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

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Brownfinger
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The PL leadership exist to push the product. Success is measured in eyeballs and money, nothing else. If the media eco system doesn't care that the dominant team might be cheating, neither do the PL.

The only way City will get properly punished is if the product was at risk. If fans started forcing broadcasters to acknowledge the idiocy of it. But none have. There are no protests, no walk outs. Barely a whimper as we hope they'll do the right thing.

So why would the PL act? And that's before the clear influence on the UK power structure.

It's just an excellent example of sportswashing working. City are even good at that. Which isn't hard when you have unlimited money and no concept of adhering to laws or regulations.
Yes. But i think the PR stuff related to sportswashing is overall irrelevant compared with the investments they have made in the local area and the influence they can potentially have on politicians. Worked wonders for russians in London until….
 

Tincanalley

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I see people say that its baffling about the City fans and it is to logical folk, but to give them a little defence, I can guarantee you if United were in this situation 70% of the Caf would be like that percent of City fans, theres 10% who admit what they think is truth and a further 20ish percent who deny them in public but deep down they know.
You just have to look at the VAR thread and find all the "we're reffed different guys" if you think I'm lying... see those guys combine them with the Qatar ownership thread and you'll have quite the number to get started. People are just weirdly biased about football clubs, clubs who see them as nothing but statistics instead of taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture they live vicariously through them..

Honestly the only thing that's really changed for me with City recently is instead of the one being bullied during football banter I'm the one doing the bullying. Truth is football is just a game to me, one I quite enjoy but just a game all the same (unless I'm drinking). I'll never understand people for who winning or losing makes or breaks their week. I've got too many more important variables for that than a football club (wife, kids, family, job, friends. etc...)
Excellent points. The Qatar thread said it all, really.
 

Tincanalley

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Yeah I get that too. For me personally, I have to admit that the casual dismissal of their success is more a coping mechanism to say I'm not deeply bitter about them.

For me, the 115 charges is just another avenue to reinforce that, but being honest with myself, I think with Pep in charge they would have had exactly the same success whether they cooked the books or not.
Well at least you insist on being honest. Cheating is built into the success of Abu Dhabi “city”. That’s how you fast track the whole process past rules and restrictions. The 115 charges are real.
 

Garnacho's Shoelaces

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Never forget that City exist just to ameliorate the reputation of the UAE globally. If you support City, you now support the UAE as the two entities are indistinguishable.

That means you also support the 10000 children killed or maimed in Yemen by your owners. The 130000 killed through starvation or other causes, including 85000 children, by your owners.

It's important to not forget that to support or defend City, is to advocate war crimes and the murder of children.
 

Malons

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Never forget that City exist just to ameliorate the reputation of the UAE globally. If you support City, you now support the UAE as the two entities are indistinguishable.

That means you also support the 10000 children killed or maimed in Yemen by your owners. The 130000 killed through starvation or other causes, including 85000 children, by your owners.

It's important to not forget that to support or defend City, is to advocate war crimes and the murder of children.
That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.

Why not list all the products you have, buy, have bought, borrowed or consumed over the years, all the films you've watched, all the artists whose songs you've listened to, all the newspapers, magazines and books you've bought or read so we can see test your ethics.

That peanut butter you in your cupboard suggests you support the destruction of the rainforest. Presumably you want people to remember that when considering your high horsery.

Quite apart from knowingly funding sexual predators through your Netflix subscription. Openingly supporting - no, financing - sexual assault. How could you?
 
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Garnacho's Shoelaces

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That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.

Why not list all the products you have, buy, have bought, borrowed or consumed over the years, all the films you've watched, all the artists whose songs you've listened to, all the newspapers, magazines and books you've bought or read so we can see test your ethics.
When have my Hoka Clifton 8s been used as an advertisement campaign for a murderous autocratic state regime?

What a bizarre post.
 

africanspur

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This is by far the longest he has spent at any club, is he not getting tired?
 

Aussie_Red_Devil

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Had to listen to this mornings game while driving to work. No idea who the commentators were but the main guy was enough to make you sick.
“Huge effort to win 4 leagues in a row”

“no one thought they could do it”

made it sound like city were some plucky underdog while no mention of the mass amount of charges they were facing.
Another good one was “pretty good for a league two Caliber player” referring to Haarland, completely missing the point on what Keane actually said.
 

tomaldinho1

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The thing that surprised me about this is players don’t care or even know. They did one of those quizzes with a player from each team about naming the champions since the PL started in backwards order and most of them are just guessing after a season or two. Someone even said United for like 4 seasons ago :lol:

Granted many players are not from the UK but it was incredible how many didn’t know City were on for a 4th in a row and were just guessing Arsenal, United, Pool as a lottery.
 

GazTheLegend

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Had to listen to this mornings game while driving to work. No idea who the commentators were but the main guy was enough to make you sick.
“Huge effort to win 4 leagues in a row”

“no one thought they could do it”

made it sound like city were some plucky underdog while no mention of the mass amount of charges they were facing.
Another good one was “pretty good for a league two Caliber player” referring to Haarland, completely missing the point on what Keane actually said.
They're snivelling parasites aren't they. Never forget that many of these media "personalities" have taken huge amounts of money from the states that run these clubs. To pretend it doesn't shall we say influence their talking points would be naive in the extreme. That plus the outright terror of litigation from clubs that have armies of hundreds of lawyers is a cocktail for investigative news suppression if there ever was one.
 

Aussie_Red_Devil

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They're snivelling parasites aren't they. Never forget that many of these media "personalities" have taken huge amounts of money from the states that run these clubs. To pretend it doesn't shall we say influence their talking points would be naive in the extreme. That plus the outright terror of litigation from clubs that have armies of hundreds of lawyers is a cocktail for investigative news suppression if there ever was one.
I think they are scared shitless to speak out of turn. Can’t wait to see them all choke on their words when everything is stripped off that soulless club
 

Wengerista

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Had to listen to this mornings game while driving to work. No idea who the commentators were but the main guy was enough to make you sick.
“Huge effort to win 4 leagues in a row”

“no one thought they could do it”

made it sound like city were some plucky underdog while no mention of the mass amount of charges they were facing.
Another good one was “pretty good for a league two Caliber player” referring to Haarland, completely missing the point on what Keane actually said.
Considering the size of the fanbases of the clubs most affected by City, mentioning the charges should be the winning play for engagement.

The reasons why they don't can only be fear of legal action and/or brand damage to the Premier League.
 

Big Andy

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I'm sorry but that away end last night was fecking disgusting. You're 2 games away from a 4th title in a row, and you go 1-0 up in a tense away game, you would be absolutely buzzing and go mad.

I've celebrated the 4th goal in a dead rubber more exuberantly then they did last night.


Some of them don't even move.
 

erikcred

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I'm sorry but that away end last night was fecking disgusting. You're 2 games away from a 4th title in a row, and you go 1-0 up in a tense away game, you would be absolutely buzzing and go mad.

I've celebrated the 4th goal in a dead rubber more exuberantly then they did last night.


Some of them don't even move.
This is hilarious. But at the same time I think VAR has something to do with it.
 

Big Andy

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This is hilarious. But at the same time I think VAR has something to do with it.
No chance. You celebrate wildly in the spur of the moment, regardless of VAR. Some of them look confused as to what's actually going on, like they've never been before.
 

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This is by far the longest he has spent at any club, is he not getting tired?
Of being paid more money than he ever thought possible? Are you serious? He's there for the same reason nobody can ever tap up or entice a City player away. He's making multiples more money and whatever else than any club sans PSG or Newcastle could give him. Plus his brother is being kept sweet too.

Unless he has a magic number to hit financially, he's going nowhere unless the wheels fall off and they're brought to accord.
 

Tincanalley

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That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.

Why not list all the products you have, buy, have bought, borrowed or consumed over the years, all the films you've watched, all the artists whose songs you've listened to, all the newspapers, magazines and books you've bought or read so we can see test your ethics.

That peanut butter you in your cupboard suggests you support the destruction of the rainforest. Presumably you want people to remember that when considering your high horsery.

Quite apart from knowingly funding sexual predators through your Netflix subscription. Openingly supporting - no, financing - sexual assault. How could you?
Troll.
 

erikcred

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No chance. You celebrate wildly in the spur of the moment, regardless of VAR. Some of them look confused as to what's actually going on, like they've never been before.
Haha, that's a good point. I mean, the people in the bottom row are just weird. One guy's even clapping gently like he just watched Alastair Cook well-leave a scorching outswinger.
 

doubleohseven

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That's complete nonsense though. That's like saying that pair of trainers you own means you support child labour and exploitation.
These snippets of whataboutery are the 'complete nonsense', because they always defer the argument from necessity.

Shows have to be worn in society, to enter premises, to protect feet et al. A consumer's economic situation coerces choice, which will restrict one to a pair crafted via exploited labour (it's another argument about how all labour is exploitative, but we'll stay on point).

Another one is petrol. You see a person requiring medical assistance, so ring an ambulance. What does the ambulance run on? What happens if you don't call it for that reason? You get the picture.

Of course, this situationism does not exonerate indulgence, but that is a facet of sports-washing in football. Football is an indulgence. You don't 'need' it as such, and nothing is coercing you into endorsing it (nothing at all like the physical real-time situations described in the above scenarios, anyway).

Anyway, some of the polls have suggested the majority wanted Qatar, so we as a whole cannot pontificate on the matter, but let's not indulge false equivalences to pretend sports-washing is not still a serious problem.
 

Fortitude

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"Dilutes" :lol: look how cautious all these outspoken people have to be in everything they say. This is also the benefit of being a state and not a football club. Imagine Manchester United, the entity, telling anyone to shut their mouth, or else! You'd get an 'or else what!?' and an emboldened renouncement. "City" do the same and it's 'yes, boss' and no eye contact. It's absurd.

---

Something else that is just bizarre about what's going on is these charges only go to 2019. City did not become clean nor self-sufficient from that date until now. What is even going to happen with regard to the remainder? It's never spoken about, this void, everyone seems to have quantum leaped over.

They've turned football on its head with this madness and it can only be spoken about in hushed tones, like it's conspiracy, whilst most in media steer so clear of it, you wouldn't know any of this existed but for a few withering voices of descent. That's what a state entering football does.
 

erikcred

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"Dilutes" :lol: look how cautious all these outspoken people have to be in everything they say. This is also the benefit of being a state and not a football club. Imagine Manchester United, the entity, telling anyone to shut their mouth, or else! You'd get an 'or else what!?' and an emboldened renouncement. "City" do the same and it's 'yes, boss' and no eye contact. It's absurd.
Poor Lance and his diluted titles.
 

africanspur

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Of being paid more money than he ever thought possible? Are you serious? He's there for the same reason nobody can ever tap up or entice a City player away. He's making multiples more money and whatever else than any club sans PSG or Newcastle could give him. Plus his brother is being kept sweet too.

Unless he has a magic number to hit financially, he's going nowhere unless the wheels fall off and they're brought to accord.
Where else could he go that would give his brother a club to part own and (likely/possibly/probably) pay him a second salary off the books?
I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
 

MrMarcello

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Something else that is just bizarre about what's going on is these charges only go to 2019. City did not become clean nor self-sufficient from that date until now. What is even going to happen with regard to the remainder? It's never spoken about, this void, everyone seems to have quantum leaped over.

They've turned football on its head with this madness and it can only be spoken about in hushed tones, like it's conspiracy, whilst most in media steer so clear of it, you wouldn't know any of this existed but for a few withering voices of descent. That's what a state entering football does.
Isn't this because when the PL first investigated and/or asked for documents it was in 2018/19 timeframe? They haven't been able to ask for any since, probably pending the current legal outcome but may go for following years thereafter.
 

erikcred

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I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
Think he'll wait to see where Klopp goes and then turn up at the richest team in that league. Again.:D
 

MrMarcello

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I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
Maybe it was player power or whatever at Barcelona and Bayern, although I wager City were tapping him up while he was at Bayern. He's got all these backroom staffers from his Barca days and probably the best PEDs state-backed money can buy/create.
 

Eriku

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Silver lining, we could hardly pick a better time for our post-Fergie malaise. It would be super frustrating to be in contention and doing well like Liverpool and still getting more or less nothing out of it.
 

Fortitude

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I don't mean the money and the perks, which I imagine are spectacular. I'm talking about his general intensity and potential for burnout.

Ferguson and I hate to admit it Wenger were anomalies and managers like that, who can stay for long periods at one club, are almost unheard of. I'm struggling to think of a top manager other than those two who've stayed a decade or more at one club, let alone a top one? Guardiola is at 8 now.
Pep is trying to legitimise his time at City with every turn and every defence of what they are, so these titles and the legacy he believes he is creating clearly mean a great deal to him. He's a neurotic, meticulous winner, so he is always going to give it everything he has.

I've maintained for a long time that his pressure and assessments are outside of the league, and even the fuel that will keep him going so long as he doesn't dominate. The league is a procession and I don't think it takes much out of him, not comparative to the CL and defeats/scrutiny therein, anyway. If he were to dominate that competition, I think the plug would be pulled sooner, but so long as he's just another competitor in that arena, he still has just as strong a goal and motivation as every other coach, if not more so.

Pep also has his fun via reinvention and playing his own game of football manager every other season, so it's not re-treading the same path each season when he sees whether tweeks X, Y and Z work or if there's something else to add to the mix.
 

Fortitude

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Isn't this because when the PL first investigated and/or asked for documents it was in 2018/19 timeframe? They haven't been able to ask for any since, probably pending the current legal outcome but may go for following years thereafter.
The thing is, it's not mentioned by anyone - that things don't just stop at 2019 and that there's more to be discussed. Even on here, we talk about "115" but the extent of what they've done goes beyond that. It's so surreal.
 

bstb3

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The thing is, it's not mentioned by anyone - that things don't just stop at 2019 and that there's more to be discussed. Even on here, we talk about "115" but the extent of what they've done goes beyond that. It's so surreal.
Well this is the thing. The 115 is just what has been charged / discovered. Once they chose to go the route of 'we are going to cheat, lie, obfuscate, threaten and defer' to get what they want, pretty much anything is on the table to achieve that. If found guilty (and we all know it anyway) then they are deliberately corrupt, end of. There can't be a place for them in a competition that wants to be seen as fair.
 

ZainCRse7en

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Chris Wood and Son just handed them the title. I would investigate and check their bank accounts if I was the FA. Especially Wood - the fellow could have had a hat trick against City in a game where they were absolutely outplayed and should have lost.
 

Josep Dowling

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In any other sport do they allow a team to be under investigation whilst continuing to compete? In that time they have won a treble and about to win the league a record 4 years in a row. It's made a mockery of the entire sport. Surely lack of co-operation alone should of had them suspended, pending investigation. That way they would want to actively co-operative.

If anything the Premier League, and football authorities in general, need to make their rules stricter and clearer for compliance and punish accordingly. Manchester City are not too big to fail. Plenty of big clubs have had set backs in the past. Look at Schalke now or Dortmund in the early 2000s. They need to be punished for disobeying rules that everyone else has stuck to, and the fact that so many clubs have spent beyond their means to chase them. They have caused huge financial issues across the Premier League, and wider Europe inflating the market.

The only issue that is delaying things is the fact a State is behind the legal action blocking the investigation. That is precisely why they should never have been allowed to purchase a football club. The Premier League for me has been completely ruined. Non-United fans seem to be waking up now that Liverpool and Arsenal have lost the title with record points on the table.
 

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It really is a joke. Everton and forest have been docked points, and it looks like city will win the league by a couple of points and nothing has happened. It really makes a farce of the whole thing. It seems so unfair on the rest of the league. It's a shambles.
 

Yakuza_devils

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When City can officially declared that they are making more revenues than traditional biggest clubs in Europe like RM, Barcelona, Man Utd, BM and etc. You know UEFA, PL, FFP and whatnot are toothless. Im sure the 115 are still missing lots of dodgy things city did behind.

Another recent good example is signing Alvarez with just 14M. Alvarez is not an unknown South American player. Rangnick recommended him to Man Utd too. South American player is not that cheap even though bought straight from South America. There must be lots of dodgy intermediary payments by offshore accounts or something.
 

Taribo's Gap

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When City can officially declared that they are making more revenues than traditional biggest clubs in Europe like RM, Barcelona, Man Utd, BM and etc. You know UEFA, PL, FFP and whatnot are toothless. Im sure the 115 are still missing lots of dodgy things city did behind.

Another recent good example is signing Alvarez with just 14M. Alvarez is not an unknown South American player. Rangnick recommended him to Man Utd too. South American player is not that cheap even though bought straight from South America. There must be lots of dodgy intermediary payments by offshore accounts or something.
How much should Alvarez have cost? Enzo, his teammate at River, went to Benfica for a similar fee. For every Alvarez, there are a few Kayky's that get forgotten. The real competitive advantage is that City have the resources to make those punts without it affecting them much whereas other teams have to be more judicious with the risks they take. If Brighton gets a bad batch of similarly-priced South American talent, it's much more difficult.