City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with numerous FFP breaches

RedStarUnited

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They're not legitimately breaking our records though are they. There's an asterisk next to every one of their trophies.
At this point the Premier League cannot afford to have its champion be seen as a tainted winner. These charges will never stick and if they do, at most City will get a financial punishment. In 20 years time no one will really care about the charges and will simply remember Pep winning 6 out 7 titles.
 

Guy Incognito

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Pep will make his decision based on how the 115 changes turns out. No way does he stay if they are guilty. You jump off the ship and at least act like you dont know what's going on.
I want them punished with him at the helm.

We saw how he squirmed when things didn't go there way in 2020/21.
 

adexkola

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It really isnt, it would actually be quite easy
How?

City give Dortmund X for Player 1
City give Arsenal Y for Player 2
Udinese give City Z for Player 3

Net spend = X + Y - Z

And you don't have to ask City, just ask Dortmund/Arsenal/Udinese: how much did you give/receive from City? Then tally.

Unless you think they're fudging numbers too.
 

Morty_

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At this point the Premier League cannot afford to have its champion be seen as a tainted winner. These charges will never stick and if they do, at most City will get a financial punishment. In 20 years time no one will really care about the charges and will simply remember Pep winning 6 out 7 titles.
Not so loud, don't spoil it for half the people here.
 

Gabriel Djemba-Bebe

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Again, you can believe your records aren't actually broken, though they actually are, and no, they won't actully be punished either.

But hey, better than having "annoying" Arsenal-fans winning a trophy or two, right?

Jeez, the amount of cope on this forum is unreal.
Regarding your first paragraph - you don't know that they won't get punished, unless you have some insider information?

Regarding the waffle in the rest of your post - I would've preferred Arsenal to win the league than City.
 

Irwin99

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At this point the Premier League cannot afford to have its champion be seen as a tainted winner. These charges will never stick and if they do, at most City will get a financial punishment. In 20 years time no one will really care about the charges and will simply remember Pep winning 6 out 7 titles.
But the premier league have docked Everton and Forest points and the precedent has been set-surely there's no going back now otherwise it's an absolute joke to the likes of Everton and Forest.
 

Red4ever27

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At this point the Premier League cannot afford to have its champion be seen as a tainted winner. These charges will never stick and if they do, at most City will get a financial punishment. In 20 years time no one will really care about the charges and will simply remember Pep winning 6 out 7 titles.
You're probably right, and even more so the relationship and trading between the UK and UAE is a massive factor why nothing serious will happen. They are probably all working together now to solve a reasonable punishment and move on. But how the hell they're going to do that with a whopping ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN charges to deal with is beyond me
 

Winrar

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But the premier league have docked Everton and Forest points and the precedent has been set-surely there's no going back now otherwise it's an absolute joke to the likes of Everton and Forest.
Everton and Forest aren't controlled by oil magnates who have political power to sway the FA to make decisions in their favor.

As much as City would deserve to have their titles stripped just like Lance Armstrong got his Tour de France titles stripped, it's probably not gonna happen.
 

Morty_

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Regarding your first paragraph - you don't know that they won't get punished, unless you have some insider information?

Regarding the waffle in the rest of your post - I would've preferred Arsenal to win the league than City
.
Thats good, feels like half this forum wants City to actually win all the trophies though, so its hard to tell the difference these days.
 

Nicolarra90

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At this point the Premier League cannot afford to have its champion be seen as a tainted winner. These charges will never stick and if they do, at most City will get a financial punishment. In 20 years time no one will really care about the charges and will simply remember Pep winning 6 out 7 titles.
6 out of 7? I really don't see anything stoping them to make it 9 out of 10 or more.
 

sangria

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Yes, it's incredibly hard to fudge transfer figures because there's a club on the other side

Total expenditure? That's different
A whole load of auxiliary costs that should be accounted for in FPTP, but are subsidiarised away. Like Mancini getting paid more for a few days non-football work than a year's wages as City manager. Like Haaland being bought for a bargain 60 million or so, with at least that number again in agent and other fees, plus probably half his wages accounted away Mancini style. Like City getting huge sponsorships from companies that have no business. Like City's subsidiary clubs signing players that barely step foot in their new club before being moved on to suit City.
 

adexkola

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A whole load of auxiliary costs that should be accounted for in FPTP, but are subsidiarised away. Like Mancini getting paid more for a few days non-football work than a year's wages as City manager. Like Haaland being bought for a bargain 60 million or so, with at least that number again in agent and other fees, plus probably half his wages accounted away Mancini style. Like City getting huge sponsorships from companies that have no business. Like City's subsidiary clubs signing players that barely step foot in their new club before being moved on to suit City.
Wages and all this stuff aren't factored into net spend. Net spend is a simple calculation.
 

croadyman

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Wonder what the chances of an Armstrong like punishment and them getting stripped of their titles actually are, because no more Treble and no more four peat would be hilarious.
To quote Vince McMahon "No chance in hell"
 

Baichung Bhutia

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At this point, I would blame the Premier League more than City for creating and not resolving this situation with City. How can you accuse someone of cheating and yet still allow them in the competition and they continue to win said competition. Such loss of credibility for the league.
 

Tincanalley

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The prem need two trophies. The City eternal permanent champions (light blue oil-covered seabird in expensive plastic) and the old silver/pewter one for whoever comes second.
 

Sgreddevil

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At this point, I would blame the Premier League more than City for creating and not resolving this situation with City. How can you accuse someone of cheating and yet still allow them in the competition and they continue to win said competition. Such loss of credibility for the league.
Exactly. They just don't have the balls to do it. This is not just a simple breach of FFP like Everton or Forest. It is an accusation of fradulent reporting and refusal to cooperate.
If something of this nature happen in a workplace, I am pretty sure the standard operating procedure is to suspend the employee until he or she has cooperated and cleared the accusation. No company will allow that employee to continue working, getting promotions and bonuses for years. It is a joke in the way they handled the whole situation.
 

Lentwood

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The Premier League are going to be damned if they do, and damned if they don't at this point.

For them to have any credibility whatsoever, City need to he handed a huge punishment. The problem is, that would seem almost like an admittance from the PL that we might as well have not bothered playing the last seven seasons.
 

Fluctuation0161

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Nope, you're in a bubble if you think most fans care at all. I reckon most casual PL fans don't even know what FFP is.
I reckon most match going fans will know City have been accused of cheating.

They will also know Everton etc have been docked points and City haven't (yet).

I think you underestimate the scale.
 

Tincanalley

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Verdict next spring. It will be done in the time of a Labour government. Will probably stick. Will probably be a harsh punishment. Will take them years to recover. Will be Pep gone.
 

Changeisgood

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If we see Pep leave this summer, the hammer may be coming down them, but unfortunately my money is still on not much happening.
 

SilentWitness

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There will be question marks. It's a shame for the players, as they actually won those titles and produced some great football.

These things are a lot worse when there's actual evidence of match fixing or PEDS use.

It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Moving this here to continue discussion since talking about Pep generally but it really is a mess. Not just for the City players but for every club in the league. It's not as black and white as oh give the titles to whoever came 2nd etc. because the whole fabric of the league would have changed without an alleged doped up City. Who knows if Liverpool would have won more, if United would have managed to nab one or if Arsenal would have won the last two, everything would have changed and the league would look very different.
 

Fallon d'Floor

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Moving this here to continue discussion since talking about Pep generally but it really is a mess. Not just for the City players but for every club in the league. It's not as black and white as oh give the titles to whoever came 2nd etc. because the whole fabric of the league would have changed without an alleged doped up City. Who knows if Liverpool would have won more, if United would have managed to nab one or if Arsenal would have won the last two, everything would have changed and the league would look very different.
The recent clamp down has definitely made clubs sit up and take notice. After seeing how Everton and Forest were punished.

Newcastle have been quite patient since the takeover in 2021. In the past, a rich club would have spent close to a billion by now to bridge the gap. They're trying to balance the books better by selling the likes of ASM and Chris Wood for good fees. Avoid getting into trouble. I'm sure they'd love to sign a world class player or two.

Chelsea spent like crazy when Abramovich arrived at Chelsea. City were throwing money around for furn during the early days under Hughes and Mancini. Less strategic.
 

NotThatSoph

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A whole load of auxiliary costs that should be accounted for in FPTP, but are subsidiarised away. Like Mancini getting paid more for a few days non-football work than a year's wages as City manager. Like Haaland being bought for a bargain 60 million or so, with at least that number again in agent and other fees, plus probably half his wages accounted away Mancini style. Like City getting huge sponsorships from companies that have no business. Like City's subsidiary clubs signing players that barely step foot in their new club before being moved on to suit City.
With all those likes, why not mention a single example?

Faking sponsor income is easy. Underreporting wage costs is doable. Doing some FFP juggling with transfer fees is easy when players go both ways, like with Danilo/Cancelo, Pjanic/Arthur or Oshimen/randoms. Actually hiding transfer fees is incredibly hard, because why on earth would the other clubs play along?
 

tomaldinho1

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With all those likes, why not mention a single example?

Faking sponsor income is easy. Underreporting wage costs is doable. Doing some FFP juggling with transfer fees is easy when players go both ways, like with Danilo/Cancelo, Pjanic/Arthur or Oshimen/randoms. Actually hiding transfer fees is incredibly hard, because why on earth would the other clubs play along?
You're looking at it wrong, I suspect.

Strip it back to the important people in a transfer. The selling club's owner is most important, then agents and players. If we accept the latter two are quite easy to control with money, then you focus on the former.

Example, let's say City "hid" the transfer fee for player x. The official fee that is going to be reported is the same amount that the club received officially from City (that is what FFP look at) but then why is the owner of that club accepting a fee that seems quite good for City? City's owners can just add something on top, there's no way anyone, apart from the owner, would know as long as that money originates within the UAE because it's completely closed off. "See this new $300m solar development in UAE, here's 2%"...how would anyone ever find that out?
 

gica_7

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If we see Pep leave this summer, the hammer may be coming down them, but unfortunately my money is still on not much happening.
Pep will stay as long as he wants. He is not just a manager there. He has financial and business relations with city group. His brother has partial ownership in Girona. It is nıt just management, it is much more than that for him.
 

NotThatSoph

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You're looking at it wrong, I suspect.

Strip it back to the important people in a transfer. The selling club's owner is most important, then agents and players. If we accept the latter two are quite easy to control with money, then you focus on the former.

Example, let's say City "hid" the transfer fee for player x. The official fee that is going to be reported is the same amount that the club received officially from City (that is what FFP look at) but then why is the owner of that club accepting a fee that seems quite good for City? City's owners can just add something on top, there's no way anyone, apart from the owner, would know as long as that money originates within the UAE because it's completely closed off. "See this new $300m solar development in UAE, here's 2%"...how would anyone ever find that out?
Usually there is no "the owner". I don't know which deals are supposed to be suspect, but e.g. Akanji was pretty cheap relative to performance. The biggest shareholder owns 8 % of the club, while 2/3rds of the shares are free float. That's a huge amount of people to bribe, or alternatively you have to bribe the people closest to transfer dealings while simultaneously hoping that no one questions the fact that they're damaging the club.

Alvarez was considered pretty cheap, although he hasn't had the best year so I'm not sure how true that is anymore. River Plate is owned by fans/members, so that's no go. Once again you would have to corrupt some sort of transfer team, though I don't know how they decide, without raising suspicions.

Bernando Silva, perhaps? €50m-70m, depending on who you believe. Monaco is owned 1/3 by the House of Grimaldi, which would be a challenge. 2/3 by Dmitry Rybolovlev. Most doable so far, but still.

All this is also just looking at buyer/seller in isolation. It would also be extremely important that no other club would be willing to pay a transfer fee equal to or bigger than the official fee, because if that happened everyone would instantly notice that something is wrong.
 

Giggsy13

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If we see Pep leave this summer, the hammer may be coming down them, but unfortunately my money is still on not much happening.
He won’t leave this summer, as there is no indication of a ruling from the league anytime soon. Rest assured he is a coward and will leave if and when the hammer comes down on city.
 

downxandxout

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Wonder if the allegations will hinder them in the next transfer window. I know money talks, but would a player want to join them if they could potentially be relegated before the next season begins? (Wishful thinking I know).