Just going back to the Premier league and it's philosophy which I believe gives credence to my claims that Man City this season and others in the past have recieved an inordinate amount of 'good fortune' from refereeing decisions, I 'd like to give an example from what I have seen at my club.
Some years back, when Alisha Usmanov increased his shareholding in Arsenal to 30% he maintained that footballing success was what he wanted most from Arsenal, over and above anything else and if he took control, he would replace Arsene Wenger.
Major shareholder Stan Kroenke was only interested in the club's profitability as a business, if it continued to be the best run club in the country and one of the best in the world from a financial point of view and kept increasing profits year on year, he didn't care how successful Arsenal were in footballing terms, this was anathema to Alisha Usmanov.
Move on a few years and Usmanov says
"Arsene Wenger is still the best man for the job", eh? ....... of course in the intervening period, Wenger had maintained and often improved Arsenal's status in both arenas, but not nearly as much in footballing terms. Suddenly that wasn't as important to Usmanov as it once was, Wenger running Arsenal had improved his financial position and his investment portfolio tenfold, so of course he's the 'best man for the job' now.
I am afraid this has rapidly become the thinking now of every club owner in England, no more so than those of Premier League clubs. You see owners are hard nosed businessmen, money and profits are all they really want, success at their club is secondary to that, a bit of icing on the cake if it's possible but not necessary.
As much as it pains me to say, the only owners who may have differing views to an extent are Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and the Mansour family at Man City.
Having said that, their views might differ today but the result they require is the same. Abramovich wants footballing success because it will bring fame and then 'greater' wealth to him and his investment. Likewise the Mansours, new to football they see footballing success and global recognition as a 'fast track' to more wealth.
In the end, no matter who the owner is, their fortunes are what comes first and if there ever was an occasion where Scudamore said to Abramovich or Mansour or any other owner that say, Leicester City winning the title would improve the success and sale-ability of the Premier league and in turn increase their profits, none would baulk at the suggestion of giving another club an advantage to achieve that result.
It's how business works, its sad but it's true.