Manchester City are champions in lateness - because Pep Guardiola exceeds his team talks
In the past two years, the club has been late in 22 matches and must pay a fine of 2.09 million. However, the ruling does not state to what extent it may have beneftited tactically from the delays.
“Who turned the clock, is it really that late already?": Coach Pep Guardiola and his club Manchester City must have asked themselves this the other day. The Premier League turned the clock back, so to speak, and announced that the English champions have been late for kick-off in 22 (!) matches in the past two years, eight times in the 2022/23 season and 14 times in the 2023/24 season. The five delays before the first half and the 18 before the second half add up to 39 minutes and 52 seconds. In the home game against Newcastle United in August 2023, Guardiola's team was even late before the first and second half. City's biggest delay was on the last matchday of the previous season, in the long-distance duel with Arsenal FC for the championship: 2 minutes and 46 seconds!
The Premier League's Handbook stipulate in Law L.33 that a club that delays the start of a match before the first or second half of a match without a valid reason is to be penalized. The directive restricts coaches in their dressing room speeches like the speed limit restricts sports car drivers on English highways. In the event of infringements, reference is made to the basic penalty section W, in which various sanction options are listed under point 51: Fine, suspension, re-match, points deduction. The guidelines are intended to ensure predictability for clubs and fans - as well as to ensure that worldwide TV broadcasts follow the established schedule.
The league believes tardiness is more of a risk to commercial interests than a competitive advantage
The five-page decision states that Manchester City has acknowledged and apologized for the delays. The club agreed a fine with the league committee - it amounts to a mighty 2.09 million pounds (2.5 million euros), signed off by City's managing director Ferran Soriano. There was a warning for the first infringement, then the fines increased in stages from 10,000 pounds to 200,000 pounds. Despite the level of the sanctions, it looks as if the perpetual offenders Guardiola and his Manchester City, which is one of the richest clubs in the world and is funded by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, have got off lightly. Guardiola can keep his coaching license, the club the points.
Manchester City may have been helped by a previous ruling: In March 2023, league rivals Crystal Palace were fined £220,000, £70,000 of which was suspended, for two kick-off delays in October 2022. In its reasoning, the disciplinary committee came to the following conclusion: The lateness of a team would be more of a risk to the commercial interests of the league and an inconvenience for TV broadcasters than a competitive advantage over the waiting team. The panel therefore considered it appropriate to just fine Crystal Palace for being late.
Guardiola promises to be more concise in future
However, the comments failed to mention the potential tactical benefit for the team of being late, which they could gain from a manager's unlawfully prolonged speech. In most of last season’s games in which Manchester City arrived late for the second half, the result was tight - as was the case on the penultimate matchday, when Guardiola's side had to win at Tottenham Hotspur to take the lead in the table. Manchester City took almost a minute and a half more than allowed at the break with the score at 0-0. And on the last matchday, the significantly delayed kick-off in close matches could have led to a situation where the club already knew the result of rivals Arsenal towards the end of the game, while their own game was still a few minutes away.
The decision published at the end of July shows that the sanction was agreed in the same month. This means that the league committee was either unaware of the misconduct for a long time or neglected to process it quickly. According to rule L.32, the home club is always obliged to report “any delay together with an explanation for it”. Because Manchester City played at home in twelve of the 22 matches, the club should therefore have reported itself to the Premier League.
During pre-season preparation, Pep Guardiola explained succinctly that he had heard about this in the news. He promised that he would try to be more concise from now on. His statement lasted eight seconds.