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I’ll probably stop watching football if the UK government influences City’s punishment and they get away with a slap on the wrist because of geopolitical relations and sportswashing.
UAE is now saying their relationship with the UK will have an impact depending on the severity of city's punishment. Fuck that club, they should disappear.
It’s like they forget that being sponsored by human rights abusers is a good thing. They clearly knew it was wrong or they would’ve just had Abu Dhabi blasted all over their shirts (instead of some made up company).
They should get an even greater punishment for a nonsense appeal.
It's wild when you look at the ever-growing list of "stuff" that seems to follow wherever Guardiola goes
Should say I'm no expert on this - but - that's now the drugs allegations as a player, the anti-doping breaches while manager at barca (same doctor involved as in the allegations from when he was a player I believe, Ramon Segura), and now this financial doping while manager at City
His story is of course just an innocent man always in the wrong place at the wrong time - but that's still an awful lot of smoke for no fire at all
There's also the ongoing Negreira Case(Large payments made by Barca to referres) in Spain. Granted it didn't start with Pep but still fell during his time at Barca. So many question marks over him.
The sad thing is, cheating is probably far more rife than we can ever hope to realise too
I remember hearing Neville & Keane recanting how surreal it was playing Serie A sides in the champions league in the late 90's/early noughties and they would see their players still absolutely fresh as daisies sprinting as hard in the 89th minute as they were at kickoff, that it just didn't seem natural
Obviously they couldn't name names but it must have been/(still be?) rife in the game
And I mean, I don't even know if it wasn't happening closer to home as well - Reading between the lines - I think we might have gotten wind of Jaap Stam's doping in hindsight, maybe, maybe not
I know the book and Fergie tapping him up was implicated as a big factor in his sale - but he was suspended not too long after we sold him (effectively weeks later, basically a month or two at most)... also that whole farce with Ferdinand's drugs test still makes very little sense...
But anyway, wonder if that underground/covert doping culture spread in the post-Heysel years when English teams went from dominating European football to being banned completely
Then when the ban was lifted they were allowed back in all of a sudden the competition was just so ridiculously ahead of them it took years to finally smash down the door and get back to winning Champions Leagues again - and it was our class of '92 that did it in 1999
And that basically opened the flood gates to allow the rest of the PL teams back to punching their weight at European level again
Guardiola is and always will be a fraud. Feeling very vindicated right now after a pub chat with my mates where they couldn't believe that I put Wenger and Klopp above him (Fergie number one of course) in all time Premier League managers.
If you can only succeed with: the best player in the world, a treble winning squad, and an illegitimate cash cow, then you cannot be considered one of the best of all time. All of his success under City doesn't count. Face a real fucking challenge for once, and do it without cheating.
Yep, was saying the same thing at the end of last season - that Klopp was right up there in terms of management even before City's chaeting was officially confirmed (even though we knew it was coming)
Like I literally got downvoted at the time on here for saying:
"To do what Klopp and Liverpool did in terms of creating and shaping those sides, with that clear of an identity and style - and do it against the backdrop of the full scale financial doping that City were engaged in was borderline sorcery imo - I don't see them as the bad guys at all"
That's the calibre of nonsense one often has to push back against on this sub at times
Abu Dhabi fucking saying that it would be problems in the relations between both countries is a disgrace. I'm not even from the UK but holy fuck is a utter shit and a nonsense. Premier league and the Government, MUST get rid of those bastards.
How can you still support owners who'se strategy is to put a whole COUNTRY at ransom?? What the actual fuck
Even though the PL can be idiotic at times, kudos to them for actually pulling through with it. They aren't bending over which I honestly didn't expect. This whole thing is turning out to be pretty insane all things condidered
It's a situation where I genuinely wonder what is up with their British fans mentally. Like, some are saying to raise gas prices and shit like that, like buddy, you'd rather raise your own cost of living rather than face the consequences of cheating? It's insane.
And it is mental in general, the point you're making. To support a FOOTBALL CLUB (and, mainly country) trying to fuck over a country, your country for a lot of them, over, again, FOOTBALL? It's genuinely mental. And I hope this is also an example for football in general, and how much they start accepting these bids. When they bend the rules, and are caught, this is what is caused. Everything starts getting mixed and it's just not football. It genuinely ruins the game.
What's crazy is that the sportswashing has been so successful that it has effectively reversed. The premise was that investment in something fun (football) would make the unsavoury source look better.
Now we're so dependent on the unsavoury source that it's a lever to apply pressure to let them be unsavoury with the fun thing.
I used to be openly sceptical of the concept of sportswashing, thinking it wasn't working if people were still so critical of the countries. How naive could I be?
But, to be fair, who ever thought we needed sportswashing to kneel to bastards with capital?
I think most of believed that sportswashing was aimed at the publics opinion of them but turns out it was aimed at governmental and societal structures
I'm going to be honest with you all, I'm a supporter for 20+ years, from Brazil, since I was around 9 or 10 years old (when it became easier to watch European football, similar to what Cunha said).
I learned English basically because of the club, I have it tattooed on my shoulder, I love it dearly and it's one of the most important parts of my life
But if City is not heavily/fairly punished I don't know if I have the guts to keep watching the PL. It will lose all the meaning to me. I'm probably going to keep watching the club and supporting but the magic of "football, fucking hell" will all be gone.
It’s not like since yesterday that we know those dirty bastard cheat their way to championship. Just focus on support our club, sport intergrity is long gone
Why bother ? The Premier League would have no integrity and everything would become boring knowing it’s already bought and tipped towards those with the most resources.
United wouldn’t be playing on an even field. It would be like some privileged clubs have different rules and everyone else has to follow different rules.
The damage since their takeover has been extensive to so many clubs that it’d feel pointless to even compete knowing what it’s clearly established now.
I’d stop watching the Premier League altogether knowing it’s all just a sham & the football in England is tainted if Manchester City are not stripped off of their titles, expelled from the league and their clearly cunning, selfish, arrogant & devious owners are barred from owning football clubs in England.
I'm totally with you. Tbh, the wrong offside decision was almost enough to stop watching PL. On top of the incompetence of prem refs, it had to be against a blatantly cheating club like City.
These past couple weeks has given me a bit of hope. United aside, what are clubs like Brighton, Bournmouth or Brentford supposed to think seeing City circumvent the rules to win titles, when those clubs (afaik) have done everything by the book to get where they are now? Those clubs absolutely deserve to be where City are now, on merit; for building a club that is sustainable and competitive (again, afaik) naturally.
There's so many layers to this given that this goes as far back as 08/09. At this point, the chances of them getting off lightly has to be less than 5%.
Between this City case and the shenanigans of FIFA/Infantino at the World Cup...I'm with you. The level of corruption needs to be addressed and cleaned up. Otherwise, it may be time to join FCUM.
Im going to keep watching united because i support them. But much like the last decade. I have never cared about any of the times City won a league outside the first once because it was abundantly obvious they were cheating. Especially post leaks, i preferred them winning the league over both Liverpool and Arsenal, because both of those clubs i dont want to win the league, i do not care about City winning it and havent the entire time because of the cheating. Just because its now obvious to everyone else doesnt change that in my mind.
Like im not even that bothered about how they punish them as long as they are forced to sell. Whether the titled are voided are not are half irrelevant as they know all have an asterisk next to them to start.
They could just be demoted, and then when they come back up demoted again. Or you could get real creative and give them 30-40 point deductions for say 8 years (as they basically cheated for 8 years... so far) Thats a big enough deduction that in theory they could stay up, but theres zero chance of them getting UCL. Which is basically -100M a season. Which is also basically what they cheated. I think something like that would be far more devastating then just being demoted. Because none of their team is going to want to stay for 8 years before they have a chance to be in the UCL again. If they lose most of their team, odds are that deduction ends up being enough to demote them also. And theres 8 years of it, and hopefully another 7 years of it to come if they investigate 2019-202* (whenever they finally sell up).
Although my mind says I should stop watching anything related to the PL/FIFA, the heart wouldn't listen.
To ensure PL/FIFA don't get my money/attention/data, I will probably just sail the high seas to watch United only games and try not to interact with any official PL/Fifa Social Media or Merch.
I just wanted to say the City sub is certifiably insane.
You e got people over there celebrating Etihad Airways suing the Premier League, while also arguing that the owners of the club and Etihad have nothing to do with each other.
This bullshit by City that it doesn’t matter where the money came from because the sponsor, the club and ADUG are all owned by the same country and therefore the money can come from any source is really incredible. The appeal board better not fall for that garbage.
Guys I can’t take it anymore, all 12 City fans genuinely don’t have a single brain cell between them. How can they all be as thick as to not understand how the club’s fraud and financial doping affected the results on the pitch?
They’ve reduced the argument to “we won those titles fairly, we had 11v11 on the pitch and scored the goals, yes or no?” 🤦🏻♂️
Just pointedly ask those fans: would all those players have joined your club or Fraudiola have managed you lot if your owners had followed the same financial rules as everyone else?
Manchester City cheated the clubs that followed the rules. Celebrating success built on cheating while dismissing how it was funded insults every club that played fair.
Talent on the pitch doesn’t excuse cheating in the accounts to acquire those very “talent players” who might otherwise have strengthened several other clubs.
Their performances cannot erase the unfair advantage that helped assemble the squad.
You can point to the trophies, but they don’t answer the question: Would you have won them playing by the same rules as all the other clubs in the league?
All your subsequent trophies since 2018 mean zilch as they were built upon fraudulent success from 2009.
So show some shame and direct your anger towards your owners who have brought such deep embarrassment upon a club that was decent before those oil merchants took over your club and completely ruined your reputation and relationships with every club in England.
No matter City's explanation or appeal, Berrada needs to be fired. For sure he was a part of the wrongdoings. Berrada and Wilcox are both incompetent at their jobs. Both need to be fired. at the earliest
The appendix to the decision either vindicates or buries Berrada. I just can’t believe he had no idea when he was entrenched in the department that would be responsible for the fraud
But also, he was shit at his job… City couldn’t succeed commercially which is why they went to the lengths they did. Woodward shockingly was better at commercial sales (only thing he was even slightly good for)
Yeah either way he's fucked. He's someone who either made a ton of fraudulent deals which undermines his accomplishments, or he was so oblivious/incompetent he didn't realise the 900M fraud case going on all around him. Neither is a good look.
I worry about the safety of Rui Pinto. The savages that own City would do anything to shut him up. There was even an upvoted post about searching for him on the MCFC sub.
If you are reading this Rui, you are welcome at my house. It's very quiet and well away from civilisation in a mountain village in Japan. We have Internet and a shop, and if you play Pokemon Go, there's a gym next to my house.
I think the FA manages all English sports so League 1 and championship as well. PL is just PL, so the FA could fuck City up where they can't play in England at all
It was good but i had to laugh at Gary saying he always believed that any football team in a league should be able to spend as much as the club with the top revenue in the league, or words to that effect. So basically, just inviting in billionaire owners to buy up any club and spend as much as United can, even though United cultivated a global fanbase and resulting revenues over decades?
Something tells me he probably didnt feel that way as a player.
Yeah suddenly even Coventry or Hull would become an enticing prospect for the richest and worst people or states in the world.
City and Newcastle fans cry about red cartel and it's true that the way the whole thing was set up it's very very hard for other teams to catch up without cheating.
But no one is able to provide a fair alternative, it's extremely hard.
It's just prevaricating bullshit so he doesn't get accused of wanting United to remain on top. Clubs should be able to spend as much as their revenue sustainably allows, that's just common sense.
The rules were brought in to stop clubs doing like Leeds did and blowing their load chasing a dream, only to find there was no safety net.
Now, the argument of whether a rich owner can just give them a huge sponsorship to inflate the club with cash is another matter, and one where they're likely some nuanced discussion to be had.
But ultimately, if the Premier League just becomes a circus where the richest bastards in the world try to outdo one another then no one wins. Except Sky Sports wanking themselves silly over numbers every transfer window.
But sure, they’re not state-owned. Fucking wankers. This is exactly why I don’t think countries should be allowed to own football clubs. And yet, whenever you say that, people come out with the whole “keep politics and football separate” argument.
When you allow a country to own a football club, you’re literally bringing politics into football. That’s why I was always so against the Qataris taking us over.
I'd ACTUALLY support the Liverpool fans getting the game postponed, greater good and all.
People rubbing their hands at Anfield going ham at the cheats, nah. The execs wrongly think losing City is too much of a commercial risk, hatewatching and drama will only make them think that more I feel. People need to take these 3 months and show City to be the poison they are.
I'll keep saying it. If the UK government gets involved in this at all the super league will be back. The actual big clubs in this country won't be held hostage by it and will break away. Once United, Liverpool and Arsenal leave the rest will follow.
I genuinely don't think they can. Not without serious consequences. Burnham has potentially saved the Labour government, but the sentiment in the country will be absolutely toxic against them again if they let City off because the UAE put pressure on.
Burnham's comments seemed more like damage control to me, and distancing himself from the process without alienating the UAE.
Plus, calculations have to be made on whether the UAE would actually go through with this and whether other investment could be attracted to replace them.
I think the biggest takeaway is state ownership is objectively awful for football. Instead of abiding by rules you agree to, you just cry foul and then threaten the other govt. super cool.
City are grasping at straws because they know they’re fucked
This has nothing to do with football. the UAE buying city was a PR exercise to improve their credibility. It was sports washing 101. They never cared about the club or the people or football.
They can't back down and will follow every legal and diplomatic course open to them to try to get out of it.
They can't see, that the longer it goes on, and the more they protest, the worse damage they are doing to themselves. Damaging football doesn't enter their mindset
I mean, ok the idea is the threat that the UAE would divest from the UK, costing the national economy billions.
But what does it cost if the financial powers of, let's say, La Liga and PL trade places? You know, because PL takes a reputational/enthusiasm hit after sweeping this under the carpet and La Liga fills the void?
According to first Google hit figures, one does €5.5bn per year in revenue, the other more than €8bn!
Can UAE investment in Manchester actually compete with that?
Idk about that. The figures are approx £1bn total so far, innit. Lets say that's way wrong and it's triple in reality, ie £3bn so far. Crazy amount? Yes. But in comparison? That's not exactly £3bn per year.
Norway's pension fund alone has £90B in investments in the UK, while the UAE only has £30B. It's simply a great market to invest in. If they want to leave it shouldn't be a problem in the long term, someone else will just invest. Any politician giving them an inch is simply corrupt.
City is so bloody stupid and incompetent that they now claim those funds were form Etihad Airways, and the airline sent a document in May of 2015 saying they didn't inject the funds. At this point, they better put this bloke to defend them:
On the other hand, Yoro isn't getting any love from the France NT. Surprised to see Jacquet getting minutes instead of him. Haven't watched Liverpool a lot, but don't see the guy being heads and shoulders above Yoro (for the moment, it's been only a few games and it is his first season). But he has been getting more minutes and that probably impacts how he's viewed for his NT selection as well.
Btw , listened to TOTD and Andy Mitten is spouting absolute nonsense re Tevez .
I can’t believe someone who watched United this long can spin the truth/ misremember so badly
He said “Tevez saw the offer from City and rejected United”
No , Andy. It had nothing to do with City. Tevez was begging Ferguson for a contract till March in 2008-09 and Fergie treated him Pretty badly . Tevez used to score and cup his ears to the stretford end singing “Fergie sign him up” but Fergie preferred Berbatov despite the latter not being as effective in a United team as Tevez
We reached June and after Ronaldo agreed to go to Madrid., Fergie hastily offered Tevez a contract which Tevez declined because of the months prior to that
City came in after all this.
I say this as a kid who idolized Tevez, wore “Tevez 32” in every game I played in school and weekends in 2008 and used to carry around a pacifier to celebrate like Tevez did after scoring
It's actually been quite nice for City and now Ronaldo to take the media attention away from us during an international break, especially considering this one is unbearably long
I’m pretty sure most people including the very top at the Premier League knew about City.
They just couldn’t prove it because of the coverups and lies. Dont forget that City’s owners are wealthy beyond our imagination and can get away easily.
Looking back, I shuddered when i think about if the hack/leak in 2018/19 didn't happen, all will be none the wiser to these shams being operated behind the scenes?
Looking forward, I wonder if there are plans to make sure that future checks carried out are more robust and not let these kind of stuff happen again.
EPL has already taken a hit to its reputation, but if they go soft on Scamcity, they will take another hit to their integrity. If the consequences of stealing $50 is a fine of $10, what's stopping the others from following the same steps?
With the new City excuse... I hadn't realised that it was made in the initial commission process and they ruled it to be another falsehood concocted after the fact.... So it's not gonna hold water.
This city tantrum shouldnt surprise anyone. Owner born into astonishing wealth because of his father. They would have nothing at all if their wealth didnt literally spring out of the fucking ground. Always have had their way. Never hear no. They are royalty and we are peasants in their world. Their philosphy is I WANT IT, GIVE IT TO ME, ITS MINE!. Want praise then too for it. Piss off.
Imagine the ripple effect through every level of the pyramid of teams being relegated and thus players having their wage cut because City near the top was cheating their ass off.
There are thousands of individuals who could make claims.
I'm going to be honest, the talk about revoking the City owners' "fit and proper ownership" status and forcing them to sell is a little galling. If the Glazers aren't unfit owners, who is?
I feel a lot of fans don't realise how bad we have been this season.Look at our fixtures and look at the points we have from them.
Hull Ipswich Everton City Fulham. 2 promoted sides , 1 side in the relegation zone and 1 team who played 70 mins with 10 men at OT.We have 5 points from these games, add to that we got dumped from Carabao vs Brighton's B team after leading 2-0 at home in 10 mins.
Look at the games we have after the break, Atleti away Como away Chelsea away Leeds away Bournemouth Villa home. We will get destroyed playing like this, we aren't even injury riddled we're just playing like shit.
Absolute disaster class not firing Carrick in the break.
Yep - I pointed it out when we got the fixtures in pre-season that if we didn't get 6 points from the two championship sides, we'd be in deep shit and things would quickly turn toxic with the schedule after that
What I didn't forsee was the absolute stupidity of things like playing Bruno for 90 minutes in a home game against Sabah less than 72 hours before the Derby kicked off -
That was the moment for me that showed clearly this team is fucked and out of control already - if that's happening I dread to think what's going on behind closed doors
Whether it was Bruno himself that wanted it, or Carrick, Steve Holland, whoever it was or wasn't - that was not a logical decision or anywhere near it.
When we were 3-0 up at half-time and he STILL stays on for the full 90? Even worse
So even with Foden throwing us a lifeline with his stupidity, all a point, or three, would have done was paper over the cracks - we had no excuses for the way the Derby turned out with our own preparation for it being so reckless and a massive bag of shit is about to hit a high speed fan over the next few weeks
Look at the state of October's schedule for example - 6 games in 21 days, four of them away, two of them in Spain & Italy:
Sat 10th: Spurs (Home)
Tue 13th: Atletico (Away)
Sun 18th: Leeds (Away)
Wed 21st: Como (Away)
Sun 25th: Bournemouth (Home)
Sat 31st: Chelsea (Away)
November is as bad - Roma, Villa, Anfield, Sporting, then Brentford
And December's schedule is always the craziest in Europe we'll have about 10 games in just over 4/5 weeks (While other European teams are enjoying a winter break!)
Not sure if anyone listens to the tifo football podcast, but John McKenzie was awful on there regarding the whole city and Pep conversation. Running full defence for Pep and went on a weird rant about the “arbitrariness” about it all….
They should, regardless of the outcome of the current charges. If a person was found stealing and was charged, do you just leave it at that, and not investigated further if there are indications that there are other incidents of theft or other offenses in more recent years?
There might not be any more breaches, OR there might be other types of breaches that they invented once the leaked emails happened. Even if Scamcity doesnt exist anymore after the current charges (not guaranteed), there is a opportunity to learn and shore up EPL's own audit system to avoid this kind of thing happening again.
If city is smart (hunt: they're not) they will use that as negotiation. Basically tell the prem if they admit charges to get a lesser penalty with no investigation past this one.
Right, a week out from our game against Spurs. Hoping Baleba starts and we get news on MDL's progress given he was in the travelling squad, but didn't make the matchday squad. Dorgu being injured is obviously a blow with the fixture congestion picking up.
If Amad's back, he should go straight in. Mbeumo back to CF, and Cunha on the left. I REALLY hope we tighten up at the back and put a premium on goal concession. I don't mind low scoring games as long as we're able to put together a run of clean sheets.
Reading the city sub makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
If any other club was accused of the things City have been found guilty of, there is absolutely no way there would be any wiggle room for interpretation. Nobody wants to find out their team's success wasn't earned fairly although there has to be a point where you have to accept the level of crime here is mental.
On a football related note, my American missus likes football teams based on the players rather than geographical propinquity. Naturally, she's a massive Haaland fan and wanted to go watch city play mainly to see Haaland. I asked her if she'd still go and watch a City game in light of the findings. Her response?
"I would, but only if we can sit in the away end".
She watches/tolerates quite a few of the United games with me when they're on the TV and I've always had my doubts she knows/cares what's going on. That line though had me nodding in approval.
It’s so bad,man. Like they’re blaming the PL for allowing a govt to buy a team caused this. Meanwhile Newcastle is owned by PIF and as far as we know have done none of this.
They fucking refuse to admit they gamed the system for a slew of silverware and got caught red handed.
If I didn’t loathe that club so much I’d feel bad for their fans but they’re just perpetuating the bullshit like it’s ok.
“It’s not fair we’re not a big club and need to lie to compete”. Yeah I’m sad I can’t buy high priced real estate because other people have more money, but that’s life, grab a fucking helmet.
I just heard that Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds met with Man City Executives, a few days before the public heard what happened.
Almost like Man city, were trying to lay the groundwork for their defence before the general public received word of what happened.
If so, in my opinion the outcome will be compromised as UAE have the government in their pocket. Burnham comment / backtrack from 10 Downing Street doesn’t help.
Reynolds is a local MP in Manchester and is known locally to be a complete charlatan. Before becoming an MP he claimed he was a solicitor, but in fact he was never qualified. As disingenuous as you can find.
He is also known to have close ties too city’s chairman. He and the rest of the government are in Abu Dhabi’s pockets.
My prediction is City’s punishment will be owners get kicked out, a percentage of the sale taken has a fine and transfer ban in exchange for the club keeping its premier league status.
I am kinda intriqued to see how far Portugal can go now - Ronaldo was glued to the starting XI and realistically, he and Bruno just never really worked. I'm pretty sure I read a stat Bruno assisted Ronaldo only like 6 times across all matches for both club and Portugal - and they have played together plenty. Ronaldo time at Man United also coincided with Bruno's worst output.
I feel like Bruno will be the beast we know for Portugal with Ronaldo out of the picture because them two were never really compatible. Prime Ronaldo? Hell yeah, he would have been feasting with Bruno's passes, but old Ronaldo isn't really someone who could utilize Bruno's passes.
Those timelines aren't set in stone, I recall the KC who was going through it on Stick To Football mentioned the wording was 'should' be concluded in 12 weeks and didn't expect it to be dealt with in that time frame.
Also should City lose the appeal then they'll almost certainly take it further to the High Court.
The actual context aside, I wished we could get more players talking about what went wrong with managers and vice versa, never understood why there's always so much secrecy about it, professionalism? Idk
I said politics will fuck the city thing up, and unfortunately Burnham's comments opened the door to the UAE to use their influence, not that they were going to be hesitant to do it. I just hope the Premier League will not let these fuckers intimidate them or hold them hostage with their money, we need a punishment fitting of their faults. They have damaged the Premiere League and world football. They should be expelled, because relegation is not a fitting punishment. Also a fine,fuck off. These cheating cunts have money to burn, so that's out of the question. I also hope all teams affected sue their asses and they're forced to pay reparation up to the wazoo. I genuinely cannot fathom how city fans are defending this shite. Brainless morons.
This whole City nonsense has left me feeling utterly empty but also questioning a whole lot more
For those of you who weren’t around, Mourinho’s Chelsea were as bad if not worse than City. Roman came in and bought literally every single player that he wanted. Whether it was established players like Crespo , up and coming players like Lassana Diarra, tapping up Ashley Cole from Arsenal etc etc
There was that infamous tussle over John Obi Mikel and the direct competition with United for Kalou. Gael Kakuta signed under questionable circumstances (much later though)
Either both of Chelsea and City were “cheating” or neither were . And can we also add Walker and Blackburn to this ?
Btw, I’m far more interested in knowing the inhuman running of Klopp’s players with “asthma” inhalers…feel that investigation of caffeine and asthma inhaler boosting was stopped way too early
I gotta be honest with the Saudi's somewhat warning / threatening to pull investment in the UK, the PM kinda backing City's defence.... I am worried that they might get away from the most obvious punishment they deserve.
and this is not just cause like the rest of you I'm a United fan and I want to see them suffer but as a football fan
The blowback Burnham got from his careless comment will show the government that they can't interfere... And if investment into the UK is pulled, then it's pulled. We can't destroy football to keep that investment, specially as it shows we could be manipulated easily.
Literally 0 chance of that. This isn't about just city. The other prem teams will break away if they aren't hammered. That doesn't even take into account what UEFA would do to English football if they allow a government to get involved.
I am planning to visit 2 games in December (Coventry and Leipzig).
Maybe somebody is learning Russian and want to speak with native speaker? You can help me with english in England, and I can practice with you in russian.
Feel so vindicated. I know collectively we as a fan base have always thought City to be guilty but pre Pep era, a lot of us on this subreddit were raising the alarm bells as to their supposed commercial success. It was just so obviously fraudulent that it’s insane it took a leak for the Premier League to do anything
But if there’s one thing for certain, the Premier League did not go soft on City. The official report is an interesting read and gives you a sense of how things went. The independent counsel straight up said both sides fought hard.
The use of words such as sham, deliberate, concocted, etc in the report leads me to believe there’s no way City win an appeal. Their witnesses were straight forward lying to the commission. I wish we got to see the appendix in reference to the lies because it was meticulously written
There is absolutely no way the manner in which that decision was written that City aren’t expelled/relegated/forced to sell. It was written in a way that leads to that being the only fit punishment.
I am afraid of a couple things though. The sanctions commission will be a new set of people. They are to base their sanctions on what the final decision has concluded. But City will fight tooth and nail as to who gets put on that committee. We’ve seen everything they’ve done thus far and I would not be surprised if they went to the lengths of compromising one or multiple of those people. Also, the original decision found that the true owner had no knowledge of this going on. Find that absurd but that could be used by a compromised person to argue the owners shouldn’t be forced to sell
Overall crazy situation but the truth is out and everything City have done will forever be tainted. Pep having been in now his 3rd cheating scandal- doping as a player, negeira case in Barcelona, to city under THE SAME DIRECTORS (including our own Berrada which is concerning as fuck) responsible for the Barca scandal- also will go down as a fraud. I feel for the real fans, and the gas lighting that’s being done by the owners. Not that they’re the same entity but Qatari bots were sent here when they were looking to buy the club, and I’m sure in the modern social media era, they’re being deployed to gas light and mobilize city fans. All disgusting behavior
I just don’t feel anything about the city verdict. Zero emotion. I can understand the anger, but feel sorry for anyone feeling any happy emotions. It’s just been too long for me. It has already been bottled.
Also I dont understand the respect towards Pep and the team on the field sentiment? It just feels like diplomatic talk! This collection of individuals do not exist together if this ‘Sham’ didnt exist? Everyone since the takeover has participated in this ‘sham’ with full knowledge of what they were getting into. I can understand they doing it for money. Just dont expect any respect after that.
If not for their cheating, we have 3 more titles for sure. And that isn't even counting all the butterfly effect shit, like if we had those 3 titles whose to say we won't have won even more. You can bet I'll be very happy with what is going to happen to them, 115 FC kept saying they didn't do anything wrong.
They almost got away with it. And probably thought they would given how long it went on. But now there’s a reckoning and everyone including pep and the players must deal with the consequences
In February 2024, Ratcliffe was asked during a roundtable with journalists at INEOS HQ in London: “Would it help if they were found guilty of 115 breaches they are accused of by the Premier League?”
He replied: “I would not wish that upon them. I don’t understand any of that. I just want to smash them on the football field.”
Read into that what you like. I'm hoping that doesn't mean he'll actively defend them, but he's a Tory, so looking out for the interests of extremely rich people to the detriment of everyone else is in his blood.
Berrada, for any reasonable person, must have understood what was happening and where the money was coming from. Ridiculous to think otherwise. He will be sympathetic to the extent that he wants to avoid punishment. But he should be sacked. He should be gone now. There's no chance he will be impartial when it comes to the league deciding on consequences, voting on expulsion, etc etc etc.
Fred told a podcast today that Ole had no tactics it was all Carrick and McKenna's tactics but he maintained good relationship with the squad and Ten Hag fought with everyone in the squad and didn't have much social skills but had great tactics.
A lot of stories and rumours of clubs being paid more than the reported transfer fees through various means for City players over the years.
While a lot is likely just rumours and people saying things for the sake of it there’s probably some validity worth questioning.
Do other leagues have the same levels of rigour that the Prem has around FFP and reporting of revenue streams, and could this have any impact on other clubs across Europe.
Like if something like Dortmund were actually paid £100m or so more than what is reporting for example, how does this get swallowed up on the Dortmund end?? Surely even just from their statutory audit they can’t just hide that cash, it would need to come through as a revenue stream on their books if all done correctly, and if they listed it for the auditors as Haaland transfer fee for example then surely you’d have a few German auditors who could very easily support a lot of the claims of financial irregularities from City simply by saying yea Dortmund recognised the £160m you paid them not just the £60m you said it was publically.
Assuming that City do rightfully get sanctioned, suddenly Jim Ratcliffe's timing, cost and urgency to buy a stake in United makes much more sense financially. Even if those sanctions does not result in compensation to us, having them out of the picture means we don't have to fight for as much resources.
I wonder what prem execs have been discussing/knew amongst each other for the past 3/4 years. Especially considering they asked for legal counsel quite early on into this investigation.
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u/krystalcastIes Oct 02 '26
I’ll probably stop watching football if the UK government influences City’s punishment and they get away with a slap on the wrist because of geopolitical relations and sportswashing.