Manchester City\u00a0wrote three interconnected stories this week, and sports media customs dictate that we begin with the latest: City clinched the 2022-23 Premier League title Saturday.\u00a0Arsenal’s 0-1 loss to lowly Nottingham Forest put the Gunners mercifully out of reach. It is City\u2019s seventh EPL triumph since 2012 and its fifth in seven seasons under Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

It required a comeback, from essentially 8 points behind Arsenal in early February; but in the end, it was comfortable and anticlimactic, because ever since late February, City has been perfect. Guardiola\u2019s machine \u2014 headed by the\u00a0record-breaking\u00a0Erling Haaland, propelled by the wondrous\u00a0Ilkay Gundogan\u00a0and\u00a0Kevin De Bruyne, fortified by\u00a0Rodri\u00a0and a shapeshifting defense that morphed into the league\u2019s best over the latter half of the season \u2014 steamrolled through the world\u2019s most competitive soccer league without regard for the\u00a0refreshing narratives that Arsenal had teased.<\/p>\n

City beat the Gunners\u00a0in mid-February to stay within touching distance, then\u00a0dispatched them in April to all but end this two-horse race. In between, there was a steady stream of victories \u2014 some businesslike, some rampant \u2014 that made Saturday\u2019s clincher feel like the inevitable conclusion.<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER, — Manchester City clinched the Premier League title Saturday for the fifth time in seven seasons under Pep Guardiola. (Photo by Marc Atkins\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Citizens became the undisputed best team in the sport, and that\u2019s how they wrote the second of three stories as well. They\u00a0toppled Real Madrid in the Champions League semis\u00a0with mastery personified. They waltzed to their second European final in three seasons, and this one, surely, they will win.<\/p>\n
But the third story remains inescapable. It looms over all the success and clouds the footballing beauty.<\/p>\n
An integral piece of the machine\u2019s foundation was, according to multiple rounds of credible allegations, cheating.<\/p>\n
The third story this week was that\u00a0City reportedly launched a judicial battle with the Premier League, disputing the legality of an investigation into\u00a0over 100 alleged breaches of the league\u2019s financial rules<\/a>. The\u00a0Premier League made those accusations back in February, after a yearlong investigation that City allegedly tried to obstruct at every stage. The alleged breaches, which the club has repeatedly denied, date back to 2009, and paint a picture of nefarious accounting and other illicit practices that contributed to the City\u2019s 2010s rise from a mid-table afterthought to a state-owned juggernaut.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s only hope, now, is to fight the extensive charges, and perhaps get off on technicalities \u2014 but, in a way, significant damage has already been done.<\/p>\n
The nefariousness first came to light in 2018, when\u00a0German outlet Der Spiegel published a four-part expos\u00e9 of City\u2019s manipulative dealings. In 2008, the club had been bought by the Abu Dhabi ruling family; it was suddenly fueled by limitless prostate wealth. But shortly thereafter, it realized that European soccer\u2019s new spending limits, dubbed Financial Fair Play (FFP), would impede the owners\u2019 plan to transform City into an EPL and Champions League contender. So they apparently devised a scheme to circumnavigate the rules.<\/p>\n
FFP imposed a player spending cap that was a function of a given club\u2019s revenue. City, according to leaked emails, essentially began inflating the value of sponsorship contracts with Abu Dhabi state-owned companies so that it could report higher revenues, spend more on transfer fees and salaries, and still comply with the rules.<\/p>\n
For example, according to one series of emails published by Der Spiegel, City had signed a sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways \u2014 the UAE\u2019s Abu Dhabi-headquartered national airline \u2014 that paid the club a whopping 67.5 million pounds per year. But only 8 million of those pounds actually came from Etihad; the rest would come from the holding company that Abu Dhabi\u2019s rulers had used to purchase Man City. FFP rules had been designed to prevent billionaires from pumping silly money into a club, and City was brazenly dodging the rules to do just that.<\/p>\n
Along the way, club officials displayed ruthless disdain for anybody who dared question them. Rather than try to prove their innocence, they\u2019d counter with a statement that “the attempt to damage the Club’s reputation is organized and clear.” And they\u2019d spend limitlessly on powerful lawyers to fight the charges. When UEFA, the European soccer governing body, found Man City guilty of \u201cserious breaches\u201d and banned City from the Champions League for two seasons, the club took UEFA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),\u00a0and won.<\/p>\n
But it did not win because it was innocent, only because a statute of limitations had elapsed and UEFA\u2019s proof wasn\u2019t quite conclusive.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
$\"Manchester$