Five points, a board that will wait, and Spurs at Old Trafford

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Football, read like a business. How the dynasties were built, how the money really moves, and why some giants quietly fell apart.

1. The Dispatch Manchester City guilty on every financial charge across nine seasons City have lodged their appeal, and nobody has set a sanction yet. +

   Last week this letter led on a verdict that nobody had published. On Tuesday the Premier League published it, and by Friday it was already on its way to another panel.

   Manchester City were found guilty of every financial charge, nine seasons of them, and have appealed

   On Tuesday the Premier League published the independent commission's verdict. Manchester City were found guilty of every charge relating to serious breaches of its financial rules, across nine seasons from 2009 to 2018, and of most of the charges that they failed to cooperate with the investigation (ESPN, Mark Ogden; AP via NBC News, 29 September).

   The commission found that City had arranged "sham" contracts with commercial partners and filed "misstated" accounts (ESPN; Yahoo Sports, 29 September). City said they were "disappointed and surprised" and "innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League" (AP via NBC News; The National, 29 September).

   The club had until Friday to appeal (ESPN; AP), and City lodged the appeal with the Chair of the Judicial Panel, saying the commission's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe" (Sky Sports, 3 October; The National). A new three-member Appeal Board will hear it in private (Sky Sports; Premier League statement, 2 October).

   Nobody has yet said what any of it costs. The sanction is a separate hearing, still to come (ESPN; AP via NBC News).

   So a club found guilty of breaking the rules for nine seasons has not had a single point taken off it, and a case that needed the best part of a decade to reach a verdict now goes round again, in a smaller room, with the door shut.

   Last Sunday we wrote that the only point anyone had managed to settle was whether the number was 115 or 114. It turns out the commission had a firmer view of the financial ones than any of us.

   Max Verstappen has 72 wins, all for Red Bull, as many as Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari

   Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on Sunday, his first win of 2026 and the 72nd of his career, every one of them in a Red Bull. That matches Schumacher's total for Ferrari (grandprix.com; GPblog, 4 October). It came at the circuit where he won the last Malaysian Grand Prix, in 2017 (f1-fansite; Jamaica Gleaner, 2 October 2017).

   Nine years between wins at the same circuit, and the second one was in a race named after a different country.

   The call: no fine for D'Marco Jackson's hit on Jalen Hurts

   In the second quarter at Soldier Field on Monday night, Jalen Hurts scrambled right, reached the first-down marker and stepped out of bounds, and the Chicago Bears linebacker D'Marco Jackson hit him in the shoulder just after he crossed the line (Yahoo Sports, Ryan Young; NBC10 Philadelphia, Dave Zangaro). Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness, but an Eagles holding penalty wiped it out (Yahoo Sports; NBC10). Hurts went for a concussion check, Andy Dalton threw an interception at the goal line, and the Bears won 27-7 (Yahoo Sports; NBC10). The NFL then decided not to fine Jackson (NBC10; Heavy).

   The NFL's 2026 Official Playing Rules, Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8 (b), list "forcibly contacting a runner when he is out of bounds" as unnecessary roughness, and add: "Defensive players must make an effort to avoid contact. Players on defense are responsible for knowing when a runner has crossed the boundary line, except in doubtful cases where he might step on a boundary line and continue parallel with it."

   One reading: the rule puts the burden on the defender, Hurts was out, and a flag the league agrees with should come with a fine. The other: he was out by a step at full speed, as doubtful as cases get, and fines are for hits a player had time to stop.

   Right call or wrong call? Reply with one word.

   Around the grounds

   Football. From our page on the match, word for word: "Two Manchester United players set up three of the four." Portugal won 4-2 in Denmark in the Nations League on Thursday, the night after Cristiano Ronaldo left the camp when Jorge Jesus said he would not start (ESPN; SBS; Malay Mail). Bruno Fernandes made the goals for Goncalo Ramos and Vitinha, and Diogo Dalot set up Joao Felix (Sofascore; SBS). Ramos started in Ronaldo's place.

   NFL. A 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth. That is what the Dallas Cowboys sent the Pittsburgh Steelers for Joey Porter Jr., ending a summer in which he and Pittsburgh never got close on guaranteed money (CBS Sports; ESPN). The sixth carries a condition: Porter has to make the Cowboys' gameday roster twice this season (CBS Sports; NFL.com). He was inactive for the Steelers' first three games, citing a back injury (CBS Sports; ESPN).

   Formula 1. The race was called the Bahrain Grand Prix and held in Malaysia, because the April race at Sakhir could not go ahead (f1technical; Top Gear Philippines, July). Sepang's first Grand Prix since 2017 started late in a thunderstorm and ended with George Russell's power unit failing while he was third (grandprix.com; f1-fansite). Kimi Antonelli finished second and leads Russell by 84 points (Sky Sports; grandprix.com). Next weekend is Singapore.

   Tennis. Has Novak Djokovic ever lost in Beijing? Not once. He came from a set down to beat the wild card Bu Yunchaokete 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 on Friday and is 31-0 at the China Open (Tennis Majors; Tennis Now, 2 October). Rafael Nadal is the only other man in the Open Era to open 31-0 at one event, at Roland-Garros (Tennis Majors; Tennis Now). Djokovic is 39.

   Golf. 18 months of military service, cut to four weeks of basic training. Tom Kim shot a closing 64 in Japan on Saturday to win the Asian Games gold at 18 under by three shots, which under South Korean law exempts him from the rest (CBS Sports; AP, 3 October). He had left the Presidents Cup at Medinah early to get there (AP, Doug Ferguson; Golf Digest).

   NBA. LeBron James is 41 and on a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers worth about $8m, the smallest salary of his career (CBS Sports; Complex). After his first practice in Camden on Tuesday he took a helicopter about 95 miles home to New York (Complex; Yahoo Sports). Tyrese Maxey, whose car had let him down: "One of us left in a helicopter, the other one was sitting on the curb" (Yahoo Sports; ClutchPoints).

   WNBA. What does an expansion team look like in its second season? The Golden State Valkyries came from 16 down to beat the Dallas Wings 77-73 in Game 3 on Friday, the franchise's first playoff series win (ESPN, Kendra Andrews; CBS Sports). Gabby Williams scored 11 of her 19 in the fourth quarter (ESPN; Yahoo Sports). Next are the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, from Sunday in San Francisco (ESPN; CBS Sports).

   The argument: should Aston Martin have kept Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll?

   Last week's Presidents Cup question has nothing new to settle it, so it stays open. On Tuesday Aston Martin confirmed both of its drivers for 2027, a fifth season together, with the team tenth in the constructors' championship (Formula1.com; Reuters via The Star, 29 September).

   One side: the car is the problem, and two drivers who know it are worth more than a rookie learning it. The other: a team in tenth should be finding its next driver while it has the chance.

   Kept, or changed? One word and a line on why.

   One from the archive

   Manchester United play Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday (ESPN; premierleagueschedule.org). On 29 September 2001 at White Hart Lane, Tottenham were 3-0 up at half-time through Dean Richards, Les Ferdinand and Christian Ziege. Andy Cole scored straight after the break, then Laurent Blanc, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and David Beckham, and Manchester United won 5-3 (Tottenham Hotspur's THFCdb; Sports Mole).

   Reply to this email with one word on the Hurts hit and one on Aston Martin. We print the best of them next Sunday.

   Follow @thearchvfc for the football desk and @thearchv.ca for everything else. It all lives at thearchv.ca.

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2. The Dispatch Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 charges, reports say No sanction yet, an appeal expected, and three titles inside the charged years. +

   Two of this week’s biggest decisions came out of rooms nobody else can see into: a commission’s verdict that has not been published, and a stewards’ penalty the driver was in no position to serve.

   Manchester City were found guilty on 114 of 115 charges, by every account but an official one

   On Friday The Athletic’s David Ornstein reported that the independent commission hearing the Premier League’s case had found Manchester City guilty on 114 of the 115 charges. Sky Sports and Reuters carried the reports within hours (Sky Sports; Reuters via beIN Sports, 25 September; AP, 26 September).

   The Premier League declined to comment and called it a confidential process (Sky Sports; Reuters). A Manchester City spokesperson said “the Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality” (Sky Sports; The Athletic, 25 September). No sanction has been set and City are expected to appeal (Sky Sports; Reuters).

   On Saturday the chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, wrote to supporters. “The Premier League process still has a long way to run, and our confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence is just as strong as when this began” (AP; Sky Sports, 26 September).

   So the biggest ruling in English football this season is, for now, a number first reported by one journalist and repeated by the rest of us. We have spent years writing “115” and it turns out we were one out, which is the only point in this case anyone has managed to settle.

   The financial charges cover 2009 to 2018 (Sky Sports; AP). Inside those years Manchester City won the league in 2012, 2014 and 2018 (AP; Premier League). The first of those was decided on goal difference, both clubs on 89 points, Manchester City on +64 and Manchester United on +56 (Premier League; Sky Sports).

   Czechia have 12 Billie Jean King Cup titles, and only the United States have more

   Karolina Muchova beat Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-3 in Shenzhen on Sunday, and Linda Noskova closed it out 6-3, 7-6(5) against Elina Svitolina. Czechia beat Ukraine 2-0 for their 12th title and their first since 2018, in Ukraine’s first final. The United States have 18 and did not qualify for these Finals (Billie Jean King Cup; AP, 27 September).

   Two nations own 30 of the titles between them, and the more decorated one was not in the building.

   The call: five grid places for Franco Colapinto, or a ban?

   At the lap 36 restart in Baku on Saturday, Franco Colapinto braked too late for Turn 1, the stewards found, and hit his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, who was pushed into Lando Norris. Norris’s race ended there. The stewards gave Colapinto a 10-second penalty, and because he had retired they turned it into a five-place grid drop for next weekend’s race at Sepang (Formula1.com; RaceFans; RacingNews365, 26 September).

   Norris, speaking before he had seen a replay, said a driver who causes a crash on a restart like that “should have at least a one-race ban” (ESPN, Nate Saunders; Motorsport.com, 26 September).

   The FIA’s 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations give the stewards both options. Article B1.9.6 e: “that driver is unable to serve the penalty due to being unclassified ... the stewards may impose a grid place penalty on the driver at their next Race.” Article B1.9.5 j lists “Suspension from the driver’s next Competition.”

   One reading: the stewards used the rule written for exactly this case, and a ban for a braking point would put every restart in front of a tribunal. The other: the ban is on the same list, and a driver who ended two other races loses five places in the one he gets to start.

   Right call or wrong call? Reply with one word.

   Around the grounds

   Football. 39 matches unbeaten. Spain came from behind to beat England 3-2 at Wembley in the Nations League on Saturday, Mikel Oyarzabal settling it on 74 minutes. beIN Sports calls the run a record for a European team; AFP calls it a record for a European nation (beIN Sports; AFP, 26 September). Harry Kane slipped taking a second-half penalty and hit the bar (Sky Sports; AP).

   NFL. The artificial turf at Nissan Stadium in Nashville read 157F during the Philadelphia Eagles’ 24-20 win over the Tennessee Titans, a noon kick-off last Sunday, on the Fox broadcast’s measurement (ESPN, Tim McManus; Yahoo Sports, 20 and 21 September). Cam Jurgens melted through several pairs of cleats. Nick Sirianni: “I didn’t play a snap and I had to get an IV.”

   Formula 1. Who won in Baku? George Russell, from pole, by 0.196 seconds over Max Verstappen, his third win of the season (Formula1.com; RaceFans, 26 September). Kimi Antonelli came fifth from 16th on the grid, which keeps him 66 points clear of Russell, 302 to 236, with eight rounds left (RaceFans; Sky Sports). Where next? Sepang, for a race still called the Bahrain Grand Prix.

   Tennis. Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, pulled out of the China Open, where he is defending champion, on Friday with his right knee. He has not played since winning Wimbledon and missed the US Open (ATP Tour; AP via ESPN, 25 September). “My knee is not there where I would like to be and I am not ready to compete yet,” he said (AP).

   Golf. 17 to 13. The United States went into Sunday’s twelve singles at Medinah 10.5 to 7.5 down, the first time the International team had led into singles on foreign soil, and took 9.5 of the 12 points for an 11th Presidents Cup in a row (PGA Tour; CBS Sports, 27 September). CBS Sports calls it the largest final-day comeback in the event’s history. The Internationals’ one win is still Royal Melbourne in 1998 (PGA Tour; Sky Sports).

   NBA. What is a discount worth? About $20m, in Stephen Curry’s case. He agreed a two-year, $116m extension with the Golden State Warriors, below the roughly $136m he could have had (ESPN, Anthony Slater; AP, 25 and 26 September). And in Toronto? Kawhi Leonard agreed two years and $115m, $11m under his maximum, and waived his trade kicker (ESPN; NBC Sports). In Milwaukee the league is still investigating the Bucks over Gary Trent Jr’s contract (Hoops Rumors; HoopsHype, 23 September).

   WNBA. 1,086 points for Kelsey Mitchell, 65 past the single-season record A’ja Wilson set in 2024, with a three-point record of 135 on top (IndyStar, Chloe Peterson; Athlon Sports, 25 and 26 September). Her Indiana Fever opened the playoffs as the sixth seed at the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday and lost 102-85, A’ja Wilson scoring 38 (AP; CBS Sports, 27 September). The series is best of three, so one more defeat ends their season (ESPN; IndyStar). The Los Angeles Sparks missed the playoffs, and on Friday they fired Lynne Roberts after two seasons and a 37-51 record (CBS Sports; AP).

   The argument: should Presidents Cup players be paid?

   Last week’s Ballon d’Or question stays open. This week’s sits on a cheque. Since 2022 the PGA Tour has paid every Presidents Cup player, captain and assistant captain $250,000 to spend as they like. Before that, each directed $150,000 to charity. Medinah is the third edition under the new model, and the payments have now passed $25m in total (Front Office Sports, 22 September; Golfweek, Tim Schmitt, 25 September).

   One side: the event sells tickets and television rights, the players are what is being sold, and nobody asks a broadcaster to give its advertising money away. The other: this was the one week a year the best-paid golfers in the world played for a team and gave the money away, and that was most of its charm.

   Paid, or charity? One word and a line on why.

   One from the archive

   Today is 22 years since Wayne Rooney, aged 18, made his Manchester United debut in the Champions League at Old Trafford and scored a hat-trick in a 6-2 win over Fenerbahce, on 17, 28 and 54 minutes, the third a free-kick (PA via the Irish News; ESPN, Arindam Rej). The sources disagree on what Manchester United paid Everton for him, so the fee stays out.

   Reply to this email with one word on Colapinto and a line on the Presidents Cup money. We print the best of them next Sunday.

   Follow @thearchvfc for the football desk and @thearchv.ca for everything else. It all lives at thearchv.ca.

   Forward this to the friend who has been counting to 115 for years and now has to start again at 114. If somebody forwarded it to you, subscribe at thearchvdispatch.substack.com.

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3. The Dispatch Pro Ref stood down two officials over one Manchester derby goal Howard Webb’s team called it an error of judgement. Manchester City kept the three points. +

   I went looking for seven stories this week and kept finding the same one. Every sport had an institution deciding something, and somebody else paying for it.

   Pro Ref took two officials off the Premier League for one goal

   At Old Trafford on 13 September, Erling Haaland put Manchester City ahead in the 60th minute from Josko Gvardiol’s low cross. The assistant referee flagged offside. The video review overturned that, correctly, because Haaland himself was onside. Enzo Fernandez was not, and he had gone for the ball in front of him before it arrived.

   The question was never whether Haaland was onside. It was whether Fernandez, standing offside and going for the ball in front of him, interfered with anybody by doing it. That is the sort of judgement a referee is meant to make himself, at the monitor, with the crowd watching him make it.

   Pro Ref’s statement: “Contact has been made with Manchester United to acknowledge what we deem is an error of judgement. A review of the incident will take place.” It added that the video referee did not recognise the likely impact of Fernandez’s position and should have recommended an on-field review. So Matt Donohue, the lead video assistant referee, and his assistant Blake Antrobus are off Premier League duty until after the international break, and out of the midweek Carabao Cup round. Howard Webb, Pro Ref’s chief refereeing officer, took the decision with his executive team (Khaled Mahmoud, Goal, carried by LiveScore; Uzma Fatima, Sunday Guardian Live, 14 September).

   The goal stood. Manchester City keep the three points and the table does not move, so the only people who lose anything are two officials missing three weekends of work. Refereeing accountability has always been retrospective and personal: a name goes on the sheet and the result stands. The alternative is replaying a fixture because a review went wrong, and no league on earth wants that door opened.

   The review Pro Ref promised has no published date.

   Read the desk → https://thearchv.ca/desk/

   Kelsey Mitchell has 1,034 points, and the WNBA record was 1,021

   In Toronto on Friday, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell passed the WNBA single-season scoring record of 1,021 that A’ja Wilson set in 2024. Mitchell took 33 points off the Toronto Tempo in a 103-85 win and sits on 1,034 with three games left (CBS Sports and Yahoo Sports, 18 September).

   Mitchell needed 41 games; Wilson set the old mark in 38, and is averaging 26.1 points a game this season against Mitchell’s 25.2. The scoring title is decided on average, so the record and the title are about to belong to two different players, in the same week, in the same league.

   The United States Tennis Association fined Aryna Sabalenka $7,500 for a racket and a sentence

   Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open final. Sabalenka had already been warned for ball abuse during the match, and after the final point she hammered her racket into the ground at her bench. The United States Tennis Association cited her for ball abuse, racket abuse and an audible obscenity, three categories in one match, and took the fine out of her runner-up prize money (Sports Illustrated, Zach Humphrey, 16 September; Just Women’s Sports, Jessica Toomer, 17 September).

   One reading: a code that bends for the player the crowd paid to watch is not a code, and a camera operator at work should not be sworn at by anybody. The other got its own column inside a day, Last Word on Sports running “Tennis Fines Are a Joke and Aryna Sabalenka’s US Open One Proves It” on 17 September. The fine came to $7,500 out of a $2.8m runner-up cheque.

   Right call or wrong call? Reply with one word.

   Around the grounds

   Football. Manchester United are at Craven Cottage today, 13th after four Premier League games and Fulham 18th, with seven scored and seven conceded apiece (Sky Sports table and ESPN’s results page read this morning; Goal and Al Jazeera on the fixture). On Wednesday they led Brighton and Hove Albion 2-0 at Old Trafford inside ten minutes and lost 3-2, a second straight early League Cup exit. Michael Carrick on Friday, asked about the goals going in: “it’s not just a backline or certainly a goalkeeper, it’s a collective thing.”

   NFL. $17,911. That is what the league took off Chris Johnson for a hip-drop tackle, the largest of three fines issued this week that now count toward a suspension. Sam Franklin was fined $9,425 for a blindside block, Evan Williams $7,087 for hitting a defenceless player (Fox Sports, 19 September; Pro Football Talk, Josh Alper, 19 September). Three offences in one of five named categories in a season brings a one-game ban, under the rule the league agreed with the NFL Players Association (CBS Sports; NFL.com).

   Formula 1. Why is the Bahrain Grand Prix being held in Malaysia? Because it was cancelled alongside Saudi Arabia’s, and rather than run a 22-race season, Formula 1, the FIA and the governments of both countries agreed to move it to Sepang on 2 to 4 October. Bahrain keeps the name and the title sponsorship of a race held in Malaysia (Formula1.com, 26 July; PlanetF1, Michelle Foster, 26 July). Sepang last hosted a grand prix in 2017.

   Tennis. Canada are in the Davis Cup Final 8. Félix Auger-Aliassime beat Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City on Saturday to settle the tie 3-1, having beaten Quentin Halys on Friday after Liam Draxl opened the weekend with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Rinderknech (ATP Tour and The Canadian Press, Jordan Stoopler, 19 September; Sunday Guardian, 20 September). Bologna hosts the Final 8 in November.

   Golf. Twelve against twelve at Medinah from Thursday. The Presidents Cup runs 24 to 27 September on Course No. 3 at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, Brandt Snedeker captaining the United States and Geoff Ogilvy the International side, which has won the thing once, at Royal Melbourne in 1998. Thursday is fourballs, Sunday is twelve singles (presidentscup.com; Patrick McDonald, CBS Sports, 1 September; Todays Golfer; Golf Monthly).

   NBA. What does a $30m fine buy? Toronto. The NBA’s ruling on the Los Angeles Clippers’ side payments to Kawhi Leonard cost the club five first-round picks and the largest fine in league history, suspended the owner Steve Ballmer, and fined Leonard $700,000 without voiding his contract. That last clause let the Clippers and the Raptors finally complete their June trade this week, Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and a package of draft picks (ESPN; CBS Sports).

   WNBA. A second Canadian WNBA team is being worked on. A Vancouver committee led by Bill Bakk, with the former Olympian Jodi Evans and Kevin Hanson, 25 years the University of British Columbia men’s coach, went public in mid-September on a bid it wants to file inside two to three years, for a 2031 launch at Rogers Arena. Bakk puts the money needed at $500m. Hanson’s evidence is the Toronto Tempo drawing 12,000 to a Friday night in Vancouver (CBC News; Daily Hive).

   The argument: best player, or best season?

   Lamine Yamal, asked by Universo Valdano who he would give the Ballon d’Or to, said the best player in the world, then named the shortlist as himself and Kylian Mbappé. beIN Sports has him saying: “I think I deserve it this year because of what I’ve won. Everyone who watches the games knows it.” The interview aired on Movistar+ on 18 September (Goal; beIN Sports, 14 September).

   Behind the boast sits a split France Football has never resolved: whether the award honours the best footballer alive or the best twelve months anybody had. The two questions pick different winners most years, and Yamal’s case is built on what he won, the second definition used to argue for the first.

   Best player, or best season? Pick one and say why in a line.

   One from the archive

   Wednesday’s collapse was the first time in fifty years Manchester United have led a home game by two goals and lost it. The last was a 3-2 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur in 1976 (ESPN’s match report for the fifty-year framing, Goal citing Opta, both 16 September). Neither names the scorers or the date, and a search summary is not a source, so we are leaving both out.

   Right call or wrong call on the Sabalenka fine. Best player or best season on the Ballon d’Or. One word for the first, a line for the second, and we print the best of them next Sunday.

   Follow @thearchvfc for the football desk and @thearchv.ca for everything else. It all lives at thearchv.ca.

   Forward this to the person who still tells you VAR was going to fix the refereeing. If somebody forwarded it to you, subscribe at thearchvdispatch.substack.com.

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