City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with numerous FFP breaches | Hearing begins 16th September 2024
- Thread starter VanGaalEra
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You do know what "could" means The people I mentioned are 100% involved because they are responsible for money exchanges, the COO isn't, he could be out of the loop and not given access to all the books. Do I think that it's likely? No but it's possible and actually happens.
Dumbest shit I’ve heard. It’s far better us for City to be destroyed by the charges than to take their executive.Pure clickbait from Goldbridge. Omar Berrada joined City in 2016. The charges are from before then. Then signing someone of the calibre of Berrada is a biproduct of their cheating.
Time will tell but it definitely causes me some concern, as overwhelmingly happy as i am with this appointment.
He worked for City Football Group since 2011.
I find it unbelievably hard to think that a man in the top echelon of their management who was there for that long and responsible for sponsorships/finance wouldn’t have a Scooby about them cooking the books. It’s all very wishful thinking.
It's ridiculous that clubs are meeting with government officials. I mean we all suspected this would be happening but it's out in the open now.
Surely the PL has to want to put a stop to this sooner rather than later, as this is essentially City saying we are more powerful than the PL
Vaguely related to the topic, but have PSG done the same thing ?
They basically broke the market with the Neymar transfer, I cannot imagine they could have made such a deal without bending the rules. Not to mention they had Neymar, Messi and Mbappe on their payroll at the same time. I reckon those three were earning more than any other squad in the world (bar City)
They basically broke the market with the Neymar transfer, I cannot imagine they could have made such a deal without bending the rules. Not to mention they had Neymar, Messi and Mbappe on their payroll at the same time. I reckon those three were earning more than any other squad in the world (bar City)
Maybe but its plausible they didn't too. They've had FFP punishments before but have generally been seen to be cooperative. The Neymar type transfers have often been offset by budget signings elsewhere.
There might be an element of no one caring about ligue 1. Their chairman has a pretty cosy position in uefa and fifa too. If they're cheating they've made some vague attempt at being discreet and plausible unlike city so its easier to give them the benefit of the doubt.
The whole set up is very different, they're not that comparable to City.
People would be wise to keep things like this in mind when they debate any potential punishments. There's just too much financial downside by handing Manchester City a hefty punishment. It won't happen
Well, they are. It’s the inherent problem with nation states owning clubs. You can’t separate politics from football and football will always be secondary in that instance. That’s why anyone who thinks oil states and such putting money in the game is a complete idiot.
It does kinda feel like this is ramping up to the next level at the moment. Maybe a proper punishment is actually on the cards.
Jizz Hornkamp swap deal for Haaland?
Beat me to it.
What I don't think people understand is that football and the PL are the grains of sands here in terms of scaling and the worth to the government.
Stepping in "to save football"? No, we don't care what goes on in your little world. Stepping in to save international relations and tens of billions of pounds and future relations? It doesn't take a moment to see which is more feasible and in the interest of the country/government.
The direct lines City's cohorts will have are not based around a piffling football club or anything that goes on within that sphere.
Yep. The UK government (and probably most European governments) will hand serve the league title on a silver platter every year if they can.
And if nothing else, I hope this case really exposes that political line and disparity which had gone ignored for too long.
Abu Dhabi aren’t cutting ties with the UK over Citys punishment for feck sake.
At the very least it's leverage, which is dangerous. State ownership is a huge can of worms and should never have been allowed to happen.
I think if this were a factor the government would have killed this years ago when they first started investigating and not now in an election year when it’s a Labour government primed to take charge anyway
imo we are overplaying how much the royal family over there actually care.
Something is going on for sure, why is it being brought up in meetings at government level and then FOI requests being denied? If they didn't care it wouldn't even be discussed.
It always seemed ridiculous that a nation would cut ties because of football.
Because there won't be any punishment?
I doubt anyone, or even few for that matter, have suggested this can result in ties being cut between UK and Abu Dhabi.
Even if he wasn't the one signing the papers he undoubtedly knew all about it.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit if City were delighted at his appointment, the biggest club in the country is no longer going to be one of those pushing for stricter punishments.
The point is that City won't end up getting a serious punishment because the government will step in and overrule the Premier League.
They alraedy have form for this with the Saudi takeover at Newcastle. The Premier League didn't want it to go through but the government told the Premier League that it needed to happen.
But the government won’t be the government for much longer and they’re already using football to point score with fans anyway. If they get away with it then it’s all been a waste of time for them. Thats what the super league rulings and independent adjudicator is all about. If anything the UK government would talk the FA into doling out punishment if anything.
This is a country / government who fecked with the EU and couldn’t care less, they’re out for themselves
I agree with this. It is likely that the powers that be view city as an amusement that they can point at with their friends and say their team won the CL, but I doubt they actually care about City.
If the PL wanted to hand out a serious punishment, while I do think City might try to appeal to the government and the government may ask the PL to go a bit soft, if the PL hold firm I can’t see Abu Dhabi actually letting this influence real business deals and international relations. I genuinely don’t think football is as important to them, nor should it be.
This is just assumption on my part as well, but like you I think the notion that they would cut ties over football to be a bit outlandish.
Through what mechanism? Who exactly is the government putting pressure on? Members of an independent panel in charge of the investigation? The other 19 clubs to loosen up on the punishment? What legal mechanism is there for the government to step in and bar City from punishment?
The government cant overrule the Premier League as that would be a breech of FIFA rules which ban government involvement in Football.
The Bristish Government have spent a lot of money of gaining the rights to host Euro 2028 so I cant imagine they would want to risk England getting a FIFA Suspension which would likely see Britain stripped of those hosting rights.
There isn't a soul who has mentioned anything about cutting ties; that's a leap you've taken to argue against a strawman of your own devising.
Smoothing and maintaining relations is the literal opposite of cutting.
Do you think every club gets to see white papers and tackle affairs in the manner City have been allowed to? If you don't, why do you think that is?
Then where would the pressure come from for the UK to step in? All the Tories care about is money
We don’t know what clubs are involved, we don’t even know this is an outlier which means you’re falling into the straw man argument yourself but framing it in such a way that you’re trying to hide it
Theyre such a bloody rotten club, my God. The way they've convinced fans that they are the white knights against some sort of 'cabal'..(one, by the way, which has somehow failed every big club in italy, United, both big spanish clubs at one point) is propaganda of 1930s level success. The coverage on this whole affair is such a soft touch it's staggering and hard to make a case that a number of high profile sports journalists arent getting backhanders left right and centre. City fans would do well to accept, that prior to this takeover, you might have been unsuccesful on the pitch, but you were a respected club the same as so many all around the UK. And when normal people could just see to the naked eye test that what was happening wasn't right in a sporting sense, almost every single one I encountered went to the wall with every sort of conspiracy and justification possible - relentlessly arguing and suggesting any criticism is motivated by jealousy. I hope the club and the fans get what they deserve, an absolute humiliation and their decade of blatanly corrupt 'success' forever undermined.
The way they've convinced fans that they are the white knights against some sort of 'cabal'..(one, by the way, which has somehow failed every big club in italy, United, both big spanish clubs at one point) is propaganda of 1930s level success. The coverage on this whole affair is such a soft touch it's staggering and hard to make a case that a number of high profile sports journalists arent getting backhanders left right and centre. City fans would do well to accept, that prior to this takeover, you might have been unsuccesful on the pitch, but you were a respected club the same as so many all around the UK. And when normal people could just see to the naked eye test that what was happening wasn't right in a sporting sense, almost every single one I encountered went to the wall with every sort of conspiracy and justification possible - relentlessly arguing and suggesting any criticism is motivated by jealousy. I hope the club and the fans get what they deserve, an absolute humiliation and their decade of blatanly corrupt 'success' forever undermined.It won't make much difference. There's so little difference between a Sunack/Starmer government anyway. City will pay some sort of financial penalty at most.
On the Premier League itself. They will be told not to do anything severe enough that it risks jeopardising the relationship between the two nations.
It's already happened with the Newcastle takeover. The Premier League blocked the initial takeover. A mob of angry Geordies marched on downing street to demand that they could become a state owned play thing and then sure enough The Premier League mysteriously decided that actually Saudi Arabia were fit and proper owners.
I seriously hope I'm wrong. City are the biggest cheats in the history of this sport, but they have too much money, power and influence.
I'd Kevin Keegan style love it if they received a punishment that fit's the crime (Relegation from league level English football) but I just can't see it happening.
I'd Kevin Keegan style love it if they received a punishment that fit's the crime (Relegation from league level English football) but I just can't see it happening.
Abu Dhabi say jump and the Tories ask how high. So no, ties definitely won’t be getting cut.
There has been coverage of what's at stake (huge contracts and why the government would seek to assuage) throughout the thread; you don't have to cut ties entirely to pressurise. Seeking even some of that business elsewhere is enough, which does not equate to pulling out entirely. The amount of money they pump in is staggering and everything will be done to keep it that way, or do you doubt that?
I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole that screams conspiracy; nothing I've said hasn't been put out there by journalists or sources that haven't been refuted (see the tweet about the white paper interference, as an example).
I do struggle with those who see these governments do rotten thing after rotten thing and get caught out so frequently, believing in due process and things being above board this time, this time when there are 10's of billions at stake and a very solid and logical reason for them to handle these affairs.
I don't think the fallout from City being stringently punished revolves around football (oh my goshes and pantomime from the sport or its fans) and integrity etc. first and foremost. You, and others do, so we're fundamentally at odds in how we perceive this whole thing from the outset because from my scaling football is at the bottom of the totem in this whole affair. We focus on that [football] because it's what we care about and what City and their cheating is damaging, but it's just not significant relative to this grand scheme, as far as I'm concerned.
Football will recover whichever way this goes because it has no choice but to. There's money to be made no matter which direction this goes also.
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What’s this based on? I’m not saying they don’t have influence but making a mockery of English football has a lot more influence on the government than a slightly annoyed Arab prince.
Again, Coty and its owners have been fighting this for many years now. Why wait until now when it’s at its most public to lift a finger?
You’re being a bit naive.
Will happen eventually. Their current tactic is evidently to delay things as much as possible while they continue to hoover up trophies.