PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

Blue Tooth said:
Woke up this morning and felt a need to write something as a life long Manchester City fan. So much negativity atound the club that I love and have watched since 1968.

It has been said in the media world that the truth should never get in the way of a good story. Over the course of my life, 60 years this far, I have seen this to be self evident in many many situations, both sporting and non.

Their job is to sell newspapers, get clicks and stir the pot. It has always been so. It may feel different in this scenario because they are going after our beloved Manchester City but we have been here before and won. .

We know what it feels like to be fucked.To feel like it has all gone tits up.

Halifax in the Cup.
Luton and David Pleat.
Ricky Villa.
Years and years of spankings by the different red shirts. Knowing we were shit and still showing up. We were there, somewhere, having our own experience of being City.

We know what it feels like.

Unlike all of our antagonists, who have dined for a long time at the top table. Who gorged themselves on a cycle of unfettered success. Unchallenged because of the hegemony they created.
They became complacent and stuffed full of themselves and their self important shite. Corrupt and bloated to the core.

They do not know how it feels to lose.

So when we kicked the door down, because it was the only way in, and brought a level of competition they could not live with,they did not have the spine for the fight. None of them. They tried to meet us on the pitch and failed. They tried through UEFA to knock us out and they failed again. So now they resort to the only weapon they have left. Old money. Old power. Friends in high places. The real corruption. Hidden in plain sight.

But they have picked a fight with a club who know how to scrap.We know the pain of losing big and we know how to come back from that.

Dropping 2 divisions.
Dark days and grim gallows humour.That place somewhere in the old ridings where 300,000 of us watched on in the shadows
Then Gillingham. A moment when the future looked so bleak that people walked away from Wembley , muttering "fucking typical City," only to be drawn back by a miracle.
Imagine that we had lost. I did. And I knew we would still be here come the next season.
QPR. Dead and buried. To make matters worse the old enemy winning it all. Again. Not in my lifetime. You think? Another miracle. A big fuck off metaphorical wink from Mario.

Champions.

Only this.

Just the beginning.

This club, players, management and of course us, the supporters, do not ever lie down.This too I have witnessed. Time and time again. We are City.
It is not even about the winning for me. When you have lost so many times you understand the balance of all things more deeply. You know you can always lose and it makes the joy of winning something our red friends will never ever get to experience.

The day Sergio scored was the loudest noise I ever heard in a football ground and I knew why. That banner. That sanctimonious, rub it in our faces spineless bunch of toss perpetrated by the prawn sandwich brigade. The old money. They never saw it coming. Noisy neighbours indeed.

I understood completely and more than ever before what it meant to be a Manchester City fan.
We can lose this current fight and we will still be here. That's what makes us a fucker to fight with. We don't know when we are beaten.

We're Man City.

We'll fight to the end.
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Top post pal. Bravo take a bow.

That post should be hung on the wall of our dressing room for the players and staff to read.
 
neel said:


Is this concerning
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It is a re-write of a story the Mail lifted from an Italian website. Just the usual cut and paste shit you can expect to see in the MEN these days. To their credit though it has obviously been legally checked because all the libellous comments from the earlier version have been edited out.
 
We could offer Bellingham a 4 year contract with a PL demotion get out clause in the 4th year. :-)
 
Damanino said:
I am really worried we may were naive and did not collect as much dirt as we can on rivals. now would be the time unleash series of allegations, bring back the hacking scandal into spotlight etc.
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the trump card mate,produce it at the right time and the credability of other clubs and the PL is shattered, for the kind of money Pannik is on im sure he knows what he's doing, sit back light a big cuban and enjoy the events that unfold
 
goatinho said:
Prestwich is this serious or are you just taking the piss ....I never know what to believe these days!!!
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They've charged us under certain rules but they've tried to specify the rules, as they were in the years the breaches were alleged. But they've got things mixed up in some cases. They've supposedly corrected that now, after the club pointed it out but it's very amateurish.
 
jollylescott said:
Thanks for that.

I note the following at para 17 and 18:

'But it is equally well established that the High Court retains a supervisory jurisdiction over such decisions, and the approach to be adopted is essentially that which the Administrative Court would adopt in public law cases'.

"The most important point, as it seems to me, is that it (that is to say the court's supervisory jurisdiction) is supervisory. The function of the court is not to take the primary decisions but to ensure that the primary decision maker has operated within lawful limits. It is a review function very similar to that of the court on judicial review … In each case the essential concern should be with the lawfulness of the decision taken, whether the procedure was fair, whether there was any error of law, whether any exercise of judgment or discretion fell within the limits open to the decision maker, and so forth."

I am in the legal field and have studied administrative law. The principles to be applied in our matter (should we get an adverse finding) are very similar to public law cases. That is, we would be arguing that the panel made a number of errors of law, and that the exercise of judgement based on the evidence was manifestly unreasonable and therefore unlawful.

This means we have a long way to go in this matter. For a start, there must be procedural fairness. This of itself means there will be debates about evidence etc. before we even get to the point of a hearing.

Overall, I still have the feeling the PL have bitten off more than they can chew. The decision to attack City, while they consider may burden us for years, may very well come back to bite them, and given the looming White Paper could well see independent regulation of the PL, which to my mind can't come soon enough.
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If it has some hope as you suggest perhaps our enemies will not be too upset because they have already tried to set up a Superleague.
Perhaps they will not mind whichever way it goes?
 
Really dont think the prem and dinosaur clubs realise the total sh#t storm that is going to be unleased on them. They legal team City have hired i am sure dont do cases they wont win, think alot of people will regret pushing City this far and the next few weeks months will be very interesting.
 
domalino said:
So if the PL panel is where this ends, and the 115 charges actually boil down to half a dozen issues, what kind of time frame are we looking at? It's got to be months not years.
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It boils down to one big claim really. That at least 9 years of Manchester City Football Club accounts are not true and fair (and were knowingly provided to the PL in bad faith). Everything else is noise. I've always thought it would take a long time. Nick di Marco KC says 4 years. Good enough for me
 
Colin Bell (genuine name) said:
Something nagging me. If the PL have used the latest handbook to list the alleged rule breaches, is there a chance that specific rules didn’t exist during the earlier years?

Is it possible that we have been charged with breaching rules pre ffp when those rules did not exist until after the introduction of ffp?
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The rule breaches specifically mentioning FFP cover the period from 2013/14 to 2017/18 so FFP was in place all that period. To be clear, the PL is the body that licenses English clubs on behalf of UEFA. That means if our accounts were wrong, and were known to be misleading, we're almost certainly in default of FFP rules.
 
domalino said:
It's just a bit childish.

Plus, whoever you complain to is also going to support a football team, so you're essentially insulting them by proxy and saying they couldn't be impartial in a matter tangentially involving their club.

I doubt Lord Pannick is a seacon ticket holder. The 3 CAS judges would all have supported someone.

Sometimes I think some posters would refuse surgery if they found out their doctor was a United fan (or Liverpool, or Arsenal, or Chelsea or any of the hateful 8 or Barcelona, or Bayern etc).
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If the lead KC was a City fan, I’d imagine there would be a lot of upset people.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
They've charged us under certain rules but they've tried to specify the rules, as they were in the years the breaches were alleged. But they've got things mixed up in some cases. They've supposedly corrected that now, after the club pointed it out but it's very amateurish.
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Are you still turning up in the Waldorf Saturday Colin?
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
The rule breaches specifically mention FFP cover the period from 2013/14 to 2017/18 so FFP was in place all that period. To be clear, the PL is the body that licenses English clubs on behalf of UEFA. That means if our accounts were wrong, and were known to be misleading, we're almost certainly in default of FFP rules.
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Aren’t a lot of the charges repeats as well? You’ve broke our rules and, consequently, you’ve broken UEFA rules, FA rules and FL rules? So, if one is proven, they’re all proven and if one falls, they all fall?
 
Time to let this go and allow our legal team do what they do and have done before. Have City match fixed/bribed/doped players? No, so we have not won matches by cheating. It was 11 v 11 and we won a shit load of trophies because we were the best team on the grass and nothing will ever take that any from us nor my memories. This is more of the same around how we can spend our money. How will it now play out? 30 of the allegations are the same in so far as they relate to supporting the investigation. That's subjective and can be disputed and worst case is a fine as was the case with CAS. Not a hanging matter. 30+ relate to the same accusations we were accused of by UEFA around revenues/sponsorships over many years, that at appeal, it was deemed there was NO evidence of wrong doing, so unsure how this can then be over turned based on the same information. In any court, guilt is based on the Balance of Probability or Beyond Reasonable Doubt. Pannick and his mob will present arguments/justifications/explanations with in depth detail which will mean many of the alleged incidents can't be proven wit out reasonable doubt, as such will be set aside and not upheld. Do I think there may be some allegations we lose on, yes, do I think in addition to a fine for not assisting with the investigation we could get a points deduction, yes. As for being moved down the leagues, titles being stripped etc, great headlines & newspaper copy, but no serious commentator or legal expert thinks that is remotely likely. This was a political move and rushed out. City new it was coming, just not when, as such any idea they haven't been preparing a defence is none ense. They would have been preparing for this for years and would have sought counsel all the way through with regards % chance of winning and possible outcomes. Their bullish statement indicates that whilst this won't be pretty, they will come through it as was the case with CAS. Bloodied but not bowed. Out job as supporters is to do just that. Get behind the team, lift them and win the league to stick it right up their A Hole. Bring on Villa...
 
The blue phantom said:
I know you keep saying it's irrelevant which team members on the panel support as these are ultra professional and the bias/club colours will be put to One side. Do you think if Murray Rosen was a City seasoncard holder the PL would of still chosen him for the panel.
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It is not an independent panel if the PL are choosing who sits on it. It is an unbelievable situation in terms of national justice. I was previously opposed to the concept of an Independent Regulator but this whole pantomime has proved that the PL can't possibly regulate itself.
Just think about it. The PL is composed of 20 clubs and a significant group of those clubs (at last nine who have gone public) have supported a smear campaign against us for naked commercial reasons. The CEO (Richard Masters) was personally vetted for the job by Directors from two of the clubs (LFC and MUFC) and the new Chairperson of the Board (Alison Brittain) has stated she is a "lifelong MUFC supporter."
A decision which could literally destroy the fabric of our club leading to big job losses and a major impact on ongoing development of Manchester will now be taken by a panel of three people chosen by the PL itself. They have hit us with 101 charges dating back 14 years (just think about the sheer volume of evidence) and demanded we respond in 14 days. Even in a proven corrupt country like the UK this really is taking the piss.
 
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