City & FFP | 2020/21 Accounts released | Revenues of £569.8m, £2.4m profit (p 2395)

[jrb]

..

 

[mad4city]

The thing is they don't think they're purposefully lying.

To them, what they know about City and the UAE supersedes anything CAS or UEFA or anyone else rules.

It doesn't matter if factually City are owned by Sheikh Mansour, it doesn't matter if factually Etihad was ruled non-related and it doesn't matter if CAS explicitly stated sponsorships were not inflated.

Because they *know* what's true. So they write articles as if what they think is true is factual.

There's a touch of the religious zealot to it. When UEFA made their decision you had journalists who've spent the past 20 years mocking and criticising the corruption and incompetence of UEFA suddenly treating them as unimpeachable and getting very angry on podcasts that City would even appeal the decision despite it obviously being their right.

Yves Leterme got loads of mentions from a certain group of journalists in opinion pieces and twitter as if just mentioning he was a former Belgian Prime Minister (no mentions of his corruption scandals) was enough to say how stupid and blinkered were City fans for not accepting his verdict.

When CAS rules against UEFA, instead of accepting the decision there were several articles published suggesting CAS should be dismantled as it wasn't fit for purpose - which had not been mentioned at all before. In fact several expert journalists drafted in to talk about it had pointed out it's almost impossible for a ruling body or organisation like UEFA to lose at CAS, and they have an incredible winning record in the 90%'s.

But forget all that - if they arrived at a different verdict, it must be the CAS that's wrong, not us journalists.

I still very clearly remember a Guardian Football Weekly where Jonathan Liew called Soriano a liar intent on just muddying waters to undermine the institution of UEFA when he said City believed when the case was put before a proper, independent court they'd be cleared and the punishment walked back. He's never retracted it.

Matthew Syed has not given the apology he promised if City's ban was overturned either, has he?

A good summary, that.

 

[KS55]

A good summary, that.

Anybody remember the launch of FFP?
They said an independent body would be set up to deal with alleged breaches. Just how independent is UEFA, stuffed with red shirts?
Leterme was a member of Bayerns sustainability board. Hmmm....

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Anybody remember the launch of FFP?
They said an independent body would be set up to deal with alleged breaches. Just how independent is UEFA, stuffed with red shirts?
Leterme was a member of Bayerns sustainability board. Hmmm....

David Gill was drafted in just prior to when they first penalised us as it was said that UEFA weren’t doing enough to penalise ’offenders’.

 

[WRicko]

Baffled by the vote in the premier league about related part there are loads of clubs sponsored by owners then the reporting is all about city and Newcastle

 

[JGL07]

They’re always illegal mate

OPEC?

 

[Claytop]

Anybody remember the launch of FFP?
They said an independent body would be set up to deal with alleged breaches. Just how independent is UEFA, stuffed with red shirts?
Leterme was a member of Bayerns sustainability board. Hmmm....

Pretty sure the initial intentions of FFP was to deal with debt but Platini got told by the G-14 or whatever they were then that it had to change.

 

[wolviedinho]

I agree. I do my best to ignore it. I don't watch pre and post match stuff, mute commentary, SSN, talk radio, 5Live and I rarely read newspaper articles about City and I mainly use Twitter for general news, RL, NFL and cycling. Impossible to avoid the occasional bullshit about City though. I have got to the point where I dislike everything about football apart from City.

Welcome to the Agenda brigade @Manc in London!

You are a proper blue now ;)

 

[manimanc]

I agree. I do my best to ignore it. I don't watch pre and post match stuff, mute commentary, SSN, talk radio, 5Live and I rarely read newspaper articles about City and I mainly use Twitter for general news, RL, NFL and cycling. Impossible to avoid the occasional bullshit about City though. I have got to the point where I dislike everything about football apart from City.

Everything you just said is me too, i just turn on for the match then switch off, it is just loaded bullshit on every platform.

 

[M18CTID]

Odd how Ashley plastering Sports Direct all over the place was never an issue. As soon as a Saudi wants to do the same the rules must be changed in a rush, even if it’s probably not legal. In any event, if PIF is found not to be connected to the state of Saudi Arabia, it is hard to see how it could be found to be connected to Aramco and the rest.

The most annoying thing is why this confected morality is always applied to football but never to society at large. Nobody protests every time they fill their car up (Saudi oil) or turn up the heating (Russian gas). Nobody says it’s immoral to shop at Sainsbury’s (Qatar) without protesting outside before you go in. We’re all happy enough to use products from China (iPhones, etc.). When it is football it is a different ball game, excuse the pun.

It's simple really. Football is a tribal sport - the most tribal of the lot - which means it's full of bitter, hypocritical bastards who get jealous about other clubs spending money. None of these cunts are truly concerned about human rights - they just use that as a stick to beat up fans of certain clubs with.

I would also add that in addition to your Sports Direct analogy, Newcastle aren't the first Premier League football club to be owned by a member of the House of Saud. Funny how, just like Ashley's Sports Direct sponsorship, Saudi ownership of English football clubs was never previously an issue!