Football Leaks/Der Spiegel articles

[waspish]

Be nice when premier rights come up for grabs next Abu Dhabi bought all of the packages :)

 

[bluekeith]

Weren't we supposed to have some sort of agreement with Real Madrid a few years back about not chasing each other's targets?

.

I think they were going to borrow a billion from one of the sheiks banks and they knew that they had to keep him sweet so they kept away from our players and targetst

 

[Gordyola]

This is all well and good down the road should things play out that way but ultimately right here and now we're being battered by all sides here and our reputation is being tarnished to the point where we're now even hearing our silverware collected is tainted. The fact that the club are not commenting to me suggests there's more than an element of truth in all this and we're are just trying to ride out the storm and hope not too much damage comes of it. We're being so meek right now I wouldn't be surprised if we agreed to take another "pinch" and hope it goes away. I just don't see us saying bring it on we'll see you in court so Stefans points are mute. We need to give someone a kicking.....bring on ManUre!

The club will not, and never have, comment on things like this, rightly or wrongly. By trying to denie it would just add to the storm and it’s very doubtful if it would be believed any how.

Let’s face it if the Sheikh had bought City 10 years earlier he could have invested whatever he want just like Roman did in Chelsea So ultimately all we are guilty of is “creative accountancy” and negotiation It was all passed off by UEFA we payed our dues and that’s it

 

[crazyg]

This is all well and good down the road should things play out that way but ultimately right here and now we're being battered by all sides here and our reputation is being tarnished to the point where we're now even hearing our silverware collected is tainted. The fact that the club are not commenting to me suggests there's more than an element of truth in all this and we're are just trying to ride out the storm and hope not too much damage comes of it. We're being so meek right now I wouldn't be surprised if we agreed to take another "pinch" and hope it goes away. I just don't see us saying bring it on we'll see you in court so Stefans points are mute. We need to give someone a kicking.....bring on ManUre!

But we've already "taken the pinch". A "full and final settlement" means just that - once that's been signed by both parties, it precludes any further action, as both parties have accepted the legally binding settlement as an alternative to fighting it out in court.
I may have mentioned previously, but I used to work in Employer Compliance in the Revenue for about 22 years of my career, mainly dealing with large groups, Councils, etc. At the end of the review, and the final bun fight/haggling/negotiations, a compromise deal was reached with the employer and a Letter of Offer was issued and signed by both parties in settlement of any PAYE/NIC/Subcontract tax due. This is analagous to the "pinch" that the club suffered. Standard business practice.
The only difference is the "full and final settlement" wording included, apparently, in City's "pinch", to our letter. Ours was worded to only cover what I had looked at, ie, records relating to PAYE, etc. In that way, it did not prevent other sections of the Revenue from looking at their areas of expertise. "Full and Final" would have precluded them from doing so. Any Letters of Offer including those words (mainly amended by their accountants (and we're talking the big 4)) were promptly returned to be retyped in the original format sent out.
Similarly, if I missed something (perish the thought!) in my review and it was picked up at a visit further down the line, the new ECO visiting could only go back to the date of my settlement for recovery of what I had missed.

 

[Steve68]

If there is a Super League and they are run by the cartel clubs, then what chances are that we and PSG are invited for it ? Neither City nor PSG has knocked out one of the cartel clubs in any season. Their problem is more with City/PsG getting the superstars (KDB, Sane, Neymar, Mbappe) from joining them. One way to stop that happening is to ban us from the European competition whether it be by accusing us of foul play leading to UEFA ban or creating a Super League without us. Even if we had all the money in the world, star players wouldn't join us without European participation.

We are both part of that ‘cartel’ now. We’ve forced our feet under the table and a League can’t be Super without us. It’s all about money and we are now a team people want to pay to watch.

I don’t want such a League, where owners can pour in unlimited money but I’m sick of playing by rules designed to penalise one type of finance without counting the hundreds of millions of debt others have built themselves on. That’s just as much cheating as anything we might have done. And fuck anyone deciding what sponsorships are not ‘commercially’ costed.

I pretty much think you cannot put a price on the great publicity and image polishing clubs give to morally dubious regimes, pirate Yank billionaires, crooked Asian business or criminal Russian oligarchs. If the sponsor pays it it’s worth it to them by definition.

 

[johnevans]

You'd be wrong. The club is right not to comment on these other than their stock response. But things will be going on behind the scenes and we'll see how these play out.

Absolutely spot on.. Until ‘Der Spiegel’ or our venal media or the likes of Gary Lineker & Dan Roan on Twitter or the tribalistic fans of our rivals or (most important of all and the only ones who count) UEFA lay specific charges against City, the best course is simply to do as the club is doing right now. People can either put up or shut up. Getting involved with tit-for-tat counter accusations etc is a waste of time in these days of social media and media venality. It only encourages the keyboard warriors. This pile of nonsense over the past week will play itself out and, thanks to the observations by such as yourself and ‘Chris In London’ etc, us Blues have more than enough ammunition to deal with chums who follow other teams and their ‘bantz’. Tell these poor deluded souls to look at their own clubs instead and, as ‘Deep Throat’ told Woodward and Bernstein of ‘The Washington Post’, ‘Follow the money..’, see where that takes them. The only way I’d feel uncomfortable about how this is developing is if City had issued (again, referencing ‘All The President’s Men’) a ‘non-denial denial’.. but City hasn’t, so thanks for your interest in our club, everyone.. don’t slam the door when you f**k off..

 

[avoidconfusion]

This is all well and good down the road should things play out that way but ultimately right here and now we're being battered by all sides here and our reputation is being tarnished to the point where we're now even hearing our silverware collected is tainted. The fact that the club are not commenting to me suggests there's more than an element of truth in all this and we're are just trying to ride out the storm and hope not too much damage comes of it. We're being so meek right now I wouldn't be surprised if we agreed to take another "pinch" and hope it goes away. I just don't see us saying bring it on we'll see you in court so Stefans points are mute. We need to give someone a kicking.....bring on ManUre!

Hope you don't mind me saying this, I don't mean any offense, especially as everyone is entitled to an opinion... BUT... I think you are being a bit naive if you think the people who own City will just lie down and let this happen just because they are not publicly communicating.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Who do we think employs the best lawyers and accountants?
The Sun?
The Mail?
Talksport?
The Guardian?
Amnesty International, an organisation now about as credible and relevant as Comic Relief?
That prick Dillon on Talkshyte this morning with a salary less than a week's wages of a Cardiff squad player?
Or City, Sheik Mansour and a circa $900bn sovereign wealth fund?

Bring it on.

I'll tell you how I reckon the Dillon thing will have played out.

The club will have been incensed as they're understandably very protective of Dave over this. They'll have consulted lawyers probably and certainly been on to Talksport letting them know what their feelings are. They (or possibly our lawyers) will probably have been in contact with Dillon as well. He'll have issued his "apology" based on that and executive management at Talksport will be aware of this and will either have spoken, met or will meet first thing tomorrow.

They will, possibly in the face of sanctions from the club, apologise to them, give them various assurances, hopefully including dropping Dillon from any future contribution on City specifically or maybe any contribution to their programming at all. A suitable sum will be paid to charity, hopefully a premature baby one, and that will be the end of that, with none of us being any the wiser as to what the club has done.

 

[tonea2003]

I'll tell you how I reckon the Dillon thing will have played out.

The club will have been incensed as they're understandably very protective of Dave over this. They'll have consulted lawyers probably and certainly been on to Talksport letting them know what their feelings are. They (or possibly our lawyers) will probably have been in contact with Dillon as well. He'll have issued his "apology" based on that and executive management at Talksport will be aware of this and will either have spoken, met or will meet first thing tomorrow.

They will, possibly in the face of sanctions from the club, apologise to them, give them various assurances, hopefully including dropping Dillon from any future contribution on City specifically or maybe any contribution to their programming at all. A suitable sum will be paid to charity, hopefully a premature baby one, and that will be the end of that, with none of us being any the wiser as to what the club has done.

hope so mate as it was lower than a snakes belly what talksport allowed to go on yesterday, and the pathetic insincere apology from bingham this morning left a real bitter taste

 

[ancoats]

uefa have made a rod for there own backs with FFP and it's not law binding and if manchester city wanted would use the courts to fight our case, how can you have a FFP rule that lets teams run up debts and united are into the tune of £450million in debt so how can it be fair to all clubs, uefa are a made up bunch of ****s with members of the so called big 5 that all have debts that are never going anywhere and its never going to be cleared

so have manchester city really do anything wrong and put the club in a unstable place with bank loans on assets or long term season tickets sales NOPE its personal wealth and a investment, so if the value of the clubs is growing and growing each year what is the gamble, and from what i understand and see the turnover is now at £500million a year so we don't need sheikh mansour to pump big money into city, and it will self run itself and grow without debt or the need to bank roll new players

FFP is out of date and if they are thinking manchester city are even going to come under the rules they set out to stop us then they are so wrong in fact manchester city are going to be the biggest club in england and europe for the next 10 to 20 years and the fan base is growing worldwide, so how can you stop something that is what football fans want to see each week great players playing great football and not just long ball football without any ideas