I worked in a gym in Mayfair he was a member of..oh what a pompous jumped up prick...i assume heceent to a private school or else surely he would have had a few slapsCannot stand the man. If you look up the word arrogance in the English Oxford dictionary you will see his facing staring back at you.
He would start a debate in an empty room. You can just imagine what he must have been like as a kid at school, the know it all, big head that everyone just thought was an absolute tit.
It's deliberately meant to attract attention & controversy, as does our FFP allegations, but it also highlights another issue.... Shit sticks, even unfounded shit!Extremely bizarre analogy.
Is this the same as Operation Longbow? I thought at the time it was strange UEFA didn’t seem to make much of that and assumed it was because too many of the clubs they wanted to protect were doing something similarMy belief is this is pretty well about Fordham and Mancini's Al Jazira contract. The latter is immaterial and at the very worst, even assuming it's not time-barred, might result in a fine if the independent commission feel it's out of order.
Fordham is more difficult to call. They were originally Manchester City Football Club (Image Rights) and a club subsidiary. The were incorporated in May 2012 and appear to have stopped trading in 2018. They're currently being liquidated. Our wage vill shot up in 2019, from £260m to £315m, which while not absolutely conclusive, suggests that we started paying image rights via Manchester City Football Club then. Or it could be related to bringing one of the other subsidiaries (Manchester City Football Services) back into the main accounts.
Whatever the legalities of Fordham, we must have taken expert advice and there was a clear trail from Manchester City Football Club (Image Rights) to Fordham Sports Image Rights. Our auditors must have been aware of this and presumably would have asked the relevant questions. Assuming they did, had they not been happy they'd have walked away and/or qualified the accounts. They didn't so we must presume they were happy with the answers given.
Also, the Fordham situation was revealed by Der Spiegel iirc, or was publicised somewhere else, so it's hardly been a secret.
Don't bank on it.That bird, thank f**k, has flown
The investigation predates Masters' appointment. He could not realistically quash an ongoing investigation.Agree with all that but why would Richard Masters put his future career on the line just to smear City? I know he wants to keep LFC and MUFC happy for well documented reasons but he is risking his personal reputation with this case (unless he thinks they can win it with "smoking gun" evidence).
im looking forward to the challenge TBH,its been brewing for years and now the time is here to show the world what a bunch of corrupt twats are involved in football, from VAR to the top we need to collapse the house and bring them to there knees,football fans across the country know full well about the corruption but have no choice to just brush it aside, my guess is most of the clubs and fans out of the top six would back us with this
Financial fair play should be pretty simple.
It’s somehow been deemed far more logical to impose a set of rules based on the existing revenue of the elite super clubs, the big earners are protected, because the upstarts can never invest enough to become as big and successful as them. The most vociferous proponents of these type of rules are supporters of those traditional big clubs, they are numerous and loud, and all over the media.
- Concerned about club solvency? Then clubs shouldn't be allowed incur huge debts, so punish the indebted clubs and restrict their spending (but that might not suit some of the elite). City don’t have any big debts.
- Concerned about future losses, and clubs committing to long term player contracts at huge salaries, without certainty about future funding? Then any clubs doing that need to show the sustainability of future revenue, maybe even assuming no champions league qualification. I’m not sure any elite club would accept that restriction. City could get the expenditure underwritten by Mansour I suppose, but if you’re genuinely worried about the solvency of clubs, that shouldn't be an issue, a good thing even?
- Lastly, if you’re genuinely concerned about "financial doping" and a level playing field, then salary caps and transfer spending limits are the obvious way to go. Can’t see Bayern Munich with their 9 consecutive titles or Juventus with 9 out of 10, or PSG with 8 of the last 9, would be too happy with the idea of any kind of domestic financial equality, or even a slight levelling of it. Madrid and Barca wouldn’t like being restricted in their ability to blow away the competition in Spain.
But City “signed up to the rules”, so they have to abide by them? What was our alternative? The competition is rigged, but you need to be in it.
I’ve no doubt we massively bent and probably even broke the rules, some of our sponsorship deals just don’t make commercial sense, I’ve no doubt owner-funded cash was poured in. But I don’t care, I hope we broke them, as often and as badly as we were able to get away with, otherwise the existing cartel would have succeed in keeping us down, mid-table at best, where we belonged. We don’t need lectures about financial probity from anybody at Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea or Manchester United.
I might be wrong but I thought that was what was said yesterday?Are you sure the independent panel is going to be PL-appointed? Genuine question, not having a go. I can’t understand how our accusers could be allowed to hand pick those responsible for determining our fate?
Seems to me that you can only do what you want if you have American money borrowed or not. As long as our money isn’t laundered, blood money or cryptocurrency if that’s the rule on crypto. Does this really bloody matter. Our owners would be totally crackers not to know the rules without someone bending them. This isn’t the bloody 1970’s and 80’s. It’s a billion pound(not dollar) sports industry with too much at stake to lose the lot. I’ve got every confidence in our business strategy for them not to balls things up. The sad thing about this sour grapes bullshit is that we will never be free of it. I have often wondered why we seem to throw FA cup ties since the accusations:I read in one article, that if our titles were taken from us they would be awarded to Liverpool and the rags, as they were the teams that finished second in those seasons. To me, that says it all. The established order have never wanted City at the top table and have done everything they can to try to stop us.
How does the Premier league allow itself to get in to a situation where it is actioning charges going back over a decade? Why didn't it enforce its own rules at the time? If there was wrong doing why was that not identified and acted on, rather than allowing this to rumble on for so long? Unless they willingly let it play out in order to eventually stick us with a much larger charge?
The timing of this announcement, just as the season is getting to a crunch, also stinks. Its going to be a huge shadow cast over the club and unsettle Pep and the players. To top it all off the PL have got an Arsenal fan leading the 'independent commission'...
If we're found guilty we'll have to take whatever punishment the judge, jury and executioner throws at us. If that's severe and sets us back years there's not a lot we can do about it. The old guard will be back at the top of the tree and the cartel will live to fight another day, until the next upstart has the temerity to get ideas above their station. Chelsea? They have American money now, so that's ok.
The problem with that approach is that it sends out the message that "if you spend more than you earn, you'll have to spend a bit more to make it right".Came on to say much the same thing but you beat me to it. We've heard a lot of talk in recent years - in relation to ESL, the new white paper etc - about how the fans are the most important people in football, how important clubs are to their communities and all that. The media seem to be completely overlooking that angle, rubbing their hands with glee at the potential punishments and not caring about the impact on the fans at all.
What is particularly cruel is that the punishments seem to be limitless and completely arbitrary, there are no guidelines whatsoever on what would be appropriate as far as I can see. Cue months if not years of misery as we await our Club's fate. Will the media care about the impact this will have on us? Not a bit of it.
In my view the punishment should fit the crime. If the offences (if proven) are financial in nature then so should be the punishment. That would seem like natural justice.
TH to ask an obvious question why does this keep happening to us?It won't be allowed to go quickly, that's the issue.
It's a win-win for the Premier League and the lobbying clubs.
It's a guilty verdict in the first instance, barring City having a strong set of recordings or emails showing this is a witch hunt and irrefutable.
At the very least, they and our rivals know we would appeal until which time we exhaust every avenue up to the High Court.
In the interim, it materially damages us both on and off the pitch. Players we are interested in might look elsewhere, players we have, might demand to move elsewhere.
Commercially, we would be off limits to pretty much everyone but our Abu Dhabi partners.
The timing also conveniently addresses the white paper delay and comes as we still battle for three trophies.
We win something, it is further smeared.
We don't win anything, it has also played its part.
It would be a transfer ban in all but name and clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal can crack on, while United and Liverpool become more attractive to investors because City's competitiveness is diminished.
Clear and orchestrated, which is why at the very least, it will be medium to short term pain until we clear our name.
We will lose the battle but win the war. Perhaps our rivals are more than comfortable with that.
It will be the same as all those so-called independent public inquiries where the Government appoints their pals from the House of Lords and they never achieve anything.Are you sure the independent panel is going to be PL-appointed? Genuine question, not having a go. I can’t understand how our accusers could be allowed to hand pick those responsible for determining our fate?
Wouldn't be so sure of that - football fans aren't the most analytical on the whole and lap up what a piss poor media throw at them. Other fans tend to love nothing more than another club getting shafted.im looking forward to the challenge TBH,its been brewing for years and now the time is here to show the world what a bunch of corrupt twats are involved in football, from VAR to the top we need to collapse the house and bring them to there knees,football fans across the country know full well about the corruption but have no choice to just brush it aside, my guess is most of the clubs and fans out of the top six would back us with this
I fucking hope so, give these keyboard warriors plenty of shit !!I would hope that common sense prevails here,and none of these mentioned "journalists" turn up at the ground on Sunday,as there could be a few incidents that could take place,I'd suggest they are better hiding behind their keyboards in their kitchens at home.
I'm not condoning violence,but quite a few are putting themselves out there with their ideas on what should happen IF found guilty,which isn't going to go down very well at all.
It will be toxic Sunday around that press box,can see it now
I think there needs to be terms of reference.The Premier League proving City didn't cooperate is as simple as an email asking for some information and the club responding no (or not responding), it's incredibly easy.
Part of the PL rules is fully cooperating with any investigation, so the amount City needed to, was as much as the PL wanted.
Like I said, not cooperating means you've decided it's better to be (correctly) charged and punished for that offence rather than give them what they want.
Here he is on his charger, Cœur de Lion.Sadly we will be judged by a crooked commission chaired by an Arsenal supporter, who will regard Juventus being docked 15 points as a suitable precedent. It looks bad.