What is the saddest part of hearing the news that Man City have been charged with more than 100 breaches of financial rules?
The fact that it didn’t shock me at all?
Or my assumption that the Champions worst case scenario is a heavy fine which of course they can afford to pay?
They wouldn’t be the first to manipulate Financial Fair Play Rules by essentially including any fine in their action plan.
It should be stressed the club deny any wrongdoing, are surprised of EPL’s stance and remain confident their evidence provided is ‘irrefutable’.
Any hopes Gooners have of sanctions, including points deductions, is simply wishful thinking, although it would make the last few months more comfortable if that happened.
Sheikh Mansour is worth 21 billion, more than enough to pay for the best lawyers in the world to make sure that any punishments that impact events on the pitch would be the worst-case scenario. Any trophies being taken away in the past or future will be consequences City would fight for years and take to every last court.
Even if City deep down have been aware they were breaking rules, they wouldn’t do so without understanding their legal position.
The time frame being investigated is between 2009-2018. Experts believe that even the harshest punishment can only apply to those individual seasons. So only Man City being relegated helps us.
Will the Premiership themselves allow things to get that far?
If one of their representatives is guilty of cheating, they should be reprimanded.
You are noble for thinking so, but there’s too much money in the sport.
Nations which break Human Rights Laws owning clubs, FIFA accused of corruption, a World Cup that cost more than all of the previous combined, the biggest clubs in the UK trying to break away, Chelsea spending more in one window then the whole of Germany, Spain, France and Italy all together, etc.
My point being, don’t think the English governing body has woken up with a morality check and suddenly want to clean up the game.
If they do, they can’t only target the Etihad as well, as the accused will point out.
The Prem will also think of their own self-interest. It’s hard to market the idea of the Prem as the ‘best in the world’ if your relegating your clubs for financial breaches.
They would never be able to replay that ‘Aguero moment’ for a start if City end up being stripped of all their winners medals.
It’s the same reason those in power have resisted stadium bans and points deductions for racism and crowd trouble.
You don’t want to risk one of Britain’s biggest brands by admitting it has issues. Why do you think our Prime Minister and future King got involved once the Super League became an option?
Money ….
City have been here before. UEFA found them guilty in 2020 of similar breaches and kicked them out of the Champions League.
City made the same noises they have made now, used unlimited resources to take their case to CAS, where their conviction was overturned.
City are not just going to sit around and have their domestic dominance in the last decade taken away.
Don’t trust those who enforce the rules to have the courage to fight Man City all the way.
I wouldn’t want our title win to be decided due to our rivals having points taken away.
It wouldn’t feel as special and would impact the integrity of the competition.
Which is why it won’t happen.
If guilty, a fine is a compromise that suits all parties.
City can find it down the back of the sofa, while the Prem maintains its competitions moral issues.
Everyone points to Serie A throwing the book at their biggest names during the country’s conspiracy investigation.
The sport in Italy suffered for it with it’s international viewing figures not on the same level as their English peers.
The Prem are not going to hurt themselves in the long run.
They like the idea of the majority of money in the sport being spent in this part of Europe and want to keep in that way.
Guilty or not, money talks.
Dan
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Can’t be bothered to read all this, there’s already a good article on this subject on JA today so I’ve commented there.
And commented here
Haha
Lol
100 counts of breaches of financial rules. Lawyers will be going through every word & sentence. Then prepare 100 arguments & defence against the charges. That ain’t going to happen this year. This has took longer than WW1 to get to today. So by perhaps 2027/28 we’ll find out,or know something.
The matter has been taken to an independent commission and City have no right of appeal, premier league judicial process is different from UEFA, which other court are referring to, they are in the court last resort already.The article seems to me like it has been written by a man city fan.They should be expelled from the league that will be a decision made in public interest.
A sober analysis of DANs welcome detailed article(what took JA, not Dan , but the Admins personally,so long to pounce on REAL and ACTUAL NEWS, for once!), would agree with many, even most of his points and I DO AGREE ON MOST. Specifically on “money talks” and “I wouldnt want out title win to be decided due to City being deducted points,” AND on a lot more besides, I firmly agree.
I take as read – always a dangerous assumption – that City will EVENTUALLY, be found guilty of enough of these charges to warrant proper punishment and ON THE PUNISHMENT ASPECT, is where I much take issue with Dans expected mere fine.
A fine, withouit other serious punishments too and however large, would be to City NO TRUE PUNISHMENT AT ALL and I AM FIRM IN BELIEVING that the PL would bring massive disrepute on themselves were they to let City off with a tiny slap of the wrist So NO, I do believe that down the line, some way down the line, City are in deep “doodle”.
I will now examine what that means for the NEAR FUTURE, WHICH IS WHAT MOST GOONERS ARE MOST INTERESTED IN, AS AM I TOO.
Firstly , it is bound to have some effect on attracting top players from elsewhere. Who would willingly sign when their future is unclear, even perilous? Not many top players would sign, IMO .
Secondly, we have the Pep factor. He had already said he would have faith in the owners and board but if he were lied too, he would be out the door asap. That is a massive factor, underestimated by only those naive people who cannot think past stage one. Essentially, it means his time there is limited and this issue will not be going away and will be a constant and evolving story that could, should and IMO will, feed JA for a long time to come. A sort of long ovedue JA REPLACEMENT FOR OZIL, IF YOU LIKE!
Ad PAT MAY HAVE BEEN SLOW OFF THE MARK YESTEDAY when JA ignored the biggest breaking football story in ages, but you can bet we will be getting far more pieces on it really soon.
Mostly , it will be opinion, because actual further news will probably only come in time and that time may well be longer than most of us hope.
City will fight this with everything they have and throw money without end at defending their name. But IMO, they will eventually be caught bang to rights at least on enough of those charges to seriously damage them and therefore I dismiss a mere fine as not realistic, nor being tolerated by other Prem clubs, most if not ALL of them, of course Arsenal included .
BTW, you can dismiss any hope of Murray Rosen , KC a known Arsenal supporter, being in any way biased or hurrying things along so that we benefit this season from a points deduction, as many will be hoping , albeit foolishly and in vain.
This is going to take CONSIDERABLE time my friends and anyone who knows about how legal eagles work will know that for certain.
My own opinion is that what will eventually happen is points deductions in the season of them beng found guilty and probably the following onseason also. Plus a fine but we can forget about that meaning anything to City or to any other club.
It us the damage to Citys own reputation and problems of morale among any players that sign in the interim, plus some existing players, that will be of most near term future benefit to us and other rival top clubs. For now my fellow GOONERS, I WILL LEAVE IT THERE.
BUT I WILL BE DEEPLY INVOLVED, AS WE ALL SURELY WILL, IN THIS EVOLVING AND LONG LASTING SAGA TO COME.
I answered you this morning. I wS In hospital sp took a very rare day off. Is that okay?
You did PAT? Then I have not yet seen it. Hope you health is now OK and that your fellow Admin Martin, is not also ill!
Sky are reporting that the offences go back 9 years ,could be a lot more serious for them than I first thought .
How many years will this drag on for is anyone’s guess
Yes, Man City would likely get fined instead of point deduction. Hopefully that will affect the players’ morale
How would a fine be a deterrent? They are financed by the richest people in the world so even if fined 50 million it wouldn’t affect them.
The club image will get tarnished as Juventus did
I guess Pép also might leave if they found guilty..
He has already made it clear that if they found guilty then Pép will leave
Only if there is a clause on his contract that allows him to do so
Mp, he would just resign.
Dan, I agree with most of your points, but can’t understand why you think the PL will do very little about it (if I have read your thoughts properly?).
If they are not going to take action, why on earth have they spent four years on it, having 100 specified charges highlighted and brought the subject out in the open?
KEN EXACTLY! Having brought ALL these charges and knowing how much resonances this story is and will continue to have, the PL are SURELY CONVINCED they have a watertight case! THAT’S MY VIEW ANYWAY.
I’d add this too: DAN talks about our global PREM viewing figures being harmed if City are severely punished.
I say City are, in global terms, a mere makeweight, compared to the other true global giants; ourselves, United , Liverpool and even Chelsea, are WAY ahead of City, Spuds, Newcastle and co!
Hey Ken
I think they were forced to by the German newspaper leaking information.
This is the same Prem who claim to have zero tolerance towards racism and hooliganism yet have never handed out stadium bans or point deductions.
The big 6 broke rules by trying to break away and were fined
It suits the Prem for all the money , highway wages , best players , etc to be in England
Let’s say they have to strip titles and start relegating clubs for cheating , hurts their brand , advertiser’s , sponsors , etc
Ask other way mate , what would Prem gain.by relegating Man City compared to money to make this go away
See your points Dan and can’t argue with any of them.
But I don’t think they can hide this away now it’s been aired, because it affects every other PL club and that’s the difference.
I don’t think it’s wishful thinking at all and why would we be bothered as it certainly won’t be happening this season but almost certainly will next season, if they remain in the league that is.
Excellent article, which I agree with to a large degree.
I’m not so sure. Juve got points reduction like 10 days after the news broke out. Surely they can afford great layers as well but the points got reduced quite quickly.
I think they will receive massive fines, and be “threatened” of more severe consequences where this to occur again.
They we be the poster child and serve as a warning to other clubs about the “financial doping” exercised by some clubs.
The PL fined and “threatened” clubs that showed interest in the Super League, but nothing substantial occurred in the end aside from fines which were easily paid.
I think a similar “punishment” will happen to City, and serve as a warning for future occurrences for other clubs.
I might sound ignorant here, but, from my understanding, Independent Commissions though treated as courts of law, have a very specific timeframe, unlike traditional courts of law? Meaning City and the Commission will have a specific timeframe to work with after which the PL will then implement the recommendations leaving City to appeal if they wish.
Have they given a time frame to respond to?
Fifa You are not correct . The independent commision is entirely within its right to take as long as it needs, to throughly examine , lets not forget all115 charges , all of which will need to be thoroughly examined in great detail and probably witnesses called, which will certainly further delay matters. Illness and immediate unavailability of witnesses is common.
Even if found guilty, City can and surely would then appeal to an entirely separate commission but again led by Murray Rosen who would go through the whole process again from scratch.
To hope, or worse still to expect, a speedy outcome is totally unrealistic, I have to tell you!
I do not think you are ignorant, but merely in error!
This could take months and months for an outcome and if it goes against city, they will appeal.
This could be the end of the premier league as we know it! Hear me out.
Some of the main charges against the Citizens include:
– over 100 breaches of the rules
– cooking the books
– overpaying players and managers
– failing to cooperate with investigations by the FA.
What benefits did they gain from their shenanigans over this period of time:
– over 14 major championships
– access to the very best players in world
– access to the very best coaches
– at least two British transfer records
– unfair advantage over other teams by spending more than 2B.
To level the playing field and bring parity back the league, City’s punishment has to be severe;
the punishment needs to fit the crime. A slap on the wrist will only encourage other schemers – Chelsea, Newcastle – to do the same.
Anything less than a full relegation from the league would be a major embarrassment to the FA (considering they spent over 4 years investigating the charges).
On top of that, we can also expect Club that have been relegated over this time to sue for financial compensation.
This could just be the opening shots for the premier league crapshow – for years to come.
You are quite correct Jon Fox. It’s been a four year investigation. There will be no time frame as to how long this will go on once the case commences. That man you mentioned Murray Rosen will have a panel of three people sitting in. If found guilty, naturally Manchester City will appeal against the decision. Murray Rosen will select a new panel of three. If people believe this will be concluded within a year, they are deluded. They probably believe in Tooth Fairies and Santa Claus. Manchester City certainly don’t have the worldwide following as the clubs you mentioned above. Put it this way,, Liverpool versus Manchester United is way bigger than Manchester United versus Manchester City Local Derby by a long mile. Has been since the 1960’s (probably longer). One would hope for the sake of football, for the sake of those past great legends no longer with us, past managers and owners who showed integrity, that Manchester City are dealt with the harshest of punishments. In past years gone, Swindon Town, Queens Park Rangers and Glasgow Rangers copped harsh penalties for less. I don’t really know the full story of those three clubs and what really happened. Maybe Jon Fox and Ken1945 can fill us in with what happened. Athletes receive harsh penalties for accidently taking the wrong pills and are labelled as drug cheats. Manchester City have been cheating for over a decade. More and more is coming out each hour. A few dodgy emails have been leaked through various media outlets for all to see. It’s 3:30 in the morning here in Australia. I need to start counting sheep. Apologies if there are spelling mistakes
Back handers!!!!!!
PJ you certainly, at 3.30AM, deserve the sleep of the wise!
I do not have sufficient knowledge of the intricasies of those other clubs penalties to aid your question. My gut feeling is that more than a mere fine is certain. Probably not relegation but docked points , probably for more than one season.
If Juventus in Italy with all its murky connections has been docked 15 points then I don’t see how the same shouldn’t happen to City in the EPL, providing they are found guilty. Personally, I’ve never understood the Fair Play “guidelines”. I always thought they were brought in by that shyster Platini to give the French teams a chance to catch up. I mean how is it possible that PSG can have the three biggest Superstars in the game on their pay roll, plus Verratti, $Dollarama, De Maria and co?, while other clubs are forced to keep a tight watch on their spendings. Although not, Chelsea and Manchester United, clearly .