On September 28, The Sun published an article revisiting Manchester City's defeat to Wigan Athletic in the 2013 FA Cup final, connecting it to Manchester City's current Premier League financial rule breach case.

The Sun recently published an article reviewing the 2013 FA Cup final between Manchester City and Wigan Athletic, connecting Watson's winning goal in extra time to Manchester City's Premier League financial fair play case.

For many Manchester City supporters, May 18, 2013, at Wembley Stadium was an unforgettable day for all the wrong reasons. At the time, Manchester City boasted a strong squad and had won the Premier League title the previous year. However, in the FA Cup final, they surprisingly lost 1-0 to Wigan Athletic.

The match remained goalless until the final minutes. In the 90th minute, Wigan Athletic won a corner, and Watson headed the ball into Manchester City's goal. After the goal, Wigan's players and coaching staff celebrated enthusiastically, while Manchester City had to accept defeat in the final.

Even more remarkably, Wigan Athletic was hovering near the Premier League relegation zone at the time and ultimately could not escape relegation. As a result, this match became one of the most dramatic FA Cup finals in history that year.

For Manchester City, the impact of this defeat extended far beyond losing an FA Cup trophy.

Manager Roberto Mancini had already brought Manchester City significant achievements, including a Premier League title, but even before the FA Cup final defeat, rumours began circulating that Manuel Pellegrini might replace him. Mancini was deeply unhappy with the reports and, after losing the final, ultimately could not keep his job.

Just days later, Manchester City officially announced Mancini's departure. Subsequently, Pellegrini from Chile took over as manager and later led Manchester City to another Premier League title.

However, according to The Sun, Mancini's departure involved not just sporting matters but also triggered financial complications.

At the time, Manchester City was compiling its financial report for the 2012-13 season. The report stated that the club's Financial Director, Jorge Chumillas, needed to deal with the costs associated with Mancini's departure.

According to The Sun, citing emails previously leaked by German magazine Der Spiegel, the cost of dismissing Mancini was approximately £9.9 million. For Manchester City, which was then subject to UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, this expense could have created a significant financial deficit.

The problem was that if Manchester City had won the 2013 FA Cup, the club would have received a championship bonus from its sponsors. But Watson's headed goal in extra time at Wembley changed everything.

Wigan Athletic won the cup, and Manchester City not only lost the trophy but also missed out on a potential sponsorship bonus.

According to The Sun, Manchester City's then-CEO Ferran Soriano proposed that if the club could receive the sponsorship bonus related to winning the FA Cup, they could use those funds to cover the financial deficit caused by Mancini's departure.

But because Manchester City lost the match, this bonus, of course, never materialized.

Subsequently, according to relevant emails previously published by Der Spiegel, internal discussions at Manchester City began about how to address this financial shortfall. According to reports, the club considered resolving the issue by adjusting the payment dates for certain sponsorship funds.

The sponsors involved included Etihad Airways and Aabar Investments.

The Sun reported that Chumillas had asked whether the payment dates for the relevant sponsorship funds could be adjusted to resolve the financial arrangement issues at that time.

Simon Pearce, a long-standing member of Manchester City's board, reportedly responded with a rather controversial email: "Of course we can do whatever we want."

This statement later became a focal point in related reports.

It should be noted that the above content is primarily derived from documents previously exposed by Der Spiegel and reports from The Sun, and their specific meaning and legal validity need to be considered in conjunction with all evidence in the case and relevant decisions.

In 2018, Der Spiegel published a batch of Manchester City's internal documents and emails, which subsequently led to greater scrutiny of Manchester City's financial issues by UEFA and the Premier League.

Some of these emails involved matters such as the club's sponsorship revenue, player and manager salaries, and financial reporting.

In 2020, UEFA found that Manchester City had seriously breached Financial Fair Play rules and sanctioned the club with a two-year ban from European competitions, along with a fine.

Manchester City then appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Ultimately, CAS overturned UEFA's previous ban from European competitions but also addressed Manchester City's cooperation in the relevant investigation and imposed a fine on the club.

Since then, the Premier League's investigation into Manchester City has continued.

Now, with new developments in Manchester City's Premier League financial rules case, the 2013 FA Cup final has been brought up again by the media.

According to previous reports, the Premier League had charged Manchester City with 115 alleged breaches of the league's financial rules, covering primarily the period from 2009 to 2018. These charges relate to whether Manchester City provided accurate financial information, fully disclosed the remuneration of certain players and managers, and complied with the Premier League's relevant financial regulations, among other matters.

And according to information cited in The Sun's report, Manchester City has been found guilty of the vast majority of these charges.

This has again drawn attention to the series of internal emails following the 2013 FA Cup final.

From a chronological perspective, there is a certain correlation between Watson's goal, Mancini's departure, and the subsequent financial arrangements. Manchester City had expected to receive a bonus for winning the FA Cup, but Wigan Athletic's last-minute goal changed the match result, costing Manchester City that potential revenue.

Meanwhile, Mancini's departure generated associated costs of approximately £9.9 million. Faced with this scenario, the club's internal discussions apparently began about how to address the financial shortfall and involved issues such as the timing of sponsorship payments.

Therefore, in the context of the current Premier League case, that 2013 match has taken on additional significance for Manchester City.

However, it should be emphasized that the 2013 FA Cup final itself involved no rule breaches. Wigan Athletic's defeat of Manchester City with Watson's headed goal was a normal football match. The real focus lies on the alleged internal discussions within Manchester City regarding financial reporting and sponsorship funds following the match result.

Watson's headed goal that year thus evolved from a goal that decided the FA Cup winner into a point in time frequently recalled in reports related to Manchester City's financial controversies in recent years.

For Manchester City, this story has been re-examined 13 years later because some of the charges in the club's current Premier League case cover the period around 2013.

Currently, Manchester City continues to deny the charges and is expected to continue defending itself through legal proceedings. Therefore, there is still potential for further changes in the final penalties for the case and in subsequent legal procedures at this stage.

As for Manchester City, whether that defeat at the time was merely an ordinary FA Cup final loss or had a deeper impact on the club's subsequent financial arrangements remains to be determined in conjunction with the complete evidence, decisions, and subsequent legal proceedings of the relevant case.

Traduzido por IA.

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