actually cracking down on such chaos is not going to be easy without help from the VAR. Time will tell.

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