Football Leaks/Der Spiegel articles

[richards30]

So are we getting fucked then or not?!

 

[Robanompivenov]

City go top and that numbers nonce Harris and the journalistic embarrassment Castles ramp up the bullshit machine.

Who'd have thunk it, eh?

 

[Andrew___K]

If they ban us from Europe, do you seriously think it would be stupid to take UEFA to court? Do you think we should just accept it like we did last time when we all know how shady the FFP rules are.

I think they won't as they don't have any ground for such actions.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

City are playing this the only way they can which is with a straight bat.

The series of der Spiegel articles, culminating with yesterday’s article, which was close to an opinion piece, and the release of certain emails.

As long as the emails were not legally obtained then City’s refusal to engage makes an investigation difficult as in effect the evidence for the investigation would be inadmissible. That’s why the likes of Harris, Castles, Draper and Northcroft want City to comment, once City comment then they’ve allowed comment on the emails. In effect the only options available are to deny the emails are correct, inadvertent verify the emails or worst case potentially show inconsistency with our previous FFP submissions. Saying nothing is to goad UEFA and the FA into a problematic investigation based on the articles alone.

Whoever is driving the Der Spiegel articles is hoping, but not expecting, City to be sanctioned but the real aim is destroy our reputation and taint our success.

It’s aim is to convict City in the court of public opinion and to extent it has already succeeded.

So true. The whole aim of this is to smear us and destroy our reputation. With or without any sanctions we have been damaged. I can't help feeling though that at some stage we will have to take UEFA on in the courts. They don't like our business model which is to buy up clubs across the world with big potential for growth and to use them to lever huge revenues. Sheikh Mansour has tripled the value of his original investment in City (excluding any profits from ongoing Manchester land deals). No doubt long-term he will do the same in New York and China. It's a fantastic business model and the rest of football should be following our lead not trying to destroy us.

 

[Sky Blue]

So are we getting fucked then or not?!

Yep, your transfer forum days are over.

 

[unexpected item]

To those saying "why aren't the club doing anything about this?" Have a read of the following article from Reuters about the UAE's aledged cyber capabilities, and draw your own conclusions.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-raven/

 

[schfc6]

Yes, that might happen too (it's happened in several places).

Having checked a hunch, I think what they've done is used the figures on transfermarkt (I've commented on this before) where the figures for the transfer are 75 and 78 M euros - that will be dynamic for exchange rate, with the euro as the constant one.

Edit: Sorry, 76 and 78.8, but still 3M difference near enough.

I think they’ve just lied. Like they have with regards the ticket prices in the same ‘story’. Unless £30 is now €80.

 

[OB1]

That's the whole problem, its broken something that was essentially "fixed" for a few.

I really hope we win the CL this year, and then let them try and ban us, it would be hilarious if the cup holders were banned, it would completely devalue any credibility they still have.

That would make the situation even more complicated for UEFA.

 

[richards30]

Yep, your transfer forum days are over.

:-( bugger ;-)

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

To those saying "why aren't the club doing anything about this?" Have a read of the following article from Reuters about the UAE's aledged cyber capabilities, and draw your own conclusions.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-raven/

That's a great article. I wonder if the club know who is really behind the hacking of our internal data and I don't mean the Portugese fall guy who provided the info to Der Spiegel and was later arrested in Switzerland.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Probbaly be a good thing if we took it to court. Get this shit finally out of the way.

It really wouldn’t. At the moment these documents aren’t admissible and UEFA know that. If we take UEFA to court then the originals are admissible or would have to be put into the public domain as part of the process known as ‘discovery’, where both parties have to disclose all relevant documents. Why would we willingly do that if we don’t have to?

The other side of the argument is that UEFA would also have to do that and there might well be some embarrassing stuff in there that they’d prefer to keep quiet about. So it probably doesn’t suit either party.

 

[Tb1981]

Fuck em
The latest is to restrict number of loan players which is aimed at us and Chelsea
Any time we start seeing results they try to shut it down
Next will be city group having multiple teams
But we will just move to next idea while they keep chasing
They are scared

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

To those saying "why aren't the club doing anything about this?" Have a read of the following article from Reuters about the UAE's aledged cyber capabilities, and draw your own conclusions.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-raven/

Der spiegal editor caught with questionable search history on laptop. Allegedly

See what I did there

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Has anybody asked that wanker Harris why he hasn’t given any airtime to UEFA shifting the goalposts towards the end of the first 3 year monitoring period and if not, why not?

According to Harris himself on Twitter this morning, UEFA shifting the goalposts is a fantasy created by Prestwich Blue......
Without a trace of irony he also accused Gary James of confirmation bias, so safe to say he's in full demented FFP fanboy mode

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Has anybody asked that wanker Harris why he hasn’t given any airtime to UEFA shifting the goalposts towards the end of the first 3 year monitoring period and if not, why not?

Because, according to him, it’s all bollocks and I’ve made it all up. Despite the fact I’ve published chapter and verse on it using source documents and Stuart Brennan got Dr Rob Wilson, an academic and football finance expert, to verify my work, which he did.

 

[OB1]

Because, according to him, it’s all bollocks and I’ve made it all up. Despite the fact I’ve published chapter on verse on it using source documents and Stuart Brennan got Dr Rob Wilson, an academic and football finance expert, to verify my work, which he did.

You will know this: does FFP give UEFA any enforceable rights to audit City's books of account or other records?

 

[andyhinch]

Because, according to him, it’s all bollocks and I’ve made it all up. Despite the fact I’ve published chapter on verse on it using source documents and Stuart Brennan got Dr Rob Wilson, an academic and football finance expert, to verify my work, which he did.

Have you sent him a copy of the article you did just beythe Huddersfield game mate ?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

You will know this: does FFP give UEFA any enforceable rights to audit City's books of account or other records?

What they do have the right to do is audit the procedures of the licensing association, which is the PL or FA in our case. And I think that involves specific sample audits of clubs’ FFP submissions. Whether they have the ability to directly examine our books I’m not sure. Even if they do, if they see a receipt from Etihad of £50m then that’s that. And the emails were clear that the way we recorded these revenue streams was important for audit purposes in that they had to be seen to come from separate sources rather than one big cheque covering everything.

 

[Manchester1894]

I'm surprised at the amount of dismissive posts in relation to the allegations. We have had a £49m fine for FFP, and a two year ban on signing academy players in the past. The fact these two ALLEDGED stories relate to a youth players dad receiving payments and further bending of FFP rules makes me a little more cautious.

IF the club have done something untoward or bent the rules, it may cost us. Reduced squads already happened as have fines. The next step will be a ban from competion or transfers or both and a fine thats so severe it hampers our progress and lets others catch up. As TH said, watch us win something and get stripped of the title. It also brings the name of the club down again which isn't great for the ambitoins of growing our club.

I hope the allegations are false, or covered by past investigations (I mean UEFA are meant to monitoring us aren't they after the FFP fine).. and that we can really progress the club to the next level with Pep at the helm.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Have you sent him a copy of the article you did just beythe Huddersfield game mate ?

No. I’ve no intention of directly engaging with him any more. He’s accused me of tweeting stuff I never have and of lying about this issue. He then threatened me with lawyers for calling him out.

Ric and particularly Gary James will tell you what he’s like to deal with. Links to the stuff I’ve done are available to him. If he wants to put in the work to prove me wrong he’s free to do so.