PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[Devil's Advocate]

I don’t work in papers; maybe as seems to be the case often, he didn’t write the headline for his article. Reading it, he actually says “maybe” we “broke the rules”, and if we did in as widespread a fashion as the number of accusations suggests we should suffer a points deduction or immediate relegation, if they are proved true, but tbh mate, that really isn’t the thrust of what he’s writing about.
For the avoidance of any doubt, he’s writing about Manchester united, about liverpool and about arsenal.

And to be clear he is mainly knocking them :)

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I've heard about this for years but I don't have the brains to get my head around it. Can someone please explain why Mancini getting paid for a consultancy role by anyone while managing us is illegal? People having multiple jobs, hired by the same people doesn't seem abnormal at all to me. Tax purposes?

I don't undersand this either because those documents show that Mancini's consultancy fee from Al Jazira was terminated in 2012 before the PL FFP rules started operating so how can City have breached those rules. Clearly the arrangement of getting paid for a second job in another country (no matter how spurious) was a way of minimising Mancini's tax burden by spreading the cost but this is tax avoidance not tax evasion so it is legal and normal accounting practice. In fact the correspondence makes it clear that Mancini's agent was pushing for CFG to pay him more to reduce his own tax burden. So the tax bill seems to have been paid. So it's not illegal and doesn't breach FFP. This Mancini stuff is just a red herring.

 

[Hayley Croppers chopper]

Remember when we were everyone’s 2nd favourite club:)

I do, and I fucking don’t want to go back to that now we know what a shower of cunts they all are.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

How are you feeling about this Colin? Are you reasonably confident?

As I said, the Mancini stuff is small beer so not worried about that in the slightest. The other accounting stuff may well hinge on how we dealt with image rights payments and whether that was OK. We sold those image rights to Fordham for around £25m back in 2013. We needed that money to (as we thought) avoid FFP sanctions but that was rendered redundant by UEFA moving the goalposts.

But I'm pretty sure UEFA would have known about this at the time they were investigating, as it was part of the Der Spiegel stories that triggered their investigation and charges. You have to wonder why they didn't go after us on that score as it potentially inflated our profits, by reducing our wage costs. Possibly they were advised it wasn't illegal or thevsums involved wouldn't have made a difference to our FFP results. It was also happening up to 2018, so well within any limitation period, should one be imposed by the courts or independent commission.

Assuming we had good legal and accounting advice before doing that, and our auditors were aware of it and weren't unhappy, then there's a decent chance that we'll be OK. If we weren't on firm ground with that, if we deceived the auditors and UEFA, then we've got problems.

 

[Indaparkside]

Instead of hiring mr panic button
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to hire a computer hacker and wipe all the fas computers clean

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

Good old Martin Top journo

He's been the one journalist who's had the balls to call out ffp for what it is. I'm sure other journalist's also know the score but either dislike City/support the red shirts or don't have the backbone to call it out.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Is this the end of the premier league as we know it ????

It was very nearly the end of UEFA as we knew it, but they just just clung on (in a big part, down to us pulling out of the Super League).

I think this could be, at least, the start of the end of the Premier League’s dominance as the major league in Europe if we are found not guilty.

 

[swintonjamie]

Something I would love to know is if we did all these things, is the overall amount spent over that time, more or less then United.

If it’s not it would be great for that to be communicated and try and change perception.

Fuck knows if it’s true, I likened it today that it’s like a running race and one kid has these expensive running spikes his Dad brought for him that allow you to run faster, whereas others had trainers.

One kids Dad couldn’t afford the expensive running spikes and his trainers where old and slowed him down.

Every time he raced the other kid, that kid won. One day a rich uncle came along and brought the kid the same running spikes as the other kid.

They raced and this time the kid won. The other kid who was used to winning got really upset and complained it was unfair.

He felt as this kids Dad could not buy the spikes and instead his uncle did this was uneven, as he didn’t have a rich uncle.

So the question is what’s unfair that one kid did not have a rich uncle, or is it fair that they both have the same advantages to see who really was the fastest.

Possibly not my best way of telling it, but shut the red parents up on the U10’s team.

I had a similar analogy but with a bike.

The one thing I added was would it not just be fair if both could only spend £100 to improve their bike each year? Basically like pretty much every other team sport on the planet.

 

[ultimateharold]

Instead of hiring me panic button
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to hire a computer hacker and wipe all the fas computers clean

You think the FA have upgraded to computers?

It's the PL anyway, now I'm sure they would have some less than clean files knocking about.

 

[Ric]

up till now there’d been no bids for any of the red shirts, and no firm interest in the scousers, so basically a waiting game ensued while the PL followed through with promises made to their owners, who’d probably intimated to prospective new investors/owners that we would be facing doomsday, all of a sudden that guaranteed top four place is a bit more attainable

Ah right, I get you now.

 

[Indaparkside]

Is this the end of the premier league as we know it ????

It’s life Jim but not as we know it

 

[slbsn]

Hey. I think you may have misunderstood my post. I think Stefan is click baiting with his cautious approach. Almost deliberately seeking attention for financial gain. Good for him if that’s the case. It’s only a game at the end of the day.

Financial gain from who? Do you think Spaces makes any money? Or I get paid for occasional podcasts? I wrote one piece for Mail Online 18 months ago (pretty much proven correct) and donated the entire fee. Not done a single paid piece other than that ever. A bit of a silly suggestion. Maybe consider that it is my genuine view that IF these charges are proven because they are such serious allegations, they will throw the book at us. Because it is and they will. That is not to say they will be proven

 

[SilvaisSkyBlue]

Instead of hiring me panic button
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to hire a computer hacker and wipe all the fas computers clean

No good hackers available mate, all the good ones are at some company called J Henry Enterprise’s!

 

[blue moony]

It was very nearly the end of UEFA as we knew it, but they just just clung on (in a big part, down to us pulling out of the Super League).

I think this could be, at least, the start of the end of the Premier League’s dominance as the major league in Europe if we are found not guilty.

Oh well ..... bunch of spoilt little kids the red shirts ..... c@@ts

 

[blue moony]

It’s life Jim but not as we know it

Earthworm jim ?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I've heard about this for years but I don't have the brains to get my head around it. Can someone please explain why Mancini getting paid for a consultancy role by anyone while managing us is illegal? People having multiple jobs, hired by the same people doesn't seem abnormal at all to me. Tax purposes?

The big story around this was we were paying him off the books and the likes of Rob Harris thought it was all very dodgy. Thing is we didn't actually hide the payments. it is not illegal and we know from the DS documents that tax was paid.
So all good but apparently it is against some PL rule.

 

[A57 the snake]

I know now things are getting serious I’ve just got in from work and the war office asks before anything else ‘what’s the latest on City , ?

 

[Bill Walker]

Just got back off a long cruise with no wifi and you throw all this shit at me. 706 pages ffs.
I just said to the missus, see you in 2 days :)

 

[Indaparkside]

You think the FA have upgraded to computers?

It's the PL anyway, now I'm sure they would have some less than clean files knocking about.

Isn’t the fa a shareholder in the premier league
Anyway I’m tired now off to bed I pop

 

[DenisLawBackHeel74]

You don’t think us being charged changes things for prospective new owners of either the rags or dippers ? It changes everything, their investment levels, potential earnings, the prospect of a super league, they want us out of the picture and will then move on to Newcastle

I agree with you to an extent. I think there could be an argument made that FSG and Glaziers can’t sell their respective clubs because City has made club ownership unprofitable because you need to pump in hundreds of millions of pounds …….and are not guaranteed trophies or CL football….the yanks thought they were buying money printers but that’s all changed because of lickle city.

So the obvious answer is to peg city back. Give them a couple of 20 point deductions, or a player embargo and massive fine that means they can’t qualify for CL for at least a couple of seasons…..give newbies a chance, damage city’s reputation beyond repair, etc, etc.