Sheffield United and the £6m Manchester City question after landmark Premier League verdict leaves all options on table
Three and a half years after Riyad Mahrez’s Wembley hat-trick ended Sheffield United’s FA Cup run, fresh findings have cast a different light on the gulf between the two clubs.
Sheffield United’s players and manager made the trip to Wembley three years ago with hope in their hearts but in truth, their FA Cup semi-final against the mighty Manchester City was never expected to end any other way. City at the time were chasing an historic Treble, while United were a Championship side chasing promotion.
The Blades certainly didn’t disgrace themselves and managed to keep Erling Haaland quiet, even if teammate Riyad Mahrez took centre stage instead to score a hat-trick and help City into the final. There, they beat their city rivals United to win the trophy for the seventh time.
Three and a half years on, though, the backdrop to that afternoon has changed considerably. An independent commission has now found that City used sham commercial arrangements during the period in which their rise to the top of English football was being established.
The commission found that the club had breached Premier League financial rules on a number of occasions between 2009/10 and 2017/18, including by providing misleading financial information relating to sponsorship revenue.
The findings do not change the result at Wembley, nor do they establish that the money involved directly affected United’s semi-final in 2023. But they put a different complexion on the scale of the task the Blades were facing that day under the Wembley arch.
The City side they were up against that day had been built over more than a decade of unprecedented spending and success. By the time they kicked off against United, they had become one of the most powerful clubs in world football.
And some of the financial arrangements now found by the commission to have been improper date back to the very beginning of that transformation. It’s now tempting to wonder how much of the gulf United faced that day was legitimate.
There’s also a question of United’s years alongside City in the Premier League, with speculation already beginning about potential compensation for clubs.
Data analysts at OLBG have suggested that City could owe more than £500m to their league rivals after being found guilty of the charges relating to their financial dealings.
There’s no guarantee that any such financial penalties will be owed but there is some precedent, with Everton told they must pay Burnley £35m earlier this year after breaching Premier League financial rules. The Toffees have appealed.
The OLBG data, based on central payments to clubs from 2011/12 to 2025/26, removes almost £557m of Premier League payments either received or expected to be paid to City and redistributes them among the other teams in the league across each season.
It’s a rather crude methodology but using that calculation, the suggestion is that the Blades would be “owed” more than £6m by City. Whether it ever gets that far remains to be seen, and it certainly doesn’t mean that United are about to be handed a much-needed windfall anytime soon.
Nor will the FA be rushing to arrange a re-run of the 2023 FA Cup final, with then-Blades boss Paul Heckingbottom parachuted in for one last dance and a chance at Bramall Lane immortality.
But it nevertheless makes an interesting South Yorkshire subplot to a huge football story that you sense will run and run, and then some.