City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with 130 FFP breaches | Hearing begins 16th Sep 2024 | Concluded 9th Dec 2024 - Awaiting outcome

They're snivelling parasites aren't they. Never forget that many of these media "personalities" have taken huge amounts of money from the states that run these clubs. To pretend it doesn't shall we say influence their talking points would be naive in the extreme. That plus the outright terror of litigation from clubs that have armies of hundreds of lawyers is a cocktail for investigative news suppression if there ever was one.
I think they are scared shitless to speak out of turn. Can’t wait to see them all choke on their words when everything is stripped off that soulless club
 
Had to listen to this mornings game while driving to work. No idea who the commentators were but the main guy was enough to make you sick.
“Huge effort to win 4 leagues in a row”

“no one thought they could do it”

made it sound like city were some plucky underdog while no mention of the mass amount of charges they were facing.
Another good one was “pretty good for a league two Caliber player” referring to Haarland, completely missing the point on what Keane actually said.

Considering the size of the fanbases of the clubs most affected by City, mentioning the charges should be the winning play for engagement.

The reasons why they don't can only be fear of legal action and/or brand damage to the Premier League.
 
I'm sorry but that away end last night was fecking disgusting. You're 2 games away from a 4th title in a row, and you go 1-0 up in a tense away game, you would be absolutely buzzing and go mad.

I've celebrated the 4th goal in a dead rubber more exuberantly then they did last night.



Some of them don't even move.
 
I'm sorry but that away end last night was fecking disgusting. You're 2 games away from a 4th title in a row, and you go 1-0 up in a tense away game, you would be absolutely buzzing and go mad.

I've celebrated the 4th goal in a dead rubber more exuberantly then they did last night.


Some of them don't even move.

This is hilarious. But at the same time I think VAR has something to do with it.
 
This is hilarious. But at the same time I think VAR has something to do with it.
No chance. You celebrate wildly in the spur of the moment, regardless of VAR. Some of them look confused as to what's actually going on, like they've never been before.
 
This is by far the longest he has spent at any club, is he not getting tired?
Of being paid more money than he ever thought possible? Are you serious? He's there for the same reason nobody can ever tap up or entice a City player away. He's making multiples more money and whatever else than any club sans PSG or Newcastle could give him. Plus his brother is being kept sweet too.

Unless he has a magic number to hit financially, he's going nowhere unless the wheels fall off and they're brought to accord.
 
That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.

Why not list all the products you have, buy, have bought, borrowed or consumed over the years, all the films you've watched, all the artists whose songs you've listened to, all the newspapers, magazines and books you've bought or read so we can see test your ethics.

That peanut butter you in your cupboard suggests you support the destruction of the rainforest. Presumably you want people to remember that when considering your high horsery.

Quite apart from knowingly funding sexual predators through your Netflix subscription. Openingly supporting - no, financing - sexual assault. How could you?
Troll.
 
No chance. You celebrate wildly in the spur of the moment, regardless of VAR. Some of them look confused as to what's actually going on, like they've never been before.

Haha, that's a good point. I mean, the people in the bottom row are just weird. One guy's even clapping gently like he just watched Alastair Cook well-leave a scorching outswinger.
 
That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.

These snippets of whataboutery are the 'complete nonsense', because they always defer the argument from necessity.

Shows have to be worn in society, to enter premises, to protect feet et al. A consumer's economic situation coerces choice, which will restrict one to a pair crafted via exploited labour (it's another argument about how all labour is exploitative, but we'll stay on point).

Another one is petrol. You see a person requiring medical assistance, so ring an ambulance. What does the ambulance run on? What happens if you don't call it for that reason? You get the picture.

Of course, this situationism does not exonerate indulgence, but that is a facet of sports-washing in football. Football is an indulgence. You don't 'need' it as such, and nothing is coercing you into endorsing it (nothing at all like the physical real-time situations described in the above scenarios, anyway).

Anyway, some of the polls have suggested the majority wanted Qatar, so we as a whole cannot pontificate on the matter, but let's not indulge false equivalences to pretend sports-washing is not still a serious problem.
 

"Dilutes" :lol: look how cautious all these outspoken people have to be in everything they say. This is also the benefit of being a state and not a football club. Imagine Manchester United, the entity, telling anyone to shut their mouth, or else! You'd get an 'or else what!?' and an emboldened renouncement. "City" do the same and it's 'yes, boss' and no eye contact. It's absurd.

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Something else that is just bizarre about what's going on is these charges only go to 2019. City did not become clean nor self-sufficient from that date until now. What is even going to happen with regard to the remainder? It's never spoken about, this void, everyone seems to have quantum leaped over.

They've turned football on its head with this madness and it can only be spoken about in hushed tones, like it's conspiracy, whilst most in media steer so clear of it, you wouldn't know any of this existed but for a few withering voices of descent. That's what a state entering football does.
 
"Dilutes" :lol: look how cautious all these outspoken people have to be in everything they say. This is also the benefit of being a state and not a football club. Imagine Manchester United, the entity, telling anyone to shut their mouth, or else! You'd get an 'or else what!?' and an emboldened renouncement. "City" do the same and it's 'yes, boss' and no eye contact. It's absurd.

Poor Lance and his diluted titles.
 
Of being paid more money than he ever thought possible? Are you serious? He's there for the same reason nobody can ever tap up or entice a City player away. He's making multiples more money and whatever else than any club sans PSG or Newcastle could give him. Plus his brother is being kept sweet too.

Unless he has a magic number to hit financially, he's going nowhere unless the wheels fall off and they're brought to accord.

Where else could he go that would give his brother a club to part own and (likely/possibly/probably) pay him a second salary off the books?

I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
 
Something else that is just bizarre about what's going on is these charges only go to 2019. City did not become clean nor self-sufficient from that date until now. What is even going to happen with regard to the remainder? It's never spoken about, this void, everyone seems to have quantum leaped over.

They've turned football on its head with this madness and it can only be spoken about in hushed tones, like it's conspiracy, whilst most in media steer so clear of it, you wouldn't know any of this existed but for a few withering voices of descent. That's what a state entering football does.

Isn't this because when the PL first investigated and/or asked for documents it was in 2018/19 timeframe? They haven't been able to ask for any since, probably pending the current legal outcome but may go for following years thereafter.
 
I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
Think he'll wait to see where Klopp goes and then turn up at the richest team in that league. Again.:D
 
I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.

Maybe it was player power or whatever at Barcelona and Bayern, although I wager City were tapping him up while he was at Bayern. He's got all these backroom staffers from his Barca days and probably the best PEDs state-backed money can buy/create.
 
Silver lining, we could hardly pick a better time for our post-Fergie malaise. It would be super frustrating to be in contention and doing well like Liverpool and still getting more or less nothing out of it.
 
I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
Pep is trying to legitimise his time at City with every turn and every defence of what they are, so these titles and the legacy he believes he is creating clearly mean a great deal to him. He's a neurotic, meticulous winner, so he is always going to give it everything he has.

I've maintained for a long time that his pressure and assessments are outside of the league, and even the fuel that will keep him going so long as he doesn't dominate. The league is a procession and I don't think it takes much out of him, not comparative to the CL and defeats/scrutiny therein, anyway. If he were to dominate that competition, I think the plug would be pulled sooner, but so long as he's just another competitor in that arena, he still has just as strong a goal and motivation as every other coach, if not more so.

Pep also has his fun via reinvention and playing his own game of football manager every other season, so it's not re-treading the same path each season when he sees whether tweeks X, Y and Z work or if there's something else to add to the mix.
 
Isn't this because when the PL first investigated and/or asked for documents it was in 2018/19 timeframe? They haven't been able to ask for any since, probably pending the current legal outcome but may go for following years thereafter.
The thing is, it's not mentioned by anyone - that things don't just stop at 2019 and that there's more to be discussed. Even on here, we talk about "115" but the extent of what they've done goes beyond that. It's so surreal.
 
The thing is, it's not mentioned by anyone - that things don't just stop at 2019 and that there's more to be discussed. Even on here, we talk about "115" but the extent of what they've done goes beyond that. It's so surreal.
Well this is the thing. The 115 is just what has been charged / discovered. Once they chose to go the route of 'we are going to cheat, lie, obfuscate, threaten and defer' to get what they want, pretty much anything is on the table to achieve that. If found guilty (and we all know it anyway) then they are deliberately corrupt, end of. There can't be a place for them in a competition that wants to be seen as fair.
 
Chris Wood and Son just handed them the title. I would investigate and check their bank accounts if I was the FA. Especially Wood - the fellow could have had a hat trick against City in a game where they were absolutely outplayed and should have lost.
 
In any other sport do they allow a team to be under investigation whilst continuing to compete? In that time they have won a treble and about to win the league a record 4 years in a row. It's made a mockery of the entire sport. Surely lack of co-operation alone should of had them suspended, pending investigation. That way they would want to actively co-operative.

If anything the Premier League, and football authorities in general, need to make their rules stricter and clearer for compliance and punish accordingly. Manchester City are not too big to fail. Plenty of big clubs have had set backs in the past. Look at Schalke now or Dortmund in the early 2000s. They need to be punished for disobeying rules that everyone else has stuck to, and the fact that so many clubs have spent beyond their means to chase them. They have caused huge financial issues across the Premier League, and wider Europe inflating the market.

The only issue that is delaying things is the fact a State is behind the legal action blocking the investigation. That is precisely why they should never have been allowed to purchase a football club. The Premier League for me has been completely ruined. Non-United fans seem to be waking up now that Liverpool and Arsenal have lost the title with record points on the table.
 
It really is a joke. Everton and forest have been docked points, and it looks like city will win the league by a couple of points and nothing has happened. It really makes a farce of the whole thing. It seems so unfair on the rest of the league. It's a shambles.
 
When City can officially declared that they are making more revenues than traditional biggest clubs in Europe like RM, Barcelona, Man Utd, BM and etc. You know UEFA, PL, FFP and whatnot are toothless. Im sure the 115 are still missing lots of dodgy things city did behind.

Another recent good example is signing Alvarez with just 14M. Alvarez is not an unknown South American player. Rangnick recommended him to Man Utd too. South American player is not that cheap even though bought straight from South America. There must be lots of dodgy intermediary payments by offshore accounts or something.
 
When City can officially declared that they are making more revenues than traditional biggest clubs in Europe like RM, Barcelona, Man Utd, BM and etc. You know UEFA, PL, FFP and whatnot are toothless. Im sure the 115 are still missing lots of dodgy things city did behind.

Another recent good example is signing Alvarez with just 14M. Alvarez is not an unknown South American player. Rangnick recommended him to Man Utd too. South American player is not that cheap even though bought straight from South America. There must be lots of dodgy intermediary payments by offshore accounts or something.

How much should Alvarez have cost? Enzo, his teammate at River, went to Benfica for a similar fee. For every Alvarez, there are a few Kayky's that get forgotten. The real competitive advantage is that City have the resources to make those punts without it affecting them much whereas other teams have to be more judicious with the risks they take. If Brighton gets a bad batch of similarly-priced South American talent, it's much more difficult.
 
Out of interest, how much investment have the Emiratis put into Manchester? I've heard this as another reason why some in power won't say anything but not sure if this is actually true or if it is, whether we're talking about one block of luxury apartments or widespread investment across the city?
 
Chris Wood and Son just handed them the title. I would investigate and check their bank accounts if I was the FA. Especially Wood - the fellow could have had a hat trick against City in a game where they were absolutely outplayed and should have lost.
You've gotta be a member of QAnon!
 
Out of interest, how much investment have the Emiratis put into Manchester? I've heard this as another reason why some in power won't say anything but not sure if this is actually true or if it is, whether we're talking about one block of luxury apartments or widespread investment across the city?

They've given lots of children and university students in the city the opportunity to see Premier League football for free or for a heavily discounted rate.
 
Out of interest, how much investment have the Emiratis put into Manchester? I've heard this as another reason why some in power won't say anything but not sure if this is actually true or if it is, whether we're talking about one block of luxury apartments or widespread investment across the city?
I’m thinking more across the country ? When you have got the Sports Minister meeting with representatives from City you get the feeling there are bigger things going on outside of football.
 
No chance. You celebrate wildly in the spur of the moment, regardless of VAR. Some of them look confused as to what's actually going on, like they've never been before.

Can see tourists in that video and boy it shows
 
Chris Wood and Son just handed them the title. I would investigate and check their bank accounts if I was the FA. Especially Wood - the fellow could have had a hat trick against City in a game where they were absolutely outplayed and should have lost.

Ah yes didn't something come out about him being a City fan which makes it more suspicious
 
Out of interest, how much investment have the Emiratis put into Manchester? I've heard this as another reason why some in power won't say anything but not sure if this is actually true or if it is, whether we're talking about one block of luxury apartments or widespread investment across the city?
"abu dhabi investment in manchester"

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...english-city-sold-abu-dhabis-elite-manchester

There are a lot of stories on how they've come in and ingratiated themselves with the city and smoothed their path to doing whatever they want with no objection at local level. No different to what they've done with the government, just localised.

Researchers ‘unable to identify any income received by the council’ under joint venture with Abu Dhabi United Group


Public land sold to Manchester City’s owners on the cheap in ‘sweetheart deal,’ report claims

Researchers ‘unable to identify any income received by the council’ under joint venture with Abu Dhabi United Group

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Manchester City Council has has been accused of selling huge tracts of public land at discount prices to the Abu Dhabi investment fund that owns the Premier League champions.
The city’s reputation has been put at risk by the authority entering into a “bad deal for the council and its citzens” despite human rights concerns about the United Arab Emirates, according to a new report that raises questions about how the ownership of football clubs is used for political aims that are not beneficial to wider society.

The 65-page report by academics at the University of Sheffield concludes council’s sale of sites to with Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, is “instructive” on both sportswashing and “city-washing”. The researchers said the situation should lead to scrutiny of other cities such as Newcastle, where Saudi Arabian investors have invested in Newcastle United Football Club.

One of the most common criticisms of these ownerships is such clubs are used for other purposes, not least the integration of problematic states into the infrastructure of society.
The research primarily covers the Manchester Life partnership, a joint venture that has built 1,468 private apartments in the gentrified Ancoats district. In contrast to the common counter-argument that Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) investment has regenerated east Manchester, the report was “unable to identify any income received by the council from its joint venture stakes… despite being exposed to some of the risks of the project”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ouncil-abu-dhabi-sheikh-mansour-b2128273.html

It's a veritable rabbit hole, if you're really interested. Suffice it to say, it's all absolutely rotten.
 
How much should Alvarez have cost? Enzo, his teammate at River, went to Benfica for a similar fee. For every Alvarez, there are a few Kayky's that get forgotten. The real competitive advantage is that City have the resources to make those punts without it affecting them much whereas other teams have to be more judicious with the risks they take. If Brighton gets a bad batch of similarly-priced South American talent, it's much more difficult.

I know Alvarez have a release clause. But I still find it a bit dodgy that that's all City paid? Signing on bonuses and etc could cost much more? It's the same case with Haaland where no one knows the actual costs. It seems the total reported package to sign a player of Haaland calibre was a steal too. But I could be wrong. No idea about Enzo but I would thought that Alvarez is more well known talent as several big clubs was interested.

Take for example, Madrid usually pay big money for prospect from South America. The most recent I think is 16 years old Endrick for like 60M.