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

Drainy said:
They are threatening a SLAPP. It's obviously a public interest topic that we're all entitled to engage in discussion over. City, as many pricks who have too much money do, think they can abuse the legal process to chill people's freedom of expression.

Anyone who gets one of the letters should go to the law society website and find the solicitor roll number of the person sending the letter and report them for abuse of process and let them explain to their regulator if they have a claim
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I'm nearly certain that frivolous lawsuits solely designed to shut people up are quickly dismissed and those bothered can sue for costs and damages brought about by frivolous lawsuits. Or is this just a US thing?

And worst case, there are plenty of lawyers willing to take up such cases pro-bono (in exchange for a cut of the profits from the fines/penalties) on behalf of those being bothered by such suits.
 
adexkola said:
I'm nearly certain that frivolous lawsuits solely designed to shut people up are quickly dismissed and those bothered can sue for costs and damages brought about by frivolous lawsuits. Or is this just a US thing?

And worst case, there are plenty of lawyers willing to take up such cases pro-bono (in exchange for a cut of the profits from the fines/penalties) on behalf of those being bothered by such suits.
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In the UK the prevailing party wins costs. There will be show cause hearings but it could be strung out over a long time and really cause a nuisance even if you will have most of your costs paid back in the end.

In the US there are anti-SLAPP laws which are state level protections of the first amendment which does facilitate an immediate pre-(discovery)disclosure hearing that if the claimant fails to show the cause there will be a costs orders and other sanctions.
 
Drainy said:
In the UK the prevailing party wins costs. There will be show cause hearings but it could be strung out over a long time and really cause a nuisance even if you will have most of your costs paid back in the end.

In the US there are anti-SLAPP laws which are state level protections of the first amendment which does facilitate an immediate pre-(discovery)disclosure hearing that if the claimant fails to show the cause there will be a costs orders and other sanctions.
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Ah, I thought it was a universal principle, synonymous with freedom of speech and the press, that you can't use the law in this way to silence free speech.

It's fecked up that you can do this in the UK without fear of a fine or sanction from the legal authorities.
 
adexkola said:
Ah, I thought it was a universal principle, synonymous with freedom of speech and the press, that you can't use the law in this way to silence free speech.

It's fecked up that you can do this in the UK without fear of a fine or sanction from the legal authorities.
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Our Solicitors are far more heavily regulated than in the US.

The SRA has been making noise about being harder on solicitors who engage in SLAPPs and have published guidelines.

I would suggest being aggressive in referring anything a person suspects might be a SLAPP to them for their view
 
padr81 said:
They're actually not, that's why we have a legal system to establish guilt. You're free to say what you think, but if you're saying someone is cheat who hasn't been proven to be a cheat that's libel whether you like it or not.
I mean if me and you had a disagreement on here and I called you something you aren't guilty of or haven't been proven guilty of, you'd tell me to stop even if you had done the deed. (And vice versa of course).

Saying what they want without it proven is the domain of Alex Jones and Katie Hopkins and they've rightly both been censored too.

The point is just because we know something doesn't mean we're legally allowed to say it, cause it suits our pov.
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He's not saying they've been found guilty of being cheats - he's saying they're cheats, i.e. that's his opinion. There's so much in the public domain, i.e. the Spiegel docs, I believe the Football Leaks and the UEFA case; you do realise that some of the stuff that was dismissed because it was time barred, and some of the documents from Spiegel, undeniably show they've cheated and set up systemic processes to cheat.

You're a reasonable poster - please tell me you realise that even if all the charges are dropped, for whatever reason, you do understand the club you support has cheated?
 
Just listened to the pod. Clickbaity but he bought up that some City fan or channel had said that Goldbridge had received the C&D letter and that's where the whole thing started.

Basically he doesn't have one and that the 115 charges is not defamation, they have been charged.and that you shouldn't believe what you read on the socials.
 
LordSpud said:
Just listened to the pod. Clickbaity but he bought up that some City fan or channel had said that Goldbridge had received the C&D letter and that's where the whole thing started.

Basically he doesn't have one and that the 115 charges is not defamation, they have been charged.and that you shouldn't believe what you read on the socials.
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So he was just engagement farming? Sigh...
 
Rooney in Paris said:
He's not saying they've been found guilty of being cheats - he's saying they're cheats, i.e. that's his opinion. There's so much in the public domain, i.e. the Spiegel docs, I believe the Football Leaks and the UEFA case; you do realise that some of the stuff that was dismissed because it was time barred, and some of the documents from Spiegel, undeniably show they've cheated and set up systemic processes to cheat.

You're a reasonable poster - please tell me you realise that even if all the charges are dropped, for whatever reason, you do understand the club you support has cheated?
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I've said 100 times what I think of the charges. I'm talking absolutely 100% on Goldbridge, or any public figures not being careful in what they say. If you're on a public platform and you say team or person x is y, there's a good chance x will either gag you or sue you, before those charges are proven (proven being the key word). If Goldbridge did get a cease and desist from City its because he overstepped and they likely have him on it. He should have tread more carefully like Carragher or Delaney or proper pundits/journalists do ,who are very careful not to say "Hey Man City you are cheats" because they know the ramifications.

That's why I used the Lance Armstrong and OJ references. Everyone and their mother knew both were guilty but Armstrong won his libel case. My point was City wouldn't have sent him and in particular only him a cease and desist unless they had found a reason too.

What I'm trying to say and failing to say is "Charged 115 times Man City is perfectly valid", implying guilt is not even if we all know the truth.
 
I'm very surprised how many people believed him (including people whom I respect and think of as intelligent). To me it was always nothing less than the most obvious of lies.
 
duffer said:
Is that website reliable? It's quoting an unknown source from Man City where you would think in something like a flat denial, nobody would need to hide their identity.

He's said he'll be reading it out today on his podcast. Why he would lie about this is a mystery.

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So he just lied? For what? To get people to listen to his podcast? Why anyone bothers with this clown is beyond me.
 
duffer said:
Really, he just flat out lied and there wasn't one? Even for a "character" that's a super shitty thing to do.
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I listened to the first 10 mins to hear what happened and apparently he said he only went along with the cease and desist claim to fuel the fire etc I actually don't hate him like most here do but it was quite poor from him to clearly fish for clicks.
 
My decision to unsubscribe was correct then. He really began to grate on me as his channel got bigger and bigger. Shame as it used to be good entertainment.
 
SuperiorXI said:
My decision to unsubscribe was correct then. He really began to grate on me as his channel got bigger and bigger. Shame as it used to be good entertainment.
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A better way of looking at it is that your original decision to subscribe was completely wrong.
 
AngeloHenriquez said:
I listened to the first 10 mins to hear what happened and apparently he said he only went along with the cease and desist claim to fuel the fire etc I actually don't hate him like most here do but it was quite poor from him to clearly fish for clicks.
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His whole existence is for clout, which is why you cannot trust anything he says, meaning there's a million other things you could do that would be a better use of that time.
 
crossy1686 said:
His whole existence is for clout, which is why you cannot trust anything he says, meaning there's a million other things you could do that would be a better use of that time.
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True but i quite listening to fan commentary and no other YT channel is any good either once they reach a certain size
 
Keep Goldbridge chat to the other thread, that guy is literally just a chancer who makes money off United fans by being a plonker.

The silence now despite the 'near future' update really give me little hope. Fully expect an announcement soon about how FFP/PSR is being scrapped and City are getting a £5m fine.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Keep Goldbridge chat to the other thread, that guy is literally just a chancer who makes money off United fans by being a plonker.

The silence now despite the 'near future' update really give me little hope. Fully expect an announcement soon about how FFP/PSR is being scrapped and City are getting a £5m fine.
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Actually one of the current decent things about United is Goldbridge. The man is gold.

I will be interested to see who the nearly team are to City next season. It seems there's always a team who gets dodgy decisions all season and I'm beginning to think they always need a team thereabouts to try and keep the league interesting. Arsenal have had a few this season, Liverpool in season's past. See if the 2nd team after Chrimbo start getting some mad decisions in their favour.
 
SuperiorXI said:
C&D letter to YouTube fan channels, a new low and additional charge in my eyes for each letter sent. So far we know of two, 117 charges FC is the name, cheating is the game
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I guess we better hope the first 115 will hold up better than 116 and 117.
 
LordSpud said:
Actually one of the current decent things about United is Goldbridge. The man is gold.

I will be interested to see who the nearly team are to City next season. It seems there's always a team who gets dodgy decisions all season and I'm beginning to think they always need a team thereabouts to try and keep the league interesting. Arsenal have had a few this season, Liverpool in season's past. See if the 2nd team after Chrimbo start getting some mad decisions in their favour.
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This season actually the only reason it’s close is Michael Oliver. Arsenal would be Champions now if not for him.
 
It’ll be a record fine so the powers that be can say it’s unprecedented and a transfer ban for a season or two , there’s no way they’ll be punished to the severity that they deserve
 
SuperiorXI said:
In my book, if City can invent sponsors, YouTubers can invent C&D letters. All fair game. 117 charges stand.
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I watched someone break down the charges and the majority are not about sponsors, there's a lot of minor charges in there, so we will need to see how it works out.
 
Goldbridge exists because being a complete d*** actually makes good money these days.

We live in weird times.
 
LordSpud said:
Actually one of the current decent things about United is Goldbridge. The man is gold.

I will be interested to see who the nearly team are to City next season. It seems there's always a team who gets dodgy decisions all season and I'm beginning to think they always need a team thereabouts to try and keep the league interesting. Arsenal have had a few this season, Liverpool in season's past. See if the 2nd team after Chrimbo start getting some mad decisions in their favour.
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Liverpool had plenty this season too. Remember their pen (dive) Vs us when we were winning and the double yellow card for Dalot that will never, ever happen again for any other team? I'm sure Arsenal were thrown those decisions Vs spurs as you rightly point out.
 
Johnathan Liew in Guardian today complaining about the title race being an illusion. Whether it’s cheating or not is only tangentially relevant to their robotic success, he says.
 
If City do get off lightly, there’s absolutely no reason why every other team shouldn’t make up sponsors so they can spend whatever they want.
Not that anyone can compete with an entire states spending.
 
OldSchoolManc said:
If City do get off lightly, there’s absolutely no reason why every other team shouldn’t make up sponsors so they can spend whatever they want.
Not that anyone can compete with an entire states spending.
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Most other teams don't have billionaires who can invent random companies to pump money into though.
 
Tincanalley said:
Johnathan Liew in Guardian today complaining about the title race being an illusion. Whether it’s cheating or not is only tangentially relevant to their robotic success, he says.
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The broader picture is that dominance on this scale, whether earned legally or illegally, whether earned through the patronage of a state or a mastery of regulatory fine print, comes with a cost to the spectacle as a whole.
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Great point and article from him.
 
Von Mistelroum said:
Most other teams don't have billionaires who can invent random companies to pump money into though.
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It’s not a team or a football club you are competing against. It’s a lavishly rich nation state, pretending for political reasons to be a football team and wearing their colours. The Gross National Product of Uk is about 3.8 billion dollars. The GNP of “Manchester City” 115 is 830 Billion Dollars, that’s 218 times that of Britain.
 
It’s important to always say this. Let’s not support the illusion that they are a ‘club’. All the supporters activity, Bluemoon, all the improvements around the area, all are window dressing. It’s like America bought Stoke, and put the resources of the state behind them, but continued to project the myth that they were a bog standard English football team.
 
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