City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with numerous FFP breaches | Hearing begins 16th September 2024

[Salfordlad70]

My feeling about this changes almost on a daily basis. Last time I posted in this thread, I was certain it’ll end in some big financial fine and a 20 point deduction or something like it.

Today, I can’t help but think that the PL have to seriously punish City as otherwise they risk doing irreparable damage to their brand, which right now dwarfs all other leagues combined.

This is where I’m currently at. If they fail to punish city in a way that leaves them having to basically rethink the way in which they operate because they’ve been relegated and had trophies collected and titles awarded removed, they’ll just come back and feel emboldened and invincible and continue cheating and ruining the league and people will turn away and the whole thing continues to be a farce.

I don’t care how many titles Liverpool are awarded if city are stripped of theirs. Whoever finished second behind them deserves to be crowned champions and Liverpool are a well run club and do things the right way.

I think most people wanna see a clean fight and a worthy winner.

 

[HTG]

This is where I’m currently at. If they fail to punish city in a way that leaves them having to basically rethink the way in which they operate because they’ve been relegated and had trophies collected and titles awarded removed, they’ll just come back and feel emboldened and invincible and continue cheating and ruining the league and people will turn away and the whole thing continues to be a farce.

I don’t care how many titles Liverpool are awarded if city are stripped of theirs. Whoever finished second behind them deserves to be crowned champions and Liverpool are a well run club and do things the right way.

I think most people wanna see a clean fight and a worthy winner.

Do you really think people will turn away if nothing serious happens? Because my feeling would be that they just shrug their shoulders, think it could not have been that bad and everything continues as usual.

 

[Samid]

 

[Salfordlad70]

Do you really think people will turn away if nothing serious happens? Because my feeling would be that they just shrug their shoulders, think it could not have been that bad and everything continues as usual.

I really don’t know is the answer. Nobody knows, but it will stink if they’re not punished and that stink will last I fear. Or maybe, you’re right and people will just shrug shoulders and carry on. If there’s transparency and the charges are explained in detail so there is little doubt as to what they’ve done or not done, the sport can recover and it will hopefully help to clean up the game.

The premier league have to get this right and it’s up to the other clubs to keep the pressure on and not allow them to go easy on them. As fans, we can only sit, watch and wait for justice to be served.

 

[OldSchoolManc]

I guess what will happen is that they will get a punishment, the biggest points deduction ever (something like 20pts), which will stop them from winning the league one season, maybe getting into the CL (though not sure), and a massive, "unprecedented" fine. It will all be perfectly unsatisfying and unfair considering the scope of what they've done and the fact that cheating for 15 years has ensured them a place of dominance, but the governing bodies can wipe their hands clean but using hyperbole formulas such as "biggest sanctions ever" etc. And it will be swept under the rug by all those sport journos with their inflated sense of self-importance given their inability to report anything on it and their desire to stay in the good books of City anyway.

Hmmm. That’s heavily United!
Are there any Chelski titles we can hoover up too?

 

[2cents]

Hmmm. That’s heavily United!
Are there any Chelski titles we can hoover up too?

2005/06 and 2009/10.

 

[OldSchoolManc]

2005/06 and 2009/10.

Ooh! United won 8 in a row!
Now that would really have the ABUs up in arms!

 

[Cloud7]

I really don’t know is the answer. Nobody knows, but it will stink if they’re not punished and that stink will last I fear. Or maybe, you’re right and people will just shrug shoulders and carry on. If there’s transparency and the charges are explained in detail so there is little doubt as to what they’ve done or not done, the sport can recover and it will hopefully help to clean up the game.

The premier league have to get this right and it’s up to the other clubs to keep the pressure on and not allow them to go easy on them. As fans, we can only sit, watch and wait for justice to be served.

I will admit that even if city isn't punished properly, it won't affect my watching of United/PL/CL etc. I can't not watch football. I can firmly attest that most of my football watching friends have just shrugged their shoulders on this (outside of the UK and the ones inside the UK as well). I only really see it mentioned on here, though I know that could just be my experience

 

[FujiVice]

This is the proper table, because we're having Chelsea as well, if this is the proper non-corrupt history.

 

[adexkola]

This is the proper table, because we're having Chelsea as well, if this is the proper non-corrupt history.

Might as well strike Leicester too, as they had FFP violations leaving the Championship before their PL win. And also Blackburn, the way they were bankrolled was just... "unfair and abnormal"

Then what we have left is something I'm sure the entire football pyramid (except the cheats of course) would view as fair and deserved and just.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

Might as well strike Leicester too, as they had FFP violations leaving the Championship before their PL win. And also Blackburn, the way they were bankrolled was just... "unfair and abnormal"

Then what we have left is something I'm sure the entire football pyramid (except the cheats of course) would view as fair and deserved and just.

Yes except no, because no one (except you with your usual posturing) would equate Leicester's small issues and the Blackburn situation with the systemic cheating and corruption that built City. Nice try though!

 

[Bosws87]

Do you really think people will turn away if nothing serious happens? Because my feeling would be that they just shrug their shoulders, think it could not have been that bad and everything continues as usual.

Yep, I’ve not been to 3 out of the last 4 games because I have no interest anymore. The premier league has no integrity and slowly becoming a farce, no one even cares when they win it. That’s before even mention the refs.

This is their last chance to steer the league in the right direction.

 

[Josep Dowling]

Genuinely think if United weren’t the team that suffered the most from City’s success there would be more backlash from opposition fans.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Genuinely think if United weren’t the team that suffered the most from City’s success there would be more backlash from opposition fans.

Because no one cares about City no one cares, there’s just not strong negative emotion against them.

If United or Liverpool were in City’s position the backlash would be incredible.

 

[Ayoba]

Yes except no, because no one (except you with your usual posturing) would equate Leicester's small issues and the Blackburn situation with the systemic cheating and corruption that built City. Nice try though!

I think he was being facetious

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Genuinely think if United weren’t the team that suffered the most from City’s success there would be more backlash from opposition fans.

I agree with this as well, look at how they welcomed their success back when we were the ones being prevented from winning things.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

I think he was being facetious

You know his posting history?

 

[Bluelion7]

Because no one cares about City no one cares, there’s just not strong negative emotion against them.

If United or Liverpool were in City’s position the backlash would be incredible.

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

 

[Xeno]

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

You mean their declared spend? Or their actual spend?

 

[Josep Dowling]

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

Your argument completely disregards the fact that they have spent far more than they have reported in their accounts. This is one of the core reasons for the charges against them. Based on their accounts it may be a £200m net spent difference but the reality is way more. Haaland for example is being paid over £600k a week, which is more than double what any other club pays their best player in the Premier League.

How many players have 2 salaries and being paid from shell companies, just like Mancini was?

Also the inflation they caused in the transfer market which has lead to other clubs having to pay the same level in an attempt to catch up with them.

 

[OldSchoolManc]

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

How the hell do you think the ‘footballing world and the PL’ were ‘protecting’ United when the purchase by Glazers with United’s OWN MONEY was allowed to go ahead?!
It is an absolute disgrace that the purchase was allowed, yet the authorities gave it the green light.
I believe that this type of buyout is now barred?
United have been shat on, not protected.

 

[onefootyinthegrave]

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

Citys' epic scale, unprecedented cheating ways has got nowt to do with Uniteds' economically parasitical and football-wise incompetent ownership. The parasites have indeed been disastrous for United but we need to seperate that seperate issue from Citys' cheating and corruption.


United have indeed suffered at the hands of the cheating CFC scam but so too have Liverpool and all the premier league teams who came 'second' to the cheats, and those clubs who missed the top four and so missed out on Championship league money as well as those clubs who were relegated too.

All of these clubs who have suffered due to the cheats should be financially compensated by CFC and their puppet club should have all illegally gained titles strippebrand be kicked out of and banned from the Premier league for at least 5 years.

 

[roonster09]

The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure

 

[NICanRed]

I'm sure it's been dealt with earlier in this thread but are we happy that United aren't at risk of being charged under the FFP regulations.
I don't want to get too giddy about City being punished only to read in the paper some day that we, too, are being charged.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

This is the proper table, because we're having Chelsea as well, if this is the proper non-corrupt history.

We can't have Arsenal there - football is a family sport and their name has a bad word in it. Please remove. Take the Liverpool ones out as well please because they just look plain wrong. Goes without saying that Blackburn, Leicester and Spurs shouldn't be there either for very obvious reasons.

 

[Bluelion7]

Your argument completely disregards the fact that they have spent far more than they have reported in their accounts. This is one of the core reasons for the charges against them. Based on their accounts it may be a £200m net spent difference but the reality is way more. Haaland for example is being paid over £600k a week, which is more than double what any other club pays their best player in the Premier League.

How many players have 2 salaries and being paid from shell companies, just like Mancini was?

Also the inflation they caused in the transfer market which has lead to other clubs having to pay the same level in an attempt to catch up with them.

No, I said something about them breaking rules. My post, see below, was in response to the idea that justice would be harsher if it was United. The idea that United is somehow persecuted.

How the hell do you think the ‘footballing world and the PL’ were ‘protecting’ United when the purchase by Glazers with United’s OWN MONEY was allowed to go ahead?!
It is an absolute disgrace that the purchase was allowed, yet the authorities gave it the green light.
I believe that this type of buyout is now barred?
United have been shat on, not protected.

I believe I mentioned that they broke rules and will certainly face sanctions. The argument is the sanctimonious nature of some of the protests, and the generally accepted idea that City have spent every team into oblivion

Are there some accusations of “side” money, yes, but til we know the scope of those we are working with the numbers we are working with, and they aren’t far off United. It would be tough to see them having to offer a ton of side money to get players in recent years, as they are simply the more attractive destination. They aren’t just the better team, they have also developed the bettter players and contributed more to English player development.


How have they protected United? Well, that’s fairly obvious. Not even getting into the miracles of “Fergie Time”, or getting 10 minutes of added time when your down by a goal (which … just happened again)…

The whole concept of anti money doping rules were to protect the sovereignty of the established powers.

“You can spend money… as long as it’s money from certain sources”

“Well, we want to build up a team that can eventually make money from those types of sources.”

“Can’t allow that. You have to already have the massive following if you want to earn the massive following”

It is STILL happening. Chelsea had a perfectly legitimate company offer sponsorship, and not only had to provide 10 years of financial records, the company had to convince, in writing, why they would want to invest in a depreciated, non-European football team.

When TeamViewer sponsored United their offer was greater than the value of their company. Did anyone even care? The rules are different for United.

So City’s sins aside, it annoys fanbases when United act like massive victims.

 

[Josep Dowling]

No, I said something about them breaking rules. My post, see below, was in response to the idea that justice would be harsher if it was United. The idea that United is somehow persecuted.
I believe I mentioned that they broke rules and will certainly face sanctions. The argument is the sanctimonious nature of some of the protests, and the generally accepted idea that City have spent every team into oblivion

Are there some accusations of “side” money, yes, but til we know the scope of those we are working with the numbers we are working with, and they aren’t far off United. It would be tough to see them having to offer a ton of side money to get players in recent years, as they are simply the more attractive destination. They aren’t just the better team, they have also developed the bettter players and contributed more to English player development.


How have they protected United? Well, that’s fairly obvious. Not even getting into the miracles of “Fergie Time”, or getting 10 minutes of added time when your down by a goal (which … just happened again)…

The whole concept of anti money doping rules were to protect the sovereignty of the established powers.

“You can spend money… as long as it’s money from certain sources”

“Well, we want to build up a team that can eventually make money from those types of sources.”

“Can’t allow that. You have to already have the massive following if you want to earn the massive following”

It is STILL happening. Chelsea had a perfectly legitimate company offer sponsorship, and not only had to provide 10 years of financial records, the company had to convince, in writing, why they would want to invest in a depreciated, non-European football team.

When TeamViewer sponsored United their offer was greater than the value of their company. Did anyone even care? The rules are different for United.

So City’s sins aside, it annoys fanbases when United act like massive victims.

You’re clearly just an ABU. The Fergie time point is a load of nonsense. It’s no different to City or Liverpool now. Good teams find a way to win at the end of a game.

If anything Chelsea were given an unbelievable opportunity to transition from a club owned by a Russian oligarch. His UK assets should have been ceased. Instead it led to a special arrangement where additional investment had to be put into the club. On top of that the club tried to find a work around FFP and spent nearly £1b in transfer in two years.

Your club treats youngsters like trading cards, with no intention to actually use them in your own squad. The only you’re pissed about FFP is because Chelsea are a micro version of City.

 

[Jeppers7]

No, I said something about them breaking rules. My post, see below, was in response to the idea that justice would be harsher if it was United. The idea that United is somehow persecuted.
I believe I mentioned that they broke rules and will certainly face sanctions. The argument is the sanctimonious nature of some of the protests, and the generally accepted idea that City have spent every team into oblivion

Are there some accusations of “side” money, yes, but til we know the scope of those we are working with the numbers we are working with, and they aren’t far off United. It would be tough to see them having to offer a ton of side money to get players in recent years, as they are simply the more attractive destination. They aren’t just the better team, they have also developed the bettter players and contributed more to English player development.


How have they protected United? Well, that’s fairly obvious. Not even getting into the miracles of “Fergie Time”, or getting 10 minutes of added time when your down by a goal (which … just happened again)…

The whole concept of anti money doping rules were to protect the sovereignty of the established powers.

“You can spend money… as long as it’s money from certain sources”

“Well, we want to build up a team that can eventually make money from those types of sources.”

“Can’t allow that. You have to already have the massive following if you want to earn the massive following”

It is STILL happening. Chelsea had a perfectly legitimate company offer sponsorship, and not only had to provide 10 years of financial records, the company had to convince, in writing, why they would want to invest in a depreciated, non-European football team.

When TeamViewer sponsored United their offer was greater than the value of their company. Did anyone even care? The rules are different for United.

So City’s sins aside, it annoys fanbases when United act like massive victims.

I know we are supposed to attack the post and not the poster….United have done enough damage to this one in any case I suppose.

 

[NotThatSoph]

You mean their declared spend? Or their actual spend?

It's very unlikely that transfer spend is higher than reported. The cheating will be mainly inflated income, and some of it deflated wage costs.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

Genuine question to you, other city fans, Newcastle fans and all these fans who play the “cartel card” . Do you understand and comprehend that you yourselves stepped over an absolute stream of other clubs to achieve your success?.
Why do you guys seemingly miss this all the time you rant and rave about United Liverpool and arsenal.
When you were cheating and stepped ahead of the likes of Villa, Everton, Spurs, do you think you were doing the Pl a favour?

And also Liverpool have been more successful in the Pl era with citys state backing than they were before citys state backing. They have also got a net spend less than teams smaller than them and with less revenues.

You guys ought to educate yourself and get some self awareness. The crying and bitching over this “cartel” is absolute nonsense.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” .

“oblivion”



Should be posted whenever someone talks so much out of their arse.

 

[padr81]

Heard that Omar Berrada is the main man behind all 115 charges and his club at time of trial are likely to be expelled not just from the PL but from existence entirely.

No idea how true it is but he rumour is, he was filmed by der Spiegel putting books in the oven.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Heard that Omar Berrada is the main man behind all 115 charges and his club at time of trial are likely to be expelled not just from the PL but from existence entirely.

No idea how true it is but he rumour is, he was filmed by der Spiegel putting books in the oven.

That’s fine, by the time City’s lawyers let this get to trial, we’ll all be long gone

 

[jasT1981]

Heard that Omar Berrada is the main man behind all 115 charges and his club at time of trial are likely to be expelled not just from the PL but from existence entirely.

No idea how true it is but he rumour is, he was filmed by der Spiegel putting books in the oven.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Why do people share videos from that absolute dipshit of a human being?

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Well, in fairness, United and Liverpool would never be in City’s position. When examining ways to keep other teams down… I mean “make it fair with FFP” …. They looked at the areas teams like United and Liverpool had massive edges in terms of revenue and decided those would be the only legitimate ways teams would be allowed to count money towards FFP.

Over a 15 year period City’s net spend is only 200 million higher than United's… which is A minuscule difference for a period that long.

So while they may face super harsh penalties for how they reported acquiring those funds, the idea that they blew United away in spending and that’s the only reason they won… isn’t really true. They spent their money better and built better teams and a better organizational structure.

But the whole “people would be coming after us with pitchforks if this was United” seems totally off. The footballing world and the PL have gone out their way to shield teams like United and ensure they don’t get completely run over despite their incompetent owners and structure. The whole system is designed to protect legacy advantage; so those arguments and lamentations seem disingenuous.

In a genuinely fair world, teams would either be allowed to spend whatever the owners are willing to spend, OR everyone would be set to the same spending limit, regardless.

But the legacy fanbases don’t want “fairness”. That’s the biggest crock. They want the same 2 or 3 teams to contend every year and for nothing to infringe upon their entitlement.

So no, if United and their traditional powers were still spending teams into oblivion there wouldn’t be “outrage” … there probably wouldn’t even be FFP rules… because things would still be going as the PTB want them to.

I can get United fans being mad because City have the team United feel like they deserved. But acting like one of the richest, highest spending teams on earth is some sort of perpetual victim is just odd.

Your owners are more to blame than City.

You mean they said “if they earn it (really), they can spend it”?…. the basics of any business/financial model?

HOW DARE THEY!

We didn’t fast forward, circumvent the rules, pay our managers 80% of their salary via a consultancy fee through the Cayman Islands, didn’t get an airline (owned by our owners) to sponsor our socks for £100m/year.

Our “sin“ is winning the league just as the PL started and SKY/money from football ramped up massively. But that was on top of what had come before - we got relegated (I watched it) and had the biggest attendance in England - our size, success and support is built on decades and decades and decades. It’s what made my 26 year wait so special.

Im not jealous of City… their football is (sometimes) great to watch but it’s everything wrong with sport, life. As much as I can’t stand Liverpool and want to beat them every time, I can still respect them… their club and support is decades old too.

The only thing you’re right about is it’d be different if it was United that had systemically cheated their way to success - it would be…. half the world would be on us and almost every part of the media. If you think we get some easy ride, you must have been living under a rock.

(PS. we don’t want the same teams at the top (other than our own… like every fan does). I remember Forest winning the league, then going on to back to back European Cups. I remember Villa and Evertons title winning teams - fantastic mixes of well built teams. Teams with real history. Fantastic memories).

 

[MrMarcello]

The only you’re pissed about FFP is because Chelsea are a micro version of City.

They were the original City imo, well ahead of what Blackburn, Leeds, and others did to date, and in fairness they could do as they pleased and it's created a contingent of snobby Chelsea fans, seemingly. It would have been any club Roman bought in England that would have eventually won trophies galore. It could have been Leeds, or Spurs, or Villa, or whoever. Same had ADUG bought any club other than City. It's akin to winning the lotto.

Roman buys Chelsea in 2003 and they spent £111.35m net the first transfer window, summer 2003, an unprecedented spending spree practically buying enough for a new first XI. They spent another £22m in the winter window (if Robben's pre-contract is considered that year). That's about £186m plus £36m in today's money adjusted for inflation.

However, transfer fees have soared well beyond inflation meaning they'd have spent somewhere between £500-800m in today's insane market terms, depending on how high one adjusts transfer fee inflation; I've seen numbers from that 01-05 era tripling to quadrupling then transfer fee rates in today's terms. Granted, I don't believe Roman would have bought 8-10 players in one summer at £40-80m each in today's market.

They spent another £86.85m net (£140m today) in the summer 2004 window plus £3.75m (£6m) in the winter window (Jarosik), totaling £90.6m (£146m). Adjusting for transfer fee inflation it's probably £300m plus. They curtailed spending a bit in summer 2005 at £45.675m net (£71.75m) thanks to a few sales and reported winter spending of £3.8m net (£5.5m), totaling £51.175m net (£77.25m), or let's say $100m plus today. Oh, and they also lured the hottest coach on the market that summer 2004, Mourinho, and paid him a big wage. Speaking of wages, though I cannot confirm, but supposedly they were offereing higher compensation packets to players.

They also spent large in summer 2006 but offset a third of that outlay on transfers out plus signed Ballack on a free tansfer (albeit with a hefty sign-on fee most likely). Roman began reducing the transfer spending in 2007 before making some splashes here and there.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

 

[SuperiorXI]

How can it not be in the public's interest? There wouldn't be a white paper if not for the public.

 

[Fortitude]

@adexkola assuming this is true, do you read such things and think “conspiracy“ is infeasible?

In fact, what is your reaction to this kind of information?