On paper, City should win the FA Cup final between the two sides three days earlier. Then again on paper, Stoke wouldn’t be there.
It could be that defeat for Stoke that night wins them a place in Europe. If Manchester City have already won the FA Cup and therefore won a place in the Europa League, they would cede their place to Stoke should they then qualify for the Champions League.
So for Manchester City to beat Stoke that day would not just benefit Roberto Mancini’s men, but it could also boost their opponents that day. It is that which has prompted Tottenham and Harry Redknapp to speak out about this and suggest that the Premier League look into this.
The Premier League though, are disinterested, Manchester City have not expressed a view, and Stoke manager Tony Pulis has told Tottenham that it’s none of their business.
Actually, Tony, it is quite literally Tottenham’s business, which like Manchester City’s would benefit significantly from a run in next season’s European Champions League. To give City such an advantage in the race for fourth place seems to have everything to do with Tottenham.
We can’t necessarily expect Pulis or Stoke to understand that, given that brazen self-interest guides their thoughts, and the idea of participants in the sport indulging in fair play disappeared long ago.
But the Premier League certainly should understand this, and they should undoubtedly change the fixture, bringing it forward in order to avoid such a bizarre circumstance from occurring. It would be unprecedented, but it would be a response to a quite unique and unusual circumstance.
The reason is rather simple. It seems to defeat the whole point of sport to have a game in which it benefits a team to lose. How can a team truly play to its full potential knowing that a goal for them could knock them out of Europe? Particularly when we’re talking about a team, Stoke, who have never, and may never, get another chance to play in continental competition.
No one is suggesting that the team would actively throw the game. But they could well hold back on their traditional thrusting, full bodied style if it suits their own interests – and if I was in Pulis’s shoes, I’d find it hard to commit fully to victory in a game that it would suit me to lose. Then again, in the Welshman’s shoes, I’d like to think I’d do the sporting thing and offer to rearrange the fixture. It is very different from a situation faced last weekend for example by Liverpool, where they had a vague interest in Manchester United not winning the league. Ultimately, Liverpool were more interested in winning their game with Arsenal and improving their chances of reaching the Europa League than preventing their rivals winning a league title.
