Manchester City banned from CL for 2 seasons and fined 30 million euros | CAS - Ban lifted, fined 10 million

AR87

Full Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
3,217
Location
believer that Sancho will turn it around
Because La Liga have been the ones petitioning UEFA. The head of La Liga made a boastful statement today. Think about that. La Liga are annoyed about clubs spending money.
Real and Barca been getting council loans to sign players for decades. City have been the one club that Real and Barca can’t poach their star players.... So tbf this should be an England vs Spain / Uefa thing. Because once they beat City next they come against United, ohhh you can’t spend £150m million a year when you have £400m debt or whatever bs
None of this threatens United
 

Amarsdd

Full Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2013
Messages
3,299
Yeah I understand. But UEFA only started making noises about money when Roman took over Chelsea and they only implemented FFP as a direct result of City getting bought by Mansour. It’s genuinely an anti English thing. Then Italian clubs spending Mafia money in the 80s and 90s was never a problem, Real and Barca using council loans since the 90s was never a problem... first time I heard money being a problem in football was when United signed Ferdinand for £30m. I remember realising then UEFA had an anti English agenda.

Just have to go back to Haysel... very tragic and those responsible deserved prison. But how does something which 1) there is still to this date doubt about who provoked it. Resort in all English clubs getting a ban. If it was proven that it was entirely Liverpool fans fault, which there are conflicting accounts, then ban only Liverpool, if not ban both clubs. When English fans gets attacked and killed by foreign fans do those clubs get any punishment. I know nothing has ever happened on that level. But one life is still
one life to many but to UEFA action never seems to be taken.

Uefa are very corrupt and driven by whoever lobbies them the most. Hence why racism isn’t taken seriously. Because if they took it seriously Spain would have to come under fire.
I understand that. But I don't understand letting one get off because others got off in the past when rules weren't in place. If you are saying FFP should be scrapped and let all teams do what they want without any regulations then fair play (*no pun intended) to you.
 

momo83

Massive Snowflake
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,463
None of this threatens United
Probably not. But remember how Blatter when at Fifa called Ronaldo a slave at United and suggested United should let him leave? Blatter was an honorary member of Real Madrid. UEFA are just as prone to their biases and abuse of power. Will be interesting to find out how Juventus and Inter have funded their transfers considering stadiums in Italy are usually half empty... but doubt we’ll ever find out
 

croadyman

Full Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2018
Messages
34,575
Would be very silly indeed if the likes of us, Sheff Utd, Wolves & Spurs start thinking 5th place will definitely get champions league.

We all have to be aiming for fourth because have a gut feeling City's ban will end up being suspended or reduced.
 

momo83

Massive Snowflake
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,463
I understand that. But I don't understand letting one get off because others got off in the past when rules weren't in place. If you are saying FFP should be scrapped and let all teams do what they want without any regulations then fair play (*no pun intended) to you.
Haha... I like the fair play thing. Only regulation I agree with are those that prevent owners without the money buying clubs. Bad owners that need regulating eg Glazers, the ones that bankrupted Portsmouth, Leyton Orient etc.
 

Josep Dowling

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
7,641
I'm shocked. Question is though, will the same thing happen with PSG?

Other clubs that risk getting punished?

Really hopes this sets a precedent and is just not a one off
Not that I want to defend City but there are plenty of other clubs spending well above their means and haven’t been punished.

PSG spent £400m on two players, managed to defer one of the payments for a season via a loan deal with one of the most promising talents in the world. Surely evidence of foul play.

Inter have managed to sign an entire squad of players in just one season from absolutely nowhere.

Barcelona time and time again have spent millions including the very dodgy deal with Griezmann. And have managed to get an emergency signing for a injury outside of the transfer window.

I’m sure City are guilty but there has to be plenty of clubs as well that UEFA just seem to ignore.
 

Josep Dowling

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
7,641
Financial malpractice and paying people 'off the books' (supporting tax avoidance) isn't illegal?

Now, to be clear, I've got no idea if they did it or if UEFA can prove it but what they've potentially done surely breaks laws?
I agree with you but if the British government actually cared wouldn’t HMRC already be investigating them? It shouldn’t take a footballing body to intervene. The ban will be overturned just like every single UEFA ban in history. The timing of the ban says it all. City have chance to appeal before next season. I guarantee they will be in the tournament next season. Their owners have too much power.
 

Bobcat

Full Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
6,385
Location
Behind the curtains, leering at the neighbors
Not that I want to defend City but there are plenty of other clubs spending well above their means and haven’t been punished.

PSG spent £400m on two players, managed to defer one of the payments for a season via a loan deal with one of the most promising talents in the world. Surely evidence of foul play.

Inter have managed to sign an entire squad of players in just one season from absolutely nowhere.

Barcelona time and time again have spent millions including the very dodgy deal with Griezmann. And have managed to get an emergency signing for a injury outside of the transfer window.

I’m sure City are guilty but there has to be plenty of clubs as well that UEFA just seem to ignore.
Yeah, i suppose City is an easy target seeing as they are not a historically big club and dont have a massive fanbase like Barca. Dont get me wrong i am happy they are getting their comeuppance regardless of how it benefits us (5th place PL will get CL, confirmed by UEFA), but in the grand scheme of things they cant just go after one club when there is plenty of other cases of foul play in the footballing world

Chelsea showed its not impossible. Everyone knew they built their success in the mid 00's on oil money, but has since got their books in order AFAIK
 

Sleigh

Full Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Messages
362
Supports
Leicester City
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

It could get quite messy.
 

Joe Cool

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Sep 19, 2016
Messages
40
Supports
Chelsea
Let's be honest here - I'm a Chelsea fan, we play United, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool and I'm buzzing before the game and pretty much cannot contain myself even though I'm not a teenager anymore. And then we play City and I can't give two fecks abou it to be fair. And the same goes for all my friends and all the other football fans I know.

And then this club (City) comes and tell us they are way more attractive and make way more money than the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. and they can prove it by their sponsorship deals. And I totally agree they can prove it, but still - how many of those deals are "clean" ones? I bet you that all of their biggest sponsorship deals if traced back lead to their Sheik. He is basically not handing the money personally, just using 6-7 other intermediaries.

You travel all around the world and can barely see big Man City fan bases, opposed to the other English clubs who get a good support, United and Liverpool topping these charts. Add to this City's laughable record in Europe, plus the Etihad all around atmosphere and empty seats and the general feeling around this club. It is impossible that financially this club is on par with the likes of United and Liverpool.

They are guilty and PSG should be next in line. I bet that is even worse than City judging by the league they play in and their general recognition. At least City play in the best branded football league in the world that gets the biggest recognition which frankly is second to none.
 

Winrar

Full Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Messages
12,809
Location
Maryland
Thought something like this would never happen but glad I'm proven wrong in this case.

Curious as to see if this will bring any ramifications to their PL position and maybe even titles they won since Abu Dhabi took over. Points deduction and possible relegation on the cards as a result? I've even read they might be relegated to League 2 but that sounds just too good to happen.
 

antihenry

CAF GRU Rep
Joined
Sep 12, 2004
Messages
7,401
Location
Chelsea FC
Well, it's not as if it's Cosmos coming out with the article, it's based on pretty standard metrics.

Their disproportionate funds have nothing to do with history, but with the league they're in. Ligue 1 is nowhere close to the financial powerhouse that is the Premier League or, to a lesser degree, La Liga. It's also not limited to states to be able to change a club's situation almost overnight, such as what happened with Chelsea and Abramovich. The fact is PSG's made smart moves following their takeover by the new ownership and are now self-sustainable in a way City isn't, despite not benefiting from being in a league that rakes in small fortunes for even mid-table clubs from their TV rights alone.
What smart moves did PSG make and how did they manage to become self-sustainable? Honestly, people concentrate on City's actions but I'm very curious how PSG managed to spend an absolute fortune and continue to pay ridiculous wages to their squad and yet somehow follow the FFP guidelines. Top ten highest paid Ligue 1 players are all theirs, how can they possibly afford that?


Seems to me, that City were just more brazen and openly arrogant in their approach, daring the authorities to do something about it and confident they can get away with it while PSG were smart enough to better cover their tracks.
 

clarkydaz

Full Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2013
Messages
13,397
Location
manchester
Surely they strip the last 2 league titles aswell? As a sign of solidarity to other less fortunate clubs
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
22,790
Location
Somewhere out there
What smart moves did PSG make and how did they manage to become self-sustainable?
I'm interested in this answer also.

What I will say with City was that they were desperate to show the World what a massive draw they were with their mind-blowingly nonsensical sponsorship agreements that any gimp could see right through. PSG didn't quite do the dick swinging in the same way.
 

Guy Incognito

Full Member
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
17,766
Location
Somewhere
Most likely City will have the ban reduced to one year. I can't see two years sticking.

PSG ought to be next but they have got their feet under the table and 'done' things the way UEFA want. City meanwhile have antagonised the hegemony and so UEFA want to make an example.

Frankly the whole sport is corrupt and when clubs like Barcelona (which once praised itself on its academy) are in huge debt and still pay out huge sums on transfers you know something is wrong.
 

Raj70

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Messages
47
Supports
Liverpool
The good thing is whatever happens now, whether upheld or not, every trophy City win or have won is tainted. No money going to fix that.

City team should be laughed at, at every away ground. The humiliation would be fantastic.
 

Daysleeper

New Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2014
Messages
4,790
Supports
Barcelona
Not that I want to defend City but there are plenty of other clubs spending well above their means and haven’t been punished.

PSG spent £400m on two players, managed to defer one of the payments for a season via a loan deal with one of the most promising talents in the world. Surely evidence of foul play.

Inter have managed to sign an entire squad of players in just one season from absolutely nowhere.

Barcelona time and time again have spent millions including the very dodgy deal with Griezmann. And have managed to get an emergency signing for a injury outside of the transfer window.

I’m sure City are guilty but there has to be plenty of clubs as well that UEFA just seem to ignore.
The emergency signing was agreed upon by all teams. Barca are owned by people not a single entity.

Their neymar deal was shady but they’ve been within the FFP rules.
 
Last edited:

rcoobc

Not as crap as eferyone thinks
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
41,686
Location
C-137
PSG are definitely violating the rules, but not in the way that Man City did.

Man City didn't even bother hiding it. They thought it was a paper exercise.
 

Raj70

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Messages
47
Supports
Liverpool
And Man City get Poccetino :mad:
Poch I believe is an honourable man, he will not want to be associated with City after this. I think he gets the United job at the end of this season.
 

devlinadl

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
125
Surely they strip the last 2 league titles aswell? As a sign of solidarity to other less fortunate clubs
This ban is for transgressions during the period 2012-16, so only presumably only trophies won in the 2012/13 through to 2015/16 seasons could be stripped away from them.

Would be that Stevie G finally gets his Pl winners medal...
 

jackal&hyde

Full Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
4,220
Hopefully this ban sticks and doesn’t get overturned later
Yep. Also Pep goes and it becomes much more difficult to sign very good players. 5th place or the FA Cup winners go in to the CL i think.
 

Jeppers7

Pogfamily Mafia
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
7,363
Weird. I don't feel pleased or upset by this, I just feel nothing. I've wanted us to drop out of the Champions League for years, now it's finally happened and I'm pretty nonplussed.

The truth is that I've slowly been losing interest in City since 2016. I've missed more home games than I've attended in the last year, I can't remember the last time going to a match didn't feel like a chore, and honestly I'm not really comfortable with the way we're being run and what our success really means for football.

I was hoping they'd form that European Super League so I'd have a good enough reason to give it all up, but my total non-reaction to what should be seismic news might have just sealed it. I've grown so numb towards City, and supporting us has become so easy, that it's sort of lost meaning. We've had our success now - more than I ever dreamed of - so this feels like the right time to just step aside and focus on other interests.

I've had big changes in my personal life over the last two years and I reckon dropping football to pay closer attention to those changes is what's needed. City can carry on doing what they do, I just don't feel that much anymore. I should be gutted or angry about, or even happy and excited because we finally don't have to play in the Champions League. Instead I feel nothing.

Discussing football is an argument waiting to happen, following City is giving me too much cognitive dissonance, demanding more and more success after the decade we've just had smacks of greed. The gap between the haves and have-nots is growing so unbelievably large in football now that I don't see a sustainable future for the game - this FFP ruling, and everything that'll subsequently happen, is all part of it.

It's like with your lot. Your only hope of not being run by the Glazers comes in the form of a Saudi prince whose list of humans rights abuses is somehow worse than our owners'. The whole thing's a corporate nightmare and I can't wait to be done with it. I've sold so many tickets for home games this season that City won't let me renew my seasoncard by default, so I'll see off David Silva in his final game and bow out.
Good post
 

Sarni

nice guy, unassuming, objective United fan.
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
57,630
Location
Krakow
now if this is true, he’s a gigantic bellend.
Yeah I get it’s the Champions League. But you play what? 10-12 cl games in an entire season. It’s not the be and end all. Especially as you know you’ll be back in it once the ban is over. This is the time city players and management should be showing they give a shit about the club. Let’s see ........
He’s the sort of manager who spends 3-4 season at his club before he needs to take a break or go somewhere else. He even said he prefers it this way. It is his fourth year at City already, he may have been gone anyway and if they can’t play in CL then it may really seem pointless for him to stay as he has already won the league twice and has little more to do domestically.
 

Sarni

nice guy, unassuming, objective United fan.
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
57,630
Location
Krakow
Most likely City will have the ban reduced to one year. I can't see two years sticking.

PSG ought to be next but they have got their feet under the table and 'done' things the way UEFA want. City meanwhile have antagonised the hegemony and so UEFA want to make an example.

Frankly the whole sport is corrupt and when clubs like Barcelona (which once praised itself on its academy) are in huge debt and still pay out huge sums on transfers you know something is wrong.
Being in debt doesn’t mean you can’t spend.
 

LordNinio

Full Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2015
Messages
666
Location
Greater Manchester
"Cooked the books" implies something illegal. What City is doing does not breach British, EU or Qatari laws, it's only cheating UEFA's FFP regulations. These regulations, or at least the harshest punishments from UEFA when breaching them, are not recognized by the real authorities. City will easily win the case if they appeal it to CAS, although I really wish they don't.
CAS doesn't decide whether the actions are legal or not, they decide if the sporting body has acted within its own rules.

In this case, they will need to decide if the punishment by UEFA is in line with UEFA rules.

City don't need to have broken actual laws, only the rules of UEFA. The CL is an invite only members club, you stick to the rules or you lose your invite.

Just like any club that you or I could join. We could be ousted for breaking the rules. Whether we broke a law or not is irrelevant.
 

sglowrider

Thinks the caf is 'wokeish'.
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
25,201
Location
Hell on Earth
I found that link.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u...rom-champions-league-for-two-years-2020-02-14

The sponsorship was said to generate 67.5 million pounds (about $85 million) annually for City. But City’s holding company — the state-backed Abu Dhabi United Group — channeled 59.9 million pounds back to Etihad, according to Jorge Chumillas, the club’s chief financial officer, in an internal email to club director Simon Pearce.

The leaks showed how City allegedly tried to artificially raise its revenue, in one case by 30 million euros, according to emails from 2013 reported by Der Spiegel. Abu Dhabi United Group was alleged to be sending cash to a shell vehicle which was created to supposedly buy the right to use players’ images in marketing campaigns.

“As we discussed, the annual direct obligation for Aabar is GBP 3 million,” Pearce wrote. “The remaining 12 million GBP requirement will come from alternative sources provided by His Highness.”


If the back channel is true, then for me, this is a bit more serious than just the FFP I think. This would mean the whole income statement disclosure of City should be wrong and misleading, there should be a very serious sanction for this. For a private company, public or not, that would be enough to crush you. Think Enron. It's basically a false sense of the income, especially if it's channeled back to somewhere.

The Sheikh putting his own money, I don't think it's a legal issue. Just maybe KYC / AML compliance and even then, they forgot to mention it but it shouldn't be a big deal from a legal perceptive, unless the Sheikh is on a ban list, which he is not.
Didnt the Chinese buy like 15% of the company? They ought to sue.
 

Rado_N

Yaaas Broncos!
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
111,062
Location
Manchester
It will definitely get (at least) halved on appeal... But if I was being cynically optimistic (or a sexy alcoholic lawyer in an Aaron Sorkin show) I’d say the 2 year sentence was a calculated length to ensure the widely agreed upon year was eventually accepted as a win by all parties...

That said, I’d hardly be shocked if they got off entirely. We are all obviously living in the worst timeline, after all.
Mockney is Abed!
 

JPRouve

can't stop thinking about balls - NOT deflategate
Scout
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
65,586
Location
France
What smart moves did PSG make and how did they manage to become self-sustainable? Honestly, people concentrate on City's actions but I'm very curious how PSG managed to spend an absolute fortune and continue to pay ridiculous wages to their squad and yet somehow follow the FFP guidelines. Top ten highest paid Ligue 1 players are all theirs, how can they possibly afford that?


Seems to me, that City were just more brazen and openly arrogant in their approach, daring the authorities to do something about it and confident they can get away with it while PSG were smart enough to better cover their tracks.
They are not self sustainable, as far as we know at the moment PSG simply used a different strategy regarding the FFP panel. They openly finance the club through sponsorship and admit it to the UEFA who then reeavaluate deals as they want in the FFP statements. The difference is that one allegedly tried to deceive the UEFA while the other didn't.