IF ever proof was needed of the gulf that exists between football’s haves and have nots, Manchester City have provided it.
By unveiling a £200million training complex, complete with 7,000-capacity stadium, the Premier League champions have underlined their intention to rule the roost both in this country and in Europe for generations to come.
But they have also shown just how detached the leading clubs are from the rest and also how their success is self-perpetuating.
Year after year, the Champions League is populated by the same small group of teams because the financial rewards are so vast.
Consequently, those clubs can afford the best players who, in turn, keep them at Europe’s top table.
With each season, the rich get richer and everyone else is left to feed off the scraps.
Forget financial fair play — there is nothing fair about it. It might be lauded as a way to stop clubs spending beyond their means, but the damage has already been done.
The likes of oil-rich City and Chelsea are so far ahead of the pack that it is impossible to catch up.
Some of the others, like Everton, Tottenham and, this season, Southampton, have flirted with breaking the mould but they cannot sustain it in the long term.
People have been swooning over the extravagance of City’s purpose-built facility but I would argue it is bordering on the obscene.
When a club has been bank-rolled to such an extent, as City certainly have, the element of competition is eroded. It is no longer a level playing field.
This is not a new concept in football but the chasm has been getting increasingly wider in recent years and there is no sign of that trend reversing any time soon.
