Football Leaks/Der Spiegel articles

[BigOscar]

It seems the outrage is more due to "neutrals" not being able to comprehend the information being leaked. As the club said it's out of context; when shown to folk who don't know what it means.

.

It's more just papers yelling "they are cheating, they are cheating!" over and over again, so people are inclined to think we're cheating. Rather than pointing out the actual "rules" we have allegedly been breaking were ridiculous to start with

 

[MillionMilesAway]

But the initial report was that the findings from Spiegel were about United? Was that planned for derby day?
I digress, what have spiegel got to gain from putting this story out there before what essentially is a meaningless derby, given the time of the season I mean? You really think everyone has come together, a German media outlet included, to produce this story and air it before the derby?

That’s some serious paranoia there pal.

I'm with you on this.
I assume it broke due to the Super league thing and the nominal November deadline for it.

 

[The blue phantom]

I don't pretend to know anything about such things referenced in these emails etc but would it be fair to believe that all these leaks are doing is lifting the lid on how the club has operated as opposed to revealing us doing anything illegal?

Especially this "Project Longbow" stuff, it seems more like a loophole than anything else.

It seems the outrage is more due to "neutrals" not being able to comprehend the information being leaked. As the club said it's out of context; when shown to folk who don't know what it means.

Or we're dodgy as sin, which I wouldn't care about. Fuck 'em all, either way is fine with me.

It's making the dippers and Rags piss boil, so that is also fine by me.

 

[hammocity]

If there's one thing we can learn from these leaks at least it's that the majority of opposition fans are incredibly bitter and thick. Seen some amazingly deluded or plain fabricated accusations/comments in the last few days.

Meanwhile I fully expect us to carry on hammering everyone in sight and piling on their misery hahaha

The one that made me piss my sides was the Club is being used for money laundering!! Ffs, a family wealth in excess of 600 billion pounds and counting why the fuck would they use a half billion pounds turnover business to launder, they are a Sovereign State. I would imagine the Mansour family are not desperate to shift a few quid through a football club. The standard of literacy and understanding on Twitter and even the BBC is of infantile.

One Dipper twat on the BBC “have your say” site last week posted to paraphrase “United fans were getting on a train and they didn’t like it when the announcer said mind the gap” it got a shit load of thumbs up, fucking drongos, must have the intellect of an amoeba

 

[Eds]

If someone's lifted emails and documents off City's servers then they'll presumably have those detailing our attempts to countermand systematic and organised match-fixing against us in the 2011/12 season, involving other clubs and the authorities. They'll know why Walton was given his marching orders mid-season and why we insisted Mason was taken off our games.

I can't wait to read those.

What's the story with Mason?

 

[Rochdale Blue]

Forgive me for this one. I, for one, would like to see them try.

EXPELLED FROM FOOTBALL for f***s sake.

One Liverpool fan thinks we are a just a front for money laundering. I wonder what he thinks their main sponsors have been accused of in the past.

 

[BlueAnorak]

If someone's lifted emails and documents off City's servers then they'll presumably have those detailing our attempts to countermand systematic and organised match-fixing against us in the 2011/12 season, involving other clubs and the authorities. They'll know why Walton was given his marching orders mid-season and why we insisted Mason was taken off our games.

I can't wait to read those.

Yes, we'll see if the theft is general IT thievery or targeted IT thievery on this point.

 

[johnevans]

I posted this on my Facebook earlier and I've also posted something about investigations into MUFC's finances from 1910 (yes, it's a long time ago but it was a similar period in terms of them spending big/perceived to be cooking the books to gain major honours). As a historian there's nothing new in football. You can see that 1910 stuff on my page here: https://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4/

Now my earlier response.....

Between 1995 and 2004 there were only really 2 PL title contenders. They were 2 clubs that had benefitted significantly from the creation of the PL and the remodelled UEFA competitions. Between them MUFC & AFC won 9 consecutive titles, ending when CFC managed to get significant investment and mount a challenge. The nearest any team other than MUFC or AFC got in that period to winning the title was NUFC in 1996 (4 points off the title). The PL became predictable and then wealthy people from around the globe started to invest and CFC won a title in 2005 (Russian billionaire), MCFC in 2012 (UAE billionaire) and then LCFC in 2016 (Thai Billionaire). Those billionaires, whether we like it or not, have made the PL a much more competitive competition - certainly as far as the Premier League title is concerned - than it was at any time prior to their arrival. They've invested in their clubs and, in the case of LCFC and MCFC, there has been significant investment in their local communities. Other clubs, who had been made wealthy by the PL/CL (Utd were making losses and borrowing money to fund Ferguson's first trophy winning team - at the time the most expensive ever assembled in British football) saw their income either get used to increase transfer fees and players' wages or used to pay off debts/prop up businesses elsewhere, such as in the USA. Financial Fair Play was brought in supposedly to create a level playing field but as many respected academics and journalists have said it actually aimed to prevent significant investment in clubs, meaning that those that were already established forces were unlikely to be challenged. FFP should have been brought in to ensure ALL owners pass proper fit and proper person tests and should have been used to benefit football not just those already in positions of power. It should have looked at debt and at what owners were doing with those clubs. Nowadays there are about 6 PL teams capable of winning the PL - a vast improvement on the past. The majority of these, such as the summer's biggest spenders LFC, have spent heavily just like Ferguson did while he bought time to allow his young players to develop. Very few of them have invested in their city, community and infrastructure in the way MCFC have. To me those CFG sponsorship deals (wherever the money actually came from - and yes it should be investigated) were actually fair market value. Other less successful clubs during this period have negotiated better sponsorship deals making these look relatively cheap in comparison (when you see the achievements of MCFC and the growth the club has made). Money has always ruled football. No one should pretend otherwise and many, many clubs have received transformational investment during the last 140 years. The amounts have grown of course, but almost each generation has had a club that has spent heavily to buy success. Sometimes, including MCFC in 1978-1982, they invested heavily in players that didn't deliver while others, notably BRFC in early 90s & MUFC, tended to buy players who made a difference.

Your post covers all the things I’ve been banging on for ages to pals who support other clubs. Just one thing I’d like to emphasise in agreement with you is that the Premier League has become the entity it now is mainly due to the arrival of first Chelsea, then City, on the scene (and to some extent, as you say, Leicester’s out of nowhere success) The incredibly marketable commodity that is the Premier League would not be making so much money for each and every club in its rank were it not for the advances made by Chelsea and City in recent years. Were it not for this, the old order, with The Red Filth and Arsenal continuing to rule the roost, would undoubtedly have led to the Premier League atrophying rapidly.. and there wouldn’t have been the mega-rich tv deals we now have as a result. As for the hand-wringing by fans of other clubs and the venal media.. well, sod ‘em.. let them look harder at their own histories (Liverpool and Everton 1959-62, for example) and learn about the financial leg-ups they’ve had in the past.. and anyway, who cares what they think?!

 

[MCFC1993]

Gary Lineker says the stories are mounting up, don't think he's realised the article he's tweeted out is over 1 year old.

I suppose anything mounts up when you've got a years worth of back reading to do.

 

[bobmcfc]

They are really going to town on us



I feel like the owners must go on the offensive. And by that @Prestwich_Blue I mean, if we have dirt on the FA, Premief league and other clubs as you suggest we might then perhaps leaking it via 3rd parties may achieve us some respite from the avalanche of hate and accusations.