The lack of cooperation charge, while pathetic, was always going to be hard to fight. However, any unbiased, objective journalist (or even casual observer) now knows that not only did City not do what UEFA suggested, but UEFA tried to bend their own rules in a desperate attempt to punish the club.
City were entirely exonerated on all relevant legal aspects of the charges and the current derogatory headlines are merely cherry-picking clickbait phrases, because more people dislike any club than like it.
I, too, hope City treat the nine Premier League clubs with the disdain they deserve. Without knowing the details or facts of the case, they inserted themselves into it in a way that casts shame on themselves.
I see Twatter journos (at least those wear red-tinted specs) have chosen the Etihad increases in sponsorship as their bludgeon, in an attempt to color City’s main sponsorship as extraordinarily lucrative. It may well have been, but as the national airline of the country the success City created on the field was spreading the brand name and associating it with success. We’re Liverpool or United being given increasing sponsorship monies, as a result of on field success, it would be lauded as due reward, of course...as have their increasing sponsorship deals without winning trophies!
While many media/opposing fan types will point to a phrase or two in a 93 page document as some kind of proof of wrongdoing not punished, what has been memorialized, and thus wholly defensible, is that Manchester City did NOT engage in the illegal activities of which they were accused, found guilty and sentenced for, all by the same oversight body. Rather, it was their unwillingness to play nice and jump on request for every piece of information required by UEFA while being investigated, even though they provided every relevant document eventually, for which they were castigated. In some circles, that would feel akin to an unwillingness of an innocent man to cooperate with the Police...a protected right, no less.
All in all, no-one will remember the actual technical issues over time, but they will know that City MUST have been not guilty because we played in the CL in the 20/21 season, and that’s what counts!
