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

GiveItToGi...nowait

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You really think the reason City got exonerated by CAS is because, years into the process, the CAS suddenly realised that the alleged breaches were too long ago? And that nobody at UEFA or at City had noticed until then?
That's not what I think, it's what they've said:

Uefa’s rules for the CFCB, whose members are appointed to oversee compliance with FFP, state that “prosecution is barred after five years” for all breaches of FFP regulations.

The senior European lawyers in the CFCB’s adjudicatory chamber (AC), and experienced academics, former politicians and executives in the investigative chamber (IC), considered May 2014 as the date of City’s breach. That was when City agreed an FFP settlement with Uefa, based on the club’s reporting of its finances, which included that Etisalat, a Middle East telecoms giant headquartered in Abu Dhabi, had paid the sponsorship itself.

In fact, the judgment recites, the AC found that ADUG had funded the payments, and that: “The management of [MCFC] was well aware that the payments … made by [a third party on behalf of ADUG] were made as equity funding, not as payments for the sponsor on account of genuine sponsorship liabilities.” The judgment notes that although City and Etisalat had agreed a sponsorship deal in principle in 2012, the actual contract was concluded only in January 2015, and was stated to be retrospectively effective, from 1 February 2012.
Just in case reality hasn't bitten you hard enough:

The Cas judgment makes no suggestion of bias, and states that “Uefa by no means filed frivolous charges against MCFC. As also acknowledged by MCFC, there was a legitimate basis to prosecute MCFC.”
 
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Rooney in Paris

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The fact that our dogshit government and Abu Dhabi 'discussed' these charges does make me fear the govt will put pressure on the PL to lighten the sentence, which would be a spineless travesty. Can't pretend I'm shocked though.
I guess what will happen is that they will get a punishment, the biggest points deduction ever (something like 20pts), which will stop them from winning the league one season, maybe getting into the CL (though not sure), and a massive, "unprecedented" fine. It will all be perfectly unsatisfying and unfair considering the scope of what they've done and the fact that cheating for 15 years has ensured them a place of dominance, but the governing bodies can wipe their hands clean but using hyperbole formulas such as "biggest sanctions ever" etc. And it will be swept under the rug by all those sport journos with their inflated sense of self-importance given their inability to report anything on it and their desire to stay in the good books of City anyway.
 

Solius

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I guess what will happen is that they will get a punishment, the biggest points deduction ever (something like 20pts), which will stop them from winning the league one season, maybe getting into the CL (though not sure), and a massive, "unprecedented" fine. It will all be perfectly unsatisfying and unfair considering the scope of what they've done and the fact that cheating for 15 years has ensured them a place of dominance, but the governing bodies can wipe their hands clean but using hyperbole formulas such as "biggest sanctions ever" etc. And it will be swept under the rug by all those sport journos with their inflated sense of self-importance given their inability to report anything on it and their desire to stay in the good books of City anyway.
As someone said before, that'd be like giving a cartel boss a fine and saying he can't deal drugs for a year. They already have the empire so why does this matter? There needs to be an incentive for another club not to do this, because any club aspiring to be like them will look at that and think that's worth it for the 'success' it brings.
 

Rooney in Paris

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As someone said before, that'd be like giving a cartel boss a fine and saying he can't deal drugs for a year. They already have the empire so why does this matter? There needs to be an incentive for another club not to do this, because any club aspiring to be like them will look at that and think that's worth it for the 'success' it brings.
I'm not arguing in any kind of way that it's right, it's just the gut feeling I have of what will happen.
 

Solius

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I'm not arguing in any kind of way that it's right, it's just the gut feeling I have of what will happen.
Yeah I get you. I'm ready to be incredibly disappointed as well but you never know I guess. It needs to be something that strikes fear into the heart of any club who dare repeat what they've done.
 

TheReligion

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You really think the reason City got exonerated by CAS is because, years into the process, the CAS suddenly realised that the alleged breaches were too long ago? And that nobody at UEFA or at City had noticed until then?
The myth City were exonerated is still strong with the Bertie’s I see :lol:

Idiots
 

OldSchoolManc

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Luton 2008-2009 got 30 points deduction for wayyyyyy less than even one of the City charges. Think Bolton got similar
 

Schmeichel=God

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Clear cut
Give them the Juventus treatment.
League 2.
Feck off into the dark crevices for at least 3 years.
 

Blood Mage

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Anything less than a relegation to the Championship will feel like a massive capitulation by the PL. They need to be made an example of, and hopefully that will give Newcastle second thoughts about going down the same route too.
 

Zen86

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Clear cut
Give them the Juventus treatment.
League 2.
Feck off into the dark crevices for at least 3 years.
Even that is small punishment. The damage has already been done. They should be kicked out of the football league full stop until their ownership is changed, and stripped of any titles.
 

Solius

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There should be at the very least imo a transfer ban, expulsion from the league and these fake ‘sponsors’ cancelled by the league. Also all titles taken away from them. Otherwise what they’ve done works. The whole point of this was to try and win as much as they could, so if they don’t lose that it’s been a success for them.

The only issues is which league they go in and the poor clubs that have to face a PL level squad in that division but maybe some players leave if that happens anyway.
 

Judas

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They have made a mockery of the PL as a competition and made an absolute joke of football as we know it for over a decade. Truth is, anything less than relegation to the very bottom of the football pyramid is getting off very lightly.
 

KD6-3.7

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People thinking this will end with City being stripped of their titles and relegated to the championship are going to have a rough couple days when the verdict is announced and it’s a little fine and a small points reduction, they have made a mockery of the Premier League and FFP and they will once more when nothing happens with any of those 115 charges.
 

NotChatGPT

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As someone said before, that'd be like giving a cartel boss a fine and saying he can't deal drugs for a year. They already have the empire so why does this matter? There needs to be an incentive for another club not to do this, because any club aspiring to be like them will look at that and think that's worth it for the 'success' it brings.
No normally operated clubs can do anything similar anyway, they’ll hardly open pandoras box by handing out what will at best be a mild punishment. The Premier League is a product that brings other investments to the country. Fairness of the competition and whatnot is rather irrelevant in that sense and it’s not going to be risked.

There were heavy political involvement to have the Saudi takeover of Newcastle approved, simply because the more important stakes were UK - Saudi relations.

Just as we know there’s heavy political involvement to make sure that Manchester City’s potential punishment is meaningless. Imagine the thinly veiled threats of rather large investments going somewhere else, and how local politicians will react to something like that. People underestimate the position they’re in.
 

Josep Dowling

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Even that is small punishment. The damage has already been done. They should be kicked out of the football league full stop until their ownership is changed, and stripped of any titles.
Agreed. Their owners have proved they will go to any means to cheat the system, and then won’t co-operative when investigated. There is no way they should be allowed to own a football club in the UK after what’s happened.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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I quite like the idea of a 10 points deduction per charge they are convicted of equally shared out for past seasons and future seasons at a rate of 25 points per season.

So if they get 50 charges to stick, then that is 500 points, 10 years back and 10 years forward.

A one hit relegation and fine will be meaningless.
 

Ady87

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They’ll feel their position is vindicated. The experiment worked. They went from nothing to everything. (Forget some of the best ever PL players and one of the best managers ever)

Transfer ban - won’t work, they’ll load up the window before they know it’s coming.
Fine - Pointless.
Points deduction resulting in demotion is where I think we end up.
 

Someone

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It'll end up in relegation. Anything else will be very problematic for the premier league. They could survive a 50 points deduction ffs, and that means what? Just a year without CL football. I don't even think a 1 year relegation will be that catastrophic.
 

Schmeichel=God

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I quite like the idea of a 10 points deduction per charge they are convicted of equally shared out for past seasons and future seasons at a rate of 25 points per season.

So if they get 50 charges to stick, then that is 500 points, 10 years back and 10 years forward.

A one hit relegation and fine will be meaningless.
Oh yes.
Keep talking dirty to me.
:lol:
 

Mshafeek

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Will the penalties be applied for this season, meaning they are out of the title race? It's a given that at the minimum, they will have some points docked, right?
 

awop

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Will the penalties be applied for this season, meaning they are out of the title race? It's a given that at the minimum, they will have some points docked, right?
No way to know without the date. The hearings will also probably go on for weeks.
 

Sgreddevil

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Even that is small punishment. The damage has already been done. They should be kicked out of the football league full stop until their ownership is changed, and stripped of any titles.
I agree that will be too small. Minimumly they should be relegated out of the English leagues to the National Leagues. Let them climb back up legitimately again if they can comply with the FFP rules. Even if they can manage to retain their squad and promote every year, it will take them at least another 5 years to be back to the top flight football.
This can form a real deterrence to others that may want to do the same unfair practices in future.
 

RoyH1

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It'll end up in relegation. Anything else will be very problematic for the premier league. They could survive a 50 points deduction ffs, and that means what? Just a year without CL football. I don't even think a 1 year relegation will be that catastrophic.
No. Send them 2 levels down and title strip. That would show them.

Of course nothing of consequence will happen. Too much politics and money involved here
 

GiveItToGi...nowait

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No. Send them 2 levels down and title strip. That would show them.

Of course nothing of consequence will happen. Too much politics and money involved here
Is this just hope for the best and expect the worst kind of thinking?

Unless they are found not guilty (and they have already been found guilty and got off on a technicality) I don't see how they get away with a slap on the wrist. I get it, Abu Dhabi are rich and our government want their money but they aren't that fecking rich and powerful. The Premier League managed to thrive before they came along with their oil money and I expect it would thrive after, and as for their "influence" over the government, there are plenty of other rich parties who also own football clubs that would need to be fecked off in order to allow city to get away with it.

Look at it this way, if city had the leverage to pervert the process why are they not co-operating with the investigation? Surely if you have some kind of back room deal with the powers that be you would be happy to go along with the process because you know it's a foregone conclusion.

The only reason they are not co-operating is delay, delay, delay to buy the legal team time to figure out some way these charges don't stick.
 

Wengerista

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Clear cut
Give them the Juventus treatment.
League 2.
Feck off into the dark crevices for at least 3 years.
Need Mansour/ADUG banned from being owners of an English football club too and compelled to sell. That's the crucial part.
 

Rooney in Paris

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Rephrased: the evidence was there, UEFA sanctioned them but it was reversed because evidence has a sell by date?
It made sense in the first place, don't worry. Everyone understood you. They did get off on technicalities, the wording from UEFA clearly indicated they believed they were guilty.
 

horsechoker

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They must have considered relegation a possibility so I wonder if City have refused to put in relegation clauses into players' contracts.

If it were to happen one would expect an exodus of players but I could imagine City trying to hold onto some.
 

adexkola

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Rephrased: the evidence was there, UEFA sanctioned them but it was reversed because evidence has a sell by date?
1. I wouldn't take much stock in UEFA, they've proven to be incompetent in general

2. CAS threw out anything time barred, but that doesn't mean the time barred material was rock solid proof of City wrong doing (it could be, it could not be). All we know is that time barred stuff got thrown out (which meant City didn't have to bother defending it, seeing they knew UEFA's rules better than UEFA, ṣee point 1 above) and City successfully defended the non-time barred stuff before CAS.
 

SilentWitness

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I would be really surprised if anything bad happens due to the political implications. Same with Newcastle and Saudi. PL has backed itself into a corner as has the government.
 

IRELANDUNITED

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Clear cut
Give them the Juventus treatment.
League 2.
Feck off into the dark crevices for at least 3 years.
The only way to deal with these cheats. Newcastle and Chelsea next if they can’t play by the rules.

If you aren’t a big club that can generate your own money then please stay in your lane
 

Arios

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in a utopia City should be punished with titles stripped and sent to Championship and a market window ban.

In the world we live PL will probably do something to say : "see we punished them!!"
I agree with who said they will give them 30-40points deduction for this season, a huge fine to split between clubs (like 100-200m) and maybe a transfer window ban
 

diarm

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I’d be satisfied with a relegation from the football league, the stripping of titles and a massive fine if it was just the cheating.

But the fact they have refused to cooperate, and have plowed money into legal obfuscation which in turn, has forced the league to spend huge sums on fighting them - money which could have been far better spent elsewhere in the game, means their owners by definition are not fit and proper.

They need to be removed from the football pyramid until such a time as there has been a change of ownership. They have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they cannot be trusted and anything else is a cop out.
 

SilentWitness

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They need to be removed from the football pyramid until such a time as there has been a change of ownership. They have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they cannot be trusted and anything else is a cop out.
I was listening to the radio and they were talking about the Reading case and in regards to the EFL they can disqualify owners but can't force them to sell clubs. Not sure if that's the same for the PL or not.
 

Ayoba

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IF they do get expelled (expulled?) from the PL, am I right in saying that the PL and EFL are two seperate entities? Therefore it will be up to the EFL to decide a. whether to accept man city and b. which league to place them, i.e the championship, league one etc?