For the sixth time in seven seasons, the English title has been won by a club facing 115 charges related to alleged breaches of financial rules

Manchester City, 115 alleged breaches of financial regulations and all, have won the Premier League again. Pep Guardiola may have told us that the most valuable squad in world football were in "big trouble" just a few weeks ago, but state-sponsored City still managed to win their sixth title in the past seven years.

It's their fourth in a row, too. That's never been done before – not even before football was invented in 1992. It's a staggering achievement, then, well worth celebrating – because the Premier League is the best league in the world.

Or so we've always been told anyway…

GettyPerfectly packaged product

The popularity of the Premier League is a masterclass in marketing. It is a perfectly packaged product that has been successfully sold to the entire world.

Rupert Murdoch's played a pivotal role, elevating coverage of the game to a whole other level while at the same time boosting the income of clubs, but so too did the authorities by almost completely eradicating the 'English disease'. Hooligans were identified and banned from stadiums.

Lessons were also learned from the tragedy that was Hillsborough, which made it abundantly clear that grounds, and the way in which they were managed on match days, had to change. The net result is modern, family-friendly stadiums absolutely always packed to the rafters, resulting in an atmosphere that not many other championships can match.

AdvertisementGettyUnrivalled intensity

The style of play also helps in that regard. English football is frenetic, fast and fiercely competitive. Every good game is touted as a 'great advert for the Premier League' and football fans all across the globe are drawn to its supposedly superior intensity.

Even when it hasn't always boasted the best players on the planet, it's still managed to draw the biggest TV audiences. The new domestic rights deal (2025-26 to 2029-30) is worth £6.7 billion; the last overseas rights sale fetched £5.05bn – a figure expected to rise upon renewal.

The money garnered should ensure that mid-table Premier League clubs will remain in a position to spend far more money in the transfer market than top continental sides for years to come, meaning an even stronger concentration of playing talent in England.

The Premier League's PR department now has a problem, though: the obvious difference between perception and performance.

GettyPR disaster

Nobody at the Premier League can publicly admit it, but City's latest title triumph is a disaster for the brand.

For years, English football fans mocked followers of Europe's other 'Big Five' leagues, dismissed as 'Farmer's Leagues', utterly devoid of drama and depth. Paris Saint-Germain were perennial champions in France (and still are, in fairness), Bayern were unbeatable in the Bundesliga, Juventus reigned supreme in Serie A, while it was only ever Barcelona or Real Madrid who could lift the Liga trophy. By contrast, there were four different title-winners in England between 2013 and 2017.

Since then, though, only Liverpool have managed to finish ahead of City – and it took a record-breaking start to the season to do so. City have raised the bar so high that not even 97 points guarantees top spot.

(C)Getty ImagesCity and everyone else

One can obviously point to the fact that certain title races – like this season's – have, on paper at least, been close, that they've gone to the final day. But what does it matter if the same team always finishes first? Or if it's obvious who will be crowned champions before the season even begins. Even when there were three teams in the title race (Liverpool, City and Arsenal), nobody had any doubt over who would win the league.

Liverpool should have beaten City at Anfield, while Arsenal claimed a deserved and disciplined draw at the Etihad, but neither pretender managed to take the throne. Jurgen Klopp's revitalised Reds almost inevitably ran out of steam, with injuries eventually taking their toll on a revamped squad competing on four fronts all the way into April. Arsenal, meanwhile, were essentially punished for losing a home game to an excellent Aston Villa side in April. It was their only league defeat in 2024, and they only dropped two other points, at City, and yet still finished second.

It makes a mockery of the claim that there's a 'Big Six' in England, when it's really City and everyone else.