Hull owner likens Man City financial charges to Olympic doping if guilt confirmed

Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has compared Manchester City’s alleged Premier League financial rule breaches to winning an Olympic medal through doping, insisting that if the charges are proven, the punishment must be severe enough to act as a genuine deterrent.

Reports circulating since last Friday suggest City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them for alleged breaches of the league’s financial regulations — a claim the Premier League has yet to officially confirm or deny. City themselves have denied all wrongdoing. The charges span a nine-year period during which the club won eight trophies and cemented their status as one of European football’s dominant forces.

“Their chairman says they are innocent. I don’t say they are guilty or not because they are saying they are innocent, and the Premier League says they are not innocent,” Ilicali told the Hull Daily Mail’s The 1904 Club podcast. “If they are not innocent, I think it is no different to doping and winning an Olympic medal. This is financial doping at the end of the day. Bringing the top four or five players with huge money, breaking the rules. From that side, it doesn’t look very positive.”

Ilicali, who purchased Hull in 2022 and guided the club to promotion via the play-offs last season, stressed that a lenient response would only invite further misconduct. “If you give a small punishment, then everybody will do it,” he said. “For the future of football, and for it to be a clean future, this kind of thing, if it happens, should be punished and not let people do something like that.”

The Hull owner also called for “natural money” in football, arguing that rule-breaking of this nature creates an uneven playing field. “If there is a mistake like this, this kind of mistake gives crazy advantages to some teams and it’s not fair,” he added.

Hull, who currently sit eighth in the Premier League, are due to travel to the Etihad Stadium to face City on 19 December — a fixture that now carries a charged backdrop given Ilicali’s public comments.