I cannot believe how soft our media are being with Chelsea over this. Don't get me wrong, I can believe they want to do it like this(we know their agenda) but I cannot believe they are brazen enough to show such double standards so openly. It's a slap in the face. Sky Sports seem happy for it to be a financial fine.
They've done fuck all speculating on the leaks during the investigation either, they've not been creating outrage about how many signings could have been implicated, how it would have affected other clubs, who they robbed of silverware/how many titles could be stripped and how it could cheat FFP calculations(suppose those unpaid interest free loans told us they don't care about these things) etc. I want to see a side by side of the tone used here by Sky Sports in particular, in comparison to what City got, including that weasel faced prick Kaveh Solhekol(was he all sheepish and appologetic about it?).
I will look into this more but these are my first thoughts:
There is no mention of illegal transfer payments in these charges and it only goes as far back as 2009.
I was wondering if they've escaped the illegal transfer payments charge, due to some sort of cut-off point but Hazard was signed in 2012 .
I don't get how they are downplaying this and making it 'a matter of tax only'. It's still illegal transfer payments and incorrect reporting of financial reports over a 13 year period. But the FA have somehow chosen not to go for the most serious charges possible. Chelsea look to be getting damage control to allow this to happen.
Edit:
I do see it says: "A Premier League investigation into Chelsea is ongoing"
But the timing of this seems to be testing the waters for a soft punishment being handed down by the PL and the MSM are helping make sure it's a pill that the masses will swallow. If I remember right, illegal transfer payments is a charge which the FA handed Spurs during the start of the PL era, for their shady dealings in the 80s. They wanted a 12 points deduction there and that included a change of ownership with the club self reporting it. The financial rules were much looser back then too, with fewer precedents set. Maybe things have changed since then and it's not a charge the FA can give and we are being too hasty by assuming Chelsea are going to get a slap on the wrist(from the PL) but the way the media are calling it is still inexcusable.
Were City charged by the FA before the PL had finished their investigation? I can't seem to recall any involvement from the FA around the 115/130 charges.