PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[jim tolmies perm]

I know people don't want to read a load of whataboutery but the fact is that pretty much every club in the league is able to operate in a frankly ludicrous transfer market through self sponsorship via shady gambling sites and other equally creative avenues.

It's a house of cards and that's exactly why this isn't going to go the way many people on the outside hope it will. Because, if it does, then it's going to set off a chain reaction of devastating economic ramifications for people who will do anything and everything to protect their pockets.

Nail impacts head

 

[Agueroooo9320]

what is the point of just asserting stuff. The law is clear (as are the rules) that it would need to be "serious irregularity" causing "substantial injustice to the applicant." This is obviously a high bar, magical or otherwise.

well shafting us with irregularities and corruption within the panel is "serious" and thus crosses your high bar don't you think? stop being obtuse on the word "serious" again. no one is asking you if we can go to the court to dispute the meeting date and time are they?

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

If you handed punishments out to City, which may or may not involve relegation, you would be just meh about it?

His career and livelihood is a lot more important than what football team he supports. If this guy can’t deliver an impartial hearing and verdict his reputation will be in tatters. This guy will be walking a tight rope to deliver that.

 

[Jesus H Gabz]

Shirley They would wait for a full verdict it's allright buying now thinking city are gonna be found guilty. But what a few years down the line if we are not??

The ‘few years’ is what they are banking on, if they shift us out of the way, new regulator, new finance rules, and us trying to scramble up the ladder again, don’t be mistaken into thinking it will be as straightforward as last time, this is them pulling up the drawbridge again

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Is this concerning

It seems bizarre that the fact we can't appeal (many seem to be claiming) is their strongest hand rather than the actual "case" against us.

 

[Agueroooo9320]

100% this would NOT qualify as serious irregularity

yes that is correct because that is conjecture. most are not asking you about that though. they are asking you about irregularities in conduct of how the panel conducts the investigation and whether it follows its own rules of fairness.

 

[slbsn]

well shafting us with irregularities and corruption within the panel is "serious" and thus crosses your high bar don't you think? stop being obtuse on the word "serious" again. no one is asking you if we can go to the court to dispute the meeting date and time are they?

Ok, if this is the level of debate, lets leave it there. It is not obtuse emphasising the word "serious" it is the key word - trivial allegations such as Rosen's football allegiance are irrelevant. There is no provable corruption I'd suggest. But yes if there is corruption, we can take it to court. Happy now?

 

[Roachy]

im on page 682, this is a very fast moving thread, a pretty important and serious thread,and we've got loads of comments about a made up fixture list, its hard enough to keep up without that bullshit littering the thread.

Agree, but unavoidable unfortunately. I cannot wait for the post detailing the evidence against us and where it was obtained from to appear on here. I don't know when that will be, but it really is the 64 million dollar question atm.

 

[Saddleworth2]

it’s not optimism it’s realism.

No matter what happens Manchester City football club will still exist.

Yes it will.
Will football still exist though in a form we can enjoy or should we go watch wrestling.

 

[Sir peace frog]

Funny you should say that, next season’s fixtures are out:

haha ,county away near my birthday , i was just on one trying to catch up, i'm going out in a minute so im sure ill be 1000s of pages behind when i get back :)

 

[Centurions]

Is this concerning

I suspect that Yves Leterme may be getting a letter from our lawyers shortly.

"it turned out that money from sponsorship was actually paid by the owner."

"Finally, there were also the ambiguities surrounding contracts. However, thanks to emails and bank statements, we had hard evidence.

If they had 'hard evidence' then why did CAS reverse the decision?

"The problem, however, was that UEFA's ruling could be contested with an arbitration committee, which does not fall under the real judiciary. Those arbitrators are always drawn from 10 to 12 of the same people and can reduce the sentence because they consider it too severe."

Except they threw it all out excepting for the 'failure to co-operate' because they considered the charges to be unsubstantiated. Not because they thought it was too severe.

Pure nonsense and sounds very bitter.

 

[tommy116]

I think the term here "cheating" which so many outside of City use needs to be defined. Is cheating making up rule after rule to block others competing and investing or is cheating trying your best to prosper while others block and attack you at every opportunity.

 

[Agueroooo9320]

Ok, if this is the level of debate, lets leave it there. It is not obtuse emphasising the word "serious" it is the key word - trivial allegations such as Rosen's football allegiance are irrelevant. There is no provable corruption I'd suggest. But yes if there is corruption, we can take it to court. Happy now?

yes agree with the final sentence. that is exactly what people are asking you about.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Since I calmed down. Last night sat in me Dad chair with a large glass of Malbec and had a meander through Twitter and media outlets which I had avoided since the news broke. As the wine numbed my senses down i began to realise the PL won't want to expel us or retrospectively hand titles to other teams because that would literally destroy the image of the league. I know insane cult followers of Liverpool and Man United feel it should be but they just can't do it. I do however expect a truly magnificent fine is incoming

 

[Sir peace frog]

Agree, but unavoidable unfortunately. I cannot wait for the post detailing the evidence against us and where it was obtained from to appear on here. I don't know when that will be, but it really is the 64 million dollar question atm.

i've skipped to here, couldn't be arsed reading all of the thread, ill ask a question in a bit and get what i got last time

i'm sick of fucking posters asking the same questions :)

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

I suspect that Yves Leterme may be getting a letter from our lawyers shortly.

"it turned out that money from sponsorship was actually paid by the owner."

"Finally, there were also the ambiguities surrounding contracts. However, thanks to emails and bank statements, we had hard evidence.

If they had 'hard evidence' then why did CAS reverse the decision?

"The problem, however, was that UEFA's ruling could be contested with an arbitration committee, which does not fall under the real judiciary. Those arbitrators are always drawn from 10 to 12 of the same people and can reduce the sentence because they consider it too severe."

Except they threw it all out excepting for the 'failure to co-operate' because they considered the charges to be unsubstantiated. Not because they thought it was too severe.

Pure nonsense and sounds very bitter.

Well he put a lot of his life in too the bullshit he charged us with

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Pretty much yes. But image rights are deemed to be personal to players and separate to their wages/bonuses. HMRC have a general rule hat about 10% of their total remuneration to be paid in this way, to their own personal companies rather than on a PAYE basis.

As an example, let's say someone is a photographer and an employee of a company that does commercial & wedding photography. He buys the right to do all the wedding photography and pays his employer a sum of money for that right. The money he earns in that way still goes to his employer initially, but they pay it to him gross, which he than has to account for and pay any tax on. Whereas his wages for the employer's main commercial photography business is paid to him as normal salary, with tax & NI deducted at source.

City also moved a number of employees into two subsidiary companies (City Football Services and City Football Marketing). They were paid through these companies but they were loss-making, needing constant injections of cash. That was seen by some as an attempt to move costs off the books but those businesses cross-charged the various CFG clubs for their services, on a pro-rata basis. Obviously most of the charge fell to City but it went through our books, as Other Operating Expenses though, instead of Wages. Also UEFA included those companies in wht it called the 'Reporting Perimeter'. That meant we had to include their results in our FFP submission, with any double-charging cancelled out.

As a measure of how impenetrable this stuff is for laymen Col, I’ve been readping that post for about 20 minutes and I still don’t understand it!
Bottom line, does it mean we’ve acted illegally/dishonestly, are we fucked, and what would be an appropriate/likely punishment?

 

[Centurions]

I honestly cannot understand why at this stage the PL went public with the charges and briefed the media before informing us. Surely they would go public after we've had a chance to reply?

Saw some Villa fans yesterday explaining that they have been affected most as they were a solid top 6 club and pushing for top 4 every year and then we came along and ruined it.

Villa fans? You sure they weren't Birmingham fans having a laugh?

 

[carlosthejackal]

Only went on RAWK on Monday to see their initial reaction, which was it would be swept under the carpet.

Anyone who knows that site knows their page count holds about 40 posts per page. It was in the 700’s on Monday. It’s just hit 832, with some of the most bitter posts you’ll ever see.

Yet we don’t matter to them?!

Don’t forget that a fan base responsible for the death of 39 Juventus fans have every right to be the moral guardians of football .

 

[Gordyola]

There isn't a PL appeals process for this though is there? I may have gotten confused trying to catch up this morning mind.

Yeah, me too. ???

No PL appeals process
There seems to be an opinion that City could go to the High Court Since the charges amount to accusing the company, auditors and board members of false accounting then I don't see this not being an option
IMHO I don't believe the PL think they can be successful in prosecuting these charges and its either an attempt to "shut-up" the other clubs (US_PL Cartel) or its there to muddy the reputation of the club and try to put an anchor on them to make it more difficult to sign the likes of Bellingham and will eventually die some type of death