The charges are about them ”cheating the system” at every level to circumvent the rules. Logic tells you that if they went to those lengths, they almost certainly have cheated, lied and bullshitted at every turn and to at least call bullshit on anything in their bookkeeping. Players, agents, managers etc have been getting paid off the books, we know this, so who knows what else has been going on there.
City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with 130 FFP breaches | Hearing concluded | Awaiting outcome
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The charges are about them ”cheating the system” at every level to circumvent the rules. Logic tells you that if they went to those lengths, they almost certainly have cheated, lied and bullshitted at every turn and to at least call bullshit on anything in their bookkeeping. Players, agents, managers etc have been getting paid off the books, we know this, so who knows what else has been going on there.
This was true before the success came along but no longer is, a lot of City fans these days are fans that jumped from supporting other clubs like Chelsea to follow the success.
Who should take the responsibility to kill (or at least, severely whack) the PL golden goose (not only for the owners but as a widespread generator/redistributor of wealth for pretty much all parties involved) at this stage in 2026?
I don't actually mind semi finals in Wembley. Been that way for so long I can barely remember how it was before.
Most clubs go there so infrequently it's still special for them. If the cheats cheated so hard they're now bored of Wembley that's their problem.
You’ve someone who seems to think they’re above board outside of the charges they’re facing on that very page. There are many, many more who take the same stance and will continue to do so however this concludes.
I agree with you with regards to the PL.
Yeah pretty much. It's basically the expected outcome of a sport subjected to capitalist economics.
There's the upsides of a truly globalised sport but this also comes with gigantic inequalities which destroy competition for the vast majority.
Agree. Imo Fifia needs to centralised power to such a degree that it would make Stalin blush and then give Cantona the gig.
Aside from that any meaningful changes will likely happen in society first and then football. Although both are looking very grim at the moment.
Didn't Chelsea have recently got "punished" for secret paying players during the Abramovich years. Not sure how reliable these numbers are anymore.Let's go back then from the start of the takeover till today. From Transfermarkt. It's hardly a completely different level to United. An extra net spend of €10m per season.
Income and expenditures
This is an overview of the clubs' highest transfer incomes and expenditures in the chosen period.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/pre...n_id_bis/2025/nat/0/pos//w_s//intern/0/plus/1
# Club Expenditure Arrivals Income Departures Balance 1 Manchester City €3.12bn 426 €1.24bn 428 €-1,883.45m 2 Manchester United €2.55bn 289 €834.50m 301 €-1,718.28m 3 Chelsea FC €3.48bn 511 €2.12bn 510 €-1,366.35m 4 Arsenal FC €1.98bn 299 €744.91m 304 €-1,230.35m 5 Tottenham Hotspur €2.00bn 378 €1.08bn 383 €-925.29m 6 Liverpool FC €2.16bn 323 €1.27bn 330 €-885.11m
allow me to tell you a little something, in South America City are miles ahead of Arsenal in fanbase terms, and I mean miles. The best followed teams down here are City and Chelsea, by a long way followed by United.
liverpool and Arsenal are truly miles behind. Remembering that South Americans know a bit about football, more than most parts of the planet, the historical thing does not work down here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brilliant to argue with published accounting info when everyone knows you give dodgy bungs.
I mean look at the Haaland transfer alone.
True. There's no way that's all above board. It's nothing particularly new as Gascoigne went to Tottenham because they brought his mum a new house on the side.
But the scale with both City and Chelsea is something completely different and worse.
Exactly. Don't remember working class united fans struggling to fill our allocation, even after years of success and "Wembley fatigue".
They're all from London anyway, innit?
don’t forget all the Norwegians having to travel from abroad
That’s an… interesting … post
A net spend figure resulting from totally above board transfer fees from your end.
Over a dozen of City's academy players, who had barely played any senior football, getting sold for 15-25m each.
Savinho signed for 30m from Troyes. How did you manage that?! Great find.
I've had a really shit couple of weeks but posts like this remind me that it could be worse and I could have been kicked in the head by a horse.
Why would a bunch of American billionaires, who see their clubs purely as cash cows, have any more credibility than a state? Neither of them should be involved in the game.
As bad as our owners are the Saudis and Abu dhabis of this world are on another level. All autocracies, executing people, no rights for women etc. The term Sports washing isnt there for nothing. States should be kicked out of football. Idiotic owners too
America would never do this of course. I think they are as bad as each other in terms of motivations; I don't really see what makes US billionaires somehow morally superior to anyone. At least Abu Dhabi are pouring money in to the club, the city and the economy. The glazers are doing the opposite and would happily leave the club destroyed and city poorer if they could get more money that way.
No premier league has a "predominantly working class" fanbase anymore. Not with the ticket prices like they are.
Watch this bloke change his story when the charges finally get proven.
"Oh i always wanted to say my piece but there was a press silence rule"
And even in a season where City have been well off their best and Chelsea have been an absolute joke - the two of them meet in the FA cup final.
Two oil clubs. How romantic.
Two oil clubs. How romantic.
I live in the Middle East where you think City would be massively supported given their owners.
All the kids wear United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona and Madrid shirts as well as Ronaldo’s Saudi kit.
You do see some in City gear but it’s few and far between.
You can see as much in most of the sports shops.
City shirts are hard to find here unless it’s in their own club shop or a Puma outlet.
That’s not a dig at City it’s just how it is.
Madrid and Barcelona are probably the most supported European teams here followed by Liverpool, maybe because of Salah being from Egypt then it’s probably United.
City’s presence is surprisingly low for a team who have won so much.
It's such a blemish on the sport. Completely undermines the spirit of competition and the soul of football when success can be directly purchased without having to ever earn it by building over time and being attractive enough as a club to make people want to support you by your own merits.
Adults who choose to become supporters of these clubs are also mental midgets. Kids are excused because they often just inherit their club affiliation and can't be expected to see the bigger picture, and people who were fans before these takeovers aren't expected to turn away from their clubs; but any adult who became a fan after the takeover is someone who has no dignity. A total plastic.
Adults who choose to become supporters of these clubs are also mental midgets. Kids are excused because they often just inherit their club affiliation and can't be expected to see the bigger picture, and people who were fans before these takeovers aren't expected to turn away from their clubs; but any adult who became a fan after the takeover is someone who has no dignity. A total plastic.
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Yeah you’re both right actually. I’m being an idiot
I’ll blame the day drinking all day yesterday and replying to this after I’d just woken up
Yeah they kiss up to him in such a sycophantic way
Both deserve the book thrown at them
It hasn't in terms of fans actually going near the games of course.
But you only have to see some of those American razzmatazz fanzone games and see tonnes of yanks in City shirts to see your worldwide fanbase has obviously increased a lot.
Yeah, and I’m not sure which camp he falls into.
I certainly don't take their reports at face value. I have no doubt that they are cooking the books, I don't care that much for FFP, but I would love to see them get sanctioned for it anyway. But, at the same time, I don't think their cheating should be used to obscure our own failings. They have not been inifinitely more successful than us in the last 14 years solely due to cooking the books. Being gifted properties is neither here nor there really when players are earning £300k per week, even if the true figure is £5bn, it's not really orders of magnitude more than what we or Chelsea have spent.
If we had competent owners we could have leveraged our status much better to get the best back room staff, to appoint someone like Guardiola as manager, or to attract players like De Bruyne or Silva. But while they were being run well, we had buffoons like Woodward allowing them to steal a march on us and the Glazers not investing enough from a position of strength. In my opinion, as one of the biggest and richest clubs in the world, it is embarrassing to be laughing at a smaller club for not selling out Wembley when they have been there about five times more than us in the past decade. So what if they have spent loads of money? Blackburn did the same in the 90s and Chelsea in the 00s, but we went toe to toe with them and came out on top.
Whilst FFP is flawed, and I agree, favours the establishment, what is your alternative proposal? Because if your suggestion is nothing then the Premier League will just be a dick waving contest between Abu Dhabi and Saudi.
Oh come on don't talk about Blackburn in the same breadth as Chelsea or City. A self made man like Jack Walker isn't remotely like being backed by an oil magnate or nation state which those two are.
I will give you the point about letting that Toy Story puppet run things into the ground with those leeches. We approached Guardiola in 2012, however just our sodding luck he had given word to Bayern. Yes I fully hold not being able to attract Klopp down to that muppet for his pathetic pitch as an Adult Disneyland.
How I would like to find the biggest book I can find and just throw it at City for completely ruining football, oh and if it hits some of those kiss arse journos on the way well that's even better still.
Our parasitic owners are not somehow a mitigating factor for City's cheating, nor is anyone (worth listening to) genuinely drawing a direct line of causation between their cheating and our decline.
The Glazers being scum does not somehow play a part in any rational person's opinion of City.
They're two completely separate topics, and this thread is only about one of them.
Well said
So much to unpack in here.
Bold bit - fine, go post about the Glazers in the Glazer thread. The post you replied to didn’t mention us/Glazers? so not sure why needs to be brought up.
United’s spending has been erratic but consider City’s influence on the transfer market. When Pep joined they were spending £50m on defenders when they costed £30m, £40m on goalies when £20m was the norm. How much did they sign Gvardiol for as a full back?
Their spending massively inflated the market ,alongside PSG, and other clubs were left having to pay up or not compete.
This is before you consider the underhand tactics to sign players. We are now aware of what Chelsea did to sign the likes of Hazard. It’s pretty obvious City have been doing the same for years. They clearly pay off agents to assist with signing players on the cheap. And on the flip side how many players have United been linked to that City suddenly bulked up the price. Were they really interested or using agent knowledge to bump up deals? You can’t tell me that Pep was interested in Maguire, Fred, Ronaldo. Maybe Sanchez at the time but all these players cost United more because of City’s presence.
City as a club is awful for the sport and above all the Premier League. They’ve spent £480m in 18 months and bought two players in January which has effectively got them the title this season. At the point in the season all teams are losing players through injuries they sign 2 in form players.
Yeah the Hazard one stings a bit, however not being able to match City’s under the table payments for the likes of Silva, Aguero and Toure was probably even worse. I blame the club though for not listening to Ole when he had Haaland. Like you say they are the only club in tough times able to offer huge wages to Guehi and big fee for Semenyo too
I still think a decade on still not having grown their fanbase enough to sell out PL games weekly is beyond tragic.
Media too busy kissing arse to ever notice that fact
Domino's Pizza has, if that counts as media. Or rather, the one bloke in charge of the Twitter account of Domino's UK is obviously a United fan.
Any actual accredited media is wholeheartedly complicit in helping to sweep City's decades of flagrant corruption under the rug.
Any actual accredited media is wholeheartedly complicit in helping to sweep City's decades of flagrant corruption under the rug.