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

[Zen86]

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.

I find it interesting that City are rarely pulled into protracted transfer sagas or come up against clubs playing hard-ball with them. Kane I guess is one, I can’t remember many others though. Considering they are the richest club in the world in terms of backing, and heavily active in the transfer market, they rarely get taken to the cleaners on players like many other big clubs do. It’s always very quick, clean, and economical.

There’s very rarely any talk of their players agitating for moves or bigger wages, either.

It’s always been a curious thing

 

[tomaldinho1]

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.

Last para, they are good sized fees anyway and, from what I can see, City always pay in full so no one will be outbidding them. Also, in the event a club comes out and says 'Hey, we offered more but they said no', the answer is quite obvious, the club just says the player said no. Re owner, it just means whoever is the most senior single decision maker, so in River's case likely the CEO. I'm not saying this has happened, I suspect it probably has early on but more with agents and players, but it would be incredibly easy for them to do with how opaque the UAE is for anyone trying to probe their finances.

This goes for all clubs in fairness, it's not unique to City, it's just next to impossible to do for most because it would be visible in some form. The issue with a state run team where the state has no interest in making all it's financial interests public (and even then they could just omit whatever they wanted) is what can you do? What can the PL do? You could literally get a der spiegel leak showing City gifted Alfie Haaland £200m in real estate in the UAE and nothing would happen because the info was obtained illegally and they will just completely refuse to cooperate.

 

[VARsenal]

All I really want to know is why City have 35 charges of failing to comply with investigations?
Like honestly, is there anyone who is innocent that doesn't comply with investigations regarding whether they've done something illegal?

 

[Fr. Todd Unctious]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

 

[tomaldinho1]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

Haha what a cameo

 

[Rooney in Paris]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

 

[Fortitude]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

Wow! That’s brilliant. It’ll be gone soon. Save for posterity whilst you can.

 

[Yagami]

"Jesus, the Irish lads again"

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

Is it true the European ban was suspended? Ideal so they could finally win it.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

City is like the corrupt politicians in many countries. We know that they had done many dodgy things but it's not easy to prove as they are in power.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Is it true the European ban was suspended? Ideal so they could finally win it.

UEFA found them guilty, City took it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and they overturned the ruling. Reason? Because UEFA has a time limit to when they could charge City and CAS ruled that the time had gone past. So they got away with it due to a technicality, a technicality they caused by not cooperating with UEFA in a timely manner.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

Hope they will be eventually been proven guilty in court and suffer the same fate as Lance Armstrong. A disgrace and striped off all titles. Cheating is cheating and should be punished severely.

 

[Changeisgood]

What I don't understand is this...you have a situation where the team you are investigating is winning every trophy out there, has seemingly infinite resources to fight your charges and you decide to go the longest route possible by placing 115 charges. Could they not have gone the Everton route with FFP and placed separate sets of charges instead of one large batch that will be held up forever.

In the meantime City keeps winning and the league is getting devalued.

 

[maniak]

I hope they are punished but the damage is already done. Multiple teams, mangers, dozens of players have lost out on league titles and CL appearances because of this. They're not coming back, so it will be a very bittersweet moment if it ever comes.

 

[phonics_tid]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

The “try not to run him over” boy is one member of The Exploding Heads. If anyone hasn’t checked out their Sports Horn podcast get on it immediately. Some of the funniest football related comedy out there.

 

[Taribo's Gap]

What I don't understand is this...you have a situation where the team you are investigating is winning every trophy out there, has seemingly infinite resources to fight your charges and you decide to go the longest route possible by placing 115 charges. Could they not have gone the Everton route with FFP and placed separate sets of charges instead of one large batch that will be held up forever.

In the meantime City keeps winning and the league is getting devalued.

Agree the strategy looks a little clumsy and haphazard. Maybe the Prem thought that by going this route, the sheer volume of charges would induce some type of settlement or capitulation by City with an eye toward proving the Prem's ability to self-regulate. City has settled in the past even when they could have kept fighting. The other issue is that if you only go with a few charges initially and end up losing, well that would be bad for business. Some of that depends on whether this is strictly an enforcement action from the Prem versus a PR/optics/branding battle, and that is tougher to know without knowing some of the behind the scenes motivations and machinations. No matter what happens, I think City have already lost the PR battle.

 

[McGrathsipan]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

fantastic

 

[McGrathsipan]

"Jesus, the Irish lads again"

casual racism

 

[Nicolarra90]

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.

That's for the PL and ourselves as well.

 

[Changeisgood]

Yes, I would agree that City have already lost the PR battle. The overwhelming perception is that they are guilty and that the farce is allowed to continue. I don't even see a whole lot of City fans trying to defend other than the odd deflection in asserting another club also conducts their business in a suspect manner.

If they wanted to enforce the rules, they could have picked a few of the easiest charges to prove and moved on them. We would have had a ruling on the initial charges a long time ago.

The PL has damaged City in the PR department but they have also damaged their own league by ensuring this takes an excessive amount of time.

Feel more and more this is cycling or USADA vs Armstrong part 2. People forget fairly fast but we will stay suspicious as fans of the sport for decades.

 

[JagUTD]

@ Paddy Power

 

[Pughnichi]

not seen even a second of footage of citeh presentation and celebrations.

in previous years I’d have seen other captains lift the EPL but I genuinely just can’t give it any attention. Maybe that’s an age thing and just paying less interest to the football spectacle that swallowed me up in my younger years

the first time I see it will probably be the motd intro next season

 

[padr81]

What I don't understand is this...you have a situation where the team you are investigating is winning every trophy out there, has seemingly infinite resources to fight your charges and you decide to go the longest route possible by placing 115 charges. Could they not have gone the Everton route with FFP and placed separate sets of charges instead of one large batch that will be held up forever.

In the meantime City keeps winning and the league is getting devalued.

No because without the proof of fraud the PSR charges don't hold up. City only fail PSR if the books are wrong. The only way the books are wrong is if City cooked them. The PSR charges will be dismissed if the fraud charges are.

To bring City up on PSR without first proving the books are cooked would see the PL get annihilated. One is completely reliant on the other. If the PL have clear PSR breaches they wouldn't need the commission, it would be wholly seperate.

 

[Baichung Bhutia]

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.

Yup. The CEO of the Premier League avoiding going to City on the final day just adds to the mess.

 

[Ayoba]

I don't know the validity of this source, so mods please feel free to delete this post

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[ArtetasHair]

I find it interesting that City are rarely pulled into protracted transfer sagas or come up against clubs playing hard-ball with them. Kane I guess is one, I can’t remember many others though. Considering they are the richest club in the world in terms of backing, and heavily active in the transfer market, they rarely get taken to the cleaners on players like many other big clubs do. It’s always very quick, clean, and economical.

There’s very rarely any talk of their players agitating for moves or bigger wages, either.

It’s always been a curious thing

Fear. If any club wants to poach anyone from them City will destroy them. Imagine Madrid trying to take KDB, City will come back with an insane amount of money to prise half their team by offering say Vinicus 800,000 a week, like they did with Haaland (all illegal under the table payments). No big team wants that. Years ago I read City had an understanding with Madrid, Barca etc. Ie you don't touch your players, we won't touch yours.

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Fear. If any club wants to poach anyone from them City will destroy them. Imagine Madrid trying to take KDB, City will come back with an insane amount of money to prise half their team by offering say Vinicus 800,000 a week, like they did with Haaland (all illegal under the table payments). No big team wants that. Years ago I read City had an understanding with Madrid, Barca etc. Ie you don't touch your players, we won't touch yours.

Exactly, it’s like how PSG punished Barcelona for showing interest in Verratti by matching Neymar’s insane release clause, which resulted in Barcelona spending over £300 million for Coutinho, Dembélé, and Griezmann, none of whom did well.

 

[VorZakone]

I don't know the validity of this source, so mods please feel free to delete this post

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Here's the piece I think: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/55...-charges-decision/?source=user_shared_article

 

[VorZakone]

Actually, it seems the UK Government admission is from 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4889001/2023/09/22/man-city-charges-premier-league-abu-dhabi/

 

[Paddymcc]

The UK & Abu Dhabi are in the middle of a huge nuclear deal so I would expect the square root of feck all to happen to City when the pigs are all at trough feeding.

 

[Irishman]

Some of those charges City have to answer are easily sorted.

Failure to cooperate - they either did or they didn’t.

Failure to provide accurate financial information - again they either did or they didn’t.

That’s the main bulk of the charges that can be sorted out easily.

City's credibility and achievements forever in the mud. Unfortunately the record books will say differently.

 

[Tincanalley]

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Stephen Hunt at the end

Holey Moley! What a cheeky ad!

 

[adexkola]

The UK & Abu Dhabi are in the middle of a huge nuclear deal so I would expect the square root of feck all to happen to City when the pigs are all at trough feeding.

The deal will go forward with or without City getting punished, City are very minor compared to an already existing relationship with strong financial and defense ties.

 

[MrMarcello]

Pardon The Interruption on ESPN praised City on winning four titles, "never been done in 135 years!"

Not a single mention of the charges.

 

[Zlaatan]

Not sure I know myself, to be honest.

 

[MiceOnMeth]

Holey Moley! What a cheeky ad!

"Not much before 2010, Job done"

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Is Pep trying to point 115 with his fingers?

Copying his role model…

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

A reminder of some of the background re investments and sponsorship …

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[Igor Drefljak]

So the bit I don’t get then is, if the league doesn’t have government powers to do A B and C

can’t they just say, you’re not cooperating, so you’re out the league

 

[doubleohseven]

@ Paddy Power

Be careful heaping praise on such people. Sorry to be 'that guy' who is 'no craic' but Paddy Power's banter machine is to be suspicioned.

From The Guardian:

'Popular social media accounts, including betting “tipsters” and a **** parody of the footballer James Milner, have been working as part of a marketing network directing users towards a major betting website.

One of the accounts, @AndyRobsonTips, gives the impression that it is run by an individual helping fans beat the bookies. Another, known as @BoringMilner, is widely known as a parody account that posts jokes about football for fun...

...Andy Robson Tips has amassed more than 1 million followers across X, Instagram and Facebook by offering free betting suggestions that bettors can copy, in the hope of beating the bookies. The X account states: “I bet for entertainment,” while the Andy’s Bet Club website refers to having developed the account “while playing [football video game] Fifa in my boxers”.

But there is no person called Andy Robson behind the @andyrobsontips account, a source familiar with the business told the Guardian. Instead, the account is part of Fanwave Digital, a social media marketing business paid by Paddy Power Betfair, part of the £26bn gambling group Flutter, to post betting tips that link to the company’s website.'

'Funny' as their advertising is, lest we forget they too are all sorts of dodge-diddly-odge.

As for city, they'll get off with it.

We all know.