Oil Money in Football | New City expose

City fans have been suspiciously quiet in this thread recently. What's the general vibe amongst your lot regarding this situation?

Forums are going bonkers saying it's a load of rubbish, Bayern stitch up etc. I think I agree with the BBC article someone posted yesterday, it's pretty grubby but the majority of 'revelations' I've seen is nothing that wasn't really already known.

I'm personally indifferent, rather we had different owners and I can honestly say I've not been to a home game since thaskin took over (who was worse) IMO and probably won't go back until they've gone. Still go to a few away games which I prefer anyway
 
The Premier League if they have the guts and integrity will pursue them over tax, as will the HMRC. The HMRC will also go after City's players, if it's proven their contracts are spilt amongst numerous shell companies to not only hide their true value but avoid paying tax.

Still, the most obvious way to get City is due to fraud. If the allegations are proven, then City have defrauded UEFA, with or without some UEFA officials involved. They have also defrauded the Premier League and each PL club as well as defrauding the UK government among others.

The issue is who will go after them. The owners have their hands in many pies and have greased many palms. Those that do risk facing a team of lawyers who will tie them up in knots for years. The fact they had threatened this already suggests they were guilty.

If City fans want to ignore this, then fine, but what about the people of Manchester who are not City fans but are fans of other clubs or no clubs. Their City is getting into bed with these scum.

One thing to note is City have not denied these allegations at all. Which suggests they feel untouchable.
 
The Premier League if they have the guts and integrity will pursue them over tax, as will the HMRC. The HMRC will also go after City's players, if it's proven their contracts are spilt amongst numerous shell companies to not only hide their true value but avoid paying tax.

Still, the most obvious way to get City is due to fraud. If the allegations are proven, then City have defrauded UEFA, with or without some UEFA officials involved. They have also defrauded the Premier League and each PL club as well as defrauding the UK government among others.

The issue is who will go after them. The owners have their hands in many pies and have greased many palms. Those that do risk facing a team of lawyers who will tie them up in knots for years. The fact they had threatened this already suggests they were guilty.

If City fans want to ignore this, then fine, but what about the people of Manchester who are not City fans but are fans of other clubs or no clubs. Their City is getting into bed with these scum.

One thing to note is City have not denied these allegations at all. Which suggests they feel untouchable.


I imagine that City is viewed by your authorities as an exotic entity which injects money in the economy and pays taxes
 
If the leaks can't hold the attention of United fans who are directly affected by this, there is zero chance that UEFA or FA do something about it. Might as well give up on first place now as there is no way any club in the world can go toe to toe with a country with infinite funds.
I'd say the signs are there that we already have given up trying to to compete. The Glazers won't be committing fortunes to catch them, top 4 is the goal from their financial perspective.
 
If anything the deafening silence in uk media adds weight to Spiegels claims about the extent of city’s reach. A truly pointless vanity club, cheapening the sport.

You clearly missed the big important news which was Jose putting his hand to his ear in what was labelled "eargate". There was a 4 hour debate on talk shite and numerous other mentions of the notorious ear incident.

It was so concerning in fact that one intelligence defying cluster cnut labelled the ear incident of 2018 a "filthy" act. They never mentioned anything about the bribery, coercian , corruption, financial fraud and complicity by the media with the facilitation of it by the governing bodies of football. Obviously because that pales in comparison vs hand to ear gestures.
 
Thinking outside the box a little, seeing as there's a precedent already in English football, could the other 19 PL clubs walk away from the PL and form a new competition. Negotiate with the Football League to form a promotion and relegation system.

How complex would that be, and how would they go about excluding Manchester City not only from the newly formed league but persuading the football league to exclude City, or simply banning then via the rules system due to their ownership status (basically no sovereign backed clubs or something).

I'm not saying this is likely or even possible, but just an idea of how to deal with it. It's not as if the league couldn't gain sponsors, TV coverage and it would completely nullify City and any legal challenges they may try.

Again, not putting it forward as a real option, just thinking outside the box on ideas how to rid the game of these people.
 
Thinking outside the box a little, seeing as there's a precedent already in English football, could the other 19 PL clubs walk away from the PL and form a new competition. Negotiate with the Football League to form a promotion and relegation system.

How complex would that be, and how would they go about excluding Manchester City not only from the newly formed league but persuading the football league to exclude City, or simply banning then via the rules system due to their ownership status (basically no sovereign backed clubs or something).

I'm not saying this is likely or even possible, but just an idea of how to deal with it. It's not as if the league couldn't gain sponsors, TV coverage and it would completely nullify City and any legal challenges they may try.

Again, not putting it forward as a real option, just thinking outside the box on ideas how to rid the game of these people.

Considering current tv deals and other legally binding contracts I imagine this is implausible.
 
Except the City fans that wore those Catalan Independence symbols last season
Think there were wearing the yellow ribbon weren't they, which is about freeing political prisoners. Not directly connected to Catalan independence.
 
Considering current tv deals and other legally binding contracts I imagine this is implausible.
It's more likely they'll take this kind of action in the new super league. They'll let City in but impose strict financial restrictions to stop any misbehaviour.
 
I’m very against the super league. But when you have a team who can’t even fill their stadium for games in the competition, beat shaktar 9-0 on aggregate, considering shaktar are a usually decent European outfit, you have to see why others think it makes sense. If we continue where we are you could look at city winning champions leagues routinely. A club who was playing Mansfield 20 years ago. It makes a mockery of the sport.there was a time when drawing shaktar would have been seen as a tricky away trip, difficult to manage the league game after and manage the squad. City literally have a second string stronger than anything shaktar could ever produce.
 
How big of an issue were TV and sponsor deals when the sides walked away from the Football League to form the Premiership?

I don't like the new Super League idea but it could replace the Champions League.

Essentially the idea would be to leave City in the Premier League and Champions League, but as the only club. A league of their own if you will.

I would think the mere threat of this would be enough to be honest.
 
I’m very against the super league. But when you have a team who can’t even fill their stadium for games in the competition, beat shaktar 9-0 on aggregate, considering shaktar are a usually decent European outfit, you have to see why others think it makes sense. If we continue where we are you could look at city winning champions leagues routinely. A club who was playing Mansfield 20 years ago. It makes a mockery of the sport.there was a time when drawing shaktar would have been seen as a tricky away trip, difficult to manage the league game after and manage the squad. City literally have a second string stronger than anything shaktar could ever produce.


I totally agree that a balance should be found in the FPF. You should allow new investors (so it's not always the same 4 ou 5 historical clubs on top and others way behind) to enter the market and give them the opportunity to inject a reasonable amount of extra money for a set amount of years (provided that they give financial guarantees) but after that the rules should be the same for everybody so it doesn't look like a club isn't playing the same sport.

It's the Bosman ruling that really killed clubs like shaktar though.
 
FFP should be abolished if they are not going to stick to the rules. Too many ways around things and teams not punished enough. They should be docked points.
 
Investment yes, what is effectively State ownership, no.

That includes City and PSG examples but also Real Madrid.
 

What a gem. Think this is a small deal? Guardiola’s embarrassment is showing. Effectively he appears to say here (as quoted by AP) that he does not trust elements of City’s ownership.

At the end, UEFA, FIFA, English federation has to say if we were wrong,” Guardiola said. “If we were wrong (we) will accept it but I hear what my club said to me and I trust a lot of them.”

 
Some of the ideas here for punishment and what should be done to prevent things in the future are laughable and make me think that people haven’t read the actual “allegations” or just don’t understand there implications.

Numerous people above are asking for points deductions, again read the articles this is a uefa rule not a premier league one, why would the premier league dock points for that? And secondly and even more hilariously people calling for a breakaway league if city are not punished up to a standard fans see fit, again I refer you to my previous answer. Obviously if some of these punishment calls are tongue in cheek then apologies.

Seems to me that there isnt much debate about these articles and instead people standing up shouting for punishment without understanding them.
 
FFP should be abolished if they are not going to stick to the rules. Too many ways around things and teams not punished enough. They should be docked points.
But FFP is only an element of this story. What about manipulation and fraud and deceit? What about money doping and falsely reporting wages, etc, etc. Often it’s the cover up that’s more egregious. Have you read the articles? As I said here before, I had a thread closed down in here earlier this year for calling them cheats.
 
Read the Der Spiegel articles Caftards. It’s wild stuff. Retrospective ‘adjustment’ of Abu Dhabi ‘sponsors’ to cheat the rules. And the quote: ‘we can do what we want’.

Key points - this is not remotely comparable to the behaviour of any other club in Britain. It’s bizarre. It’s anti-football, anti business competition, by any metric it’s wrong. And if it’s not checked, it won’t end well.
 
PSG and especially City must be brought down. The stench of their corruption is unbearable. We must get rid of them.

Is there proof of corruption involving City? Because regarding PSG so far there is none.
 
I totally agree that a balance should be found in the FPF. You should allow new investors (so it's not always the same 4 ou 5 historical clubs on top and others way behind) to enter the market and give them the opportunity to inject a reasonable amount of extra money for a set amount of years (provided that they give financial guarantees) but after that the rules should be the same for everybody so it doesn't look like a club isn't playing the same sport.

It's the Bosman ruling that really killed clubs like shaktar though.
Shakhtar is maybe the worst example you could have made. The club is bankrolled by someone as despicable as you can get in the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Shakhtars demise the last couple of years is due to the decline of the Ukrainian league in general. To be honest I have no idea how Shakhtar has escaped punishment due to FFP: they dont even play their league and CL games in their own city and havent for a couple of years now.
 
Shakhtar is maybe the worst example you could have made. The club is bankrolled by someone as despicable as you can get in the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Shakhtars demise the last couple of years is due to the decline of the Ukrainian league in general. To be honest I have no idea how Shakhtar has escaped punishment due to FFP: they dont even play their league and CL games in their own city and havent for a couple of years now.

I didn't know that, replace Shaktar with Ajax then.
 
Is there proof of corruption involving City? Because regarding PSG so far there is none.
Oh come on. If you don’t think PSG have had dodgy sponsorship etc then you’re extremely naive.

Let me ask you this: without your PSG hat on, do you think these state owned football clubs are a good thing? And if so, why?
 

One thing good about this. It shows on which side whose bread is buttered. Look at the Manchester Evening News. They go through hoops to bury the story. It's in there, referenced in a small way, but every trick in the book to make it a small story.
 
The embarrassment this must cause the Premier League?

The team that is going to win the league at a canter for the 2nd year running is doing so based on lies, fraudulence and corruption.

When the teams below them can't keep up and everybody knows City are cheats, I can't see people rushing to watch the PL.
 
I wonder if players will take a stance at one point and just not play for them or if they will feign ignorance? I wouldn't want to work for certain companies for instance, so I wonder whether that comes into it in football at all (and I'm not talking about not wanting to play for your favourite club's rivals).