PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Reading this thread these last few days has shown that this forum has a number of Liverpool and United fans mascarading as blues. And they’re in here deliberately attempting to wind blues up.

Im a huge free speech advocate normally, except where the club I love are concerned, so I am asking the mod team to please comb through the last 100 pages or so and issue some forum bans.
Please.

Oppostikn fans can wind us up on any thread they like except this one. This one is dealing with an existential threat to the club and we shouldn’t be allowing barely concealed gloating and deliberate inflammatory posting, especially when disguised as coming from City fans, often in the style of “IF we are guilty then does that mean…etc etc”.

Get rid of them please mods, this is a very emotive and important thread.

They are hurting more than you are. Fantasising about this is what they do instead of winning things now.

 

[Dribble]

Not quite, we are 3rd behind United and Liverpool for PL TV audences. But it is a fact 5 of the 6 most viewed PL games in the last 4 seasons involved City.

When PL/domestic games are combined with European games, we had our best ever viewing figures last season AND WERE THE MOST WATCHED TEAM IN EUROPE.

Let that sink in and think of the impact that has on our profile and sponsorship appeal. Yet the mad media and fans of the red tops constantly disparage us for our commercial income. "How is it possible" etc etc. Fucking idots don't recognise it's all about eye balls and also our international fan base is growing rapidly. In the UK live audiences for City games increased by 14% against a PL average of 6%. (Newcastle had the biggest growth of 44% in the UK

The most watched TV games by a distance are the games between the Big 6. That reduces if City and Chelsea aren't included and a guaranteed reduction in TV revenue. One aspect of the golden goose being nobbled...

The Red Top Mafia's hatred of us runs deep, & you can include Spuds in that too. In their minds our success hasn't been built on class leading sports management, it's all down to having a rich oil Sheikh & being FFP cheats.

They've spent more time over the last 13 years obsessing over City, than concentrating on themselves, even though they've all had periods where they've struggled.

I posted one from a series of unhinged messages from my Spuds supporting Cousin yesterday & someone remarked if they had family like him, they wouldn't broadcast it, but herein lies the problem we face.

My Cousin is a salt of the earth type. A well to do, level headed family man, a highly educated professional & all round Mr Nice Guy, who'd do anything for family if asked.

After accusing City of being cheats based on the UEFA & PL charges, & admitting he doesn't know what we're actually being accused of, or what we've been charged with, I asked him if someone accused me of something serious, would he just believe them, or ask me? He said he'd ask me.

I pointed out that aside from the ocassional barb thrown my way when (admittedly) I've bitched about the Poisoned Pygmy Levy doing the FFP bidding of the Red Tops, he's never ONCE asked me about City's FFP woes.

He's never sought to uncover the actual facts surrounding City & FFP, & has just taken UEFA & the PL's word as gospel! But he's a Spud's fan, so why would he?

I left it with him by saying if he was ever interested in knowing what this is really all about, we should talk & I'll explain how ridiculous the situation is & why it keeps occurring.

All he did was put in speech marks my previous comment of "I'm not worried Cuz" & send me this meme! I don't know why I bother... 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

 

[Whether or not]

Good post
It’s amazing that they have even tried to throw all this shite at us again.
The thing that is most shocking to me and proves the whole sport is bent is that UEFA found us guilty and banned us when it turned out (according to CAS):
1 - they had no supporting evidence
2 - they ignored their own rules (time barring)

This just proves that they decide you are guilty and then ignore any due process to get to the end goal.

Don’t forget that the UEFA disciplinary panel that found us guilty included Rick Parry, David Gill and some guy from PSG (Qatar). CAS who were actually independent found us not guilty. Enough said really.

 

[Dribble]

Following on from the post from @acton28.blog detailing the charges, I've tried to summarise them below.

Some of these charges are quite ridiculous, and their inclusion can only be for the effect of making City look bad. They are deliberately and unnecessarily vindictive. Let’s have a look at them in more detail.

9 charges (2009/10 to 2017/18) that “In all matters and transactions relating to the League each Club shall behave towards each other Club and the League with the utmost good faith.” I can’t think of anything specific we might have done relating to this, so the PL must be saying that by breaking the other rules, we have not acted in good faith to them or other clubs.

Funny that they didn’t charge Liverpool under this rule, when they found out they had hacked in to our scouting databases in 2013. The PL said in response to their decision not to take action against Liverpool, “This is due to a number of factors including the age of the alleged concerns and the settlement agreed by the two clubs involved.” So, the age of the alleged concerns applies in one case but not the other?

Also, nine Premier League clubs (Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle, Spurs and Wolves) wrote to CAS asking them not to lift Manchester City's European ban. This seems to me very much like acting in bad faith towards another PL club, and a breach of the same rule. But none of them were charged.

40 charges under different rules in each season from 2009/10 to 2017/18, but essentially are:

- Company accounts to be registered with Companies House and the PL by 1 March.

- Submission of interim accounts to the League, if annual accounts end before 30 November in current season.

- UEFA applicant clubs to provide to Premier League upon request, future financial information including P&L and cash flow.

- Requirement to notify PL of changes in circumstances that might affect finances.

1 charge in 2009/10 relating to ticket sales to visiting clubs. Quite what they suspect us of doing, and why it has taken so long to come to light, and why it doesn’t fall within the Liverpool “age of the alleged concerns” precedent, I can only speculate on. My guess is it’s a witch hunt. I wonder how many other clubs have been investigated for ticketing irregularities back in 2009.

8 charges between 2009/10 and 2012/13 relating to manager remuneration - the Mancini contract allegations?

12 charges between 2010/11 and 2015/16 relating to player remuneration. Could this be the image rights issue?

5 charges of failing to comply with UEFA regulations, in the years from 2013/14 to 2017/18. In failing UEFA FFP, United broke this same rule recently, but they haven’t been charged by the PL yet.

25 cases of failing Profitability and Sustainability rules, from 2015/16 to 2017/18. I would say from a layman’s POV, this is really one rule, split out into nine separate clauses (eight in two of the years). But rather than saying we have allegedly broken Profitability and Sustainability rules in three seasons, it looks better for them to count it as 25. (Acting in good faith towards a member club?)

30 accusations amounting to failure to cooperate in respect of seasons 2018/19 to 2022/23, citing six rules in each season.

I’ve checked my figures over a few times using https://www.premierleague.com/news/3045970 as a reference. It looks a lot like 130 charges to me, so I suppose the PL have generously rounded it down, or they can’t count.

Thanks for that breakdown fella. We could do with this laid out just so we can throw it at opposition fans for their night time reading (well for those who can read).

Admittedly, most City fans don't know this depth of detail, but when broken down like this, it makes an even bigger mockery of City's FFP situation.

It's evident they're just out to get us by any means necessary.

 

[Dribble]

Well whatever it is on the allegedly several million £ on renumeration. On the grander scheme of things beyond football fanaticism of who supports what club and thus who are predetermined to besmirch the development and success (globally) of City, the UAE has been investing 22 billion £ to us to date on country-2-country partnerships, on developments of CleanTech, GreenTech, AI and SpaceTech. We have more than 100,000 employed there as well.

The PL scrutinizing and glossing over rules that are instead of wanton on clubs to survive to escape administration based on minimum finance, yet ours has been to thrive to be well under maximum finance and business acumen for financial fair play, makes us different from the reason of financial fair play.

This P&S is against football clubs like our business method that has 0 debt and profiting and sustaining from a small-medium enterprise to now a decacorn level company (and possibly a hectacorn as the CFG to the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet Google, IBM, etc) with corporrate social responsibility globally and for the future of football (NYCFC and Melbourne City have been relative success, as is our MCWFC). Whereas there are other clubs whose P&S is on profitability and sustainability based on heavy debt, thus profitability based on loss of debt and sustainability based on debt accrued year-on-year and reliant on merchandising and overpopularising history.

I just don't understand the delays with holding the hearing.

The PL have spent FIVE YEARS investigating us. They charged us in February 2023 presumably because they've concluded said investigation, so why's everyone estimating it'll take ANOTHER 2-4 years BEFORE a hearing is held?

I'd understand it if the delays were coming from City's side, if we claimed we needed time to assess the charges & prepare our defence, but by the sound of it, City are revved up & ready to rumble, so why do the PL need another 2-4 years AFTER issuing charges against City to prepare for a hearing?

I'd appreciate it if someone can explain this to me, or am I missing something really obvious? ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

 

[cheekybids]

The Red Top Mafia's hatred of us runs deep, & you can include Spuds in that too. In their minds our success hasn't been built on class leading sports management, it's all down to having a rich oil Sheikh & being FFP cheats.

They've spent more time over the last 13 years obsessing over City, than concentrating on themselves, even though they've all had periods where they've struggled.

I posted one from a series of unhinged messages from my Spuds supporting Cousin yesterday & someone remarked if they had family like him, they wouldn't broadcast it, but herein lies the problem we face.

My Cousin is a salt of the earth type. A well to do, level headed family man, a highly educated professional & all round Mr Nice Guy, who'd do anything for family if asked.

After accusing City of being cheats based on the UEFA & PL charges, & admitting he doesn't know what we're actually being accused of, or what we've been charged with, I asked him if someone accused me of something serious, would he just believe them, or ask me? He said he'd ask me.

I pointed out that aside from the ocassional barb thrown my way when (admittedly) I've bitched about the Poisoned Pygmy Levy doing the FFP bidding of the Red Tops, he's never ONCE asked me about City's FFP woes.

He's never sought to uncover the actual facts surrounding City & FFP, & has just taken UEFA & the PL's word as gospel! But he's a Spud's fan, so why would he?

I left it with him by saying if he was ever interested in knowing what this is really all about, we should talk & I'll explain how ridiculous the situation is & why it keeps occurring.

All he did was put in speech marks my previous comment of "I'm not worried Cuz" & send me this meme! I don't know why I bother... 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

View attachment 99105

Tell him he’s right & so are all the people who say we’ll just pay our way out & how does he feel about that?

Then ask him what have Spurs done before the Sheik invested, he has no horse in the race. It’s Spursy, they aren’t really in the gang they just think they are.

 

[Bloominmarvellous]

UEFA passed judgement on United. The PL passed judgement on Everton. Two different bodies with two different methods.

You can read all UEFA's judgements here. https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/protecting-the-game/club-financial-controlling-body/cases/

Chelsea's is there, Wolves, Hull City, and ours from 2014. All are there, in the public domain for anyone to see. Oh, except United's. Theirs isn't available, for some reason. Probably just an oversight.

They probably have not updated it yet as it is also missing barca, Istanbul etc from the same period this year.

 

[Tb1981]

I keep reading about how hard done by Everton are
Where has this narrative come from?
its almost like because they are shit, everyone (spitty, Oliver holt, Simon Jordan etc) feels sorry for them
In the same way because Chelsea are a bit of a joke (for now) no one really cares about the spending.
But with us it’s a totally different ball game. It’s like they hate us because we’re winning and our success is eating them alive.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

I keep reading about how hard done by Everton are
Where has this narrative come from?
its almost like because they are shit, everyone (spitty, Oliver holt, Simon Jordan etc) feels sorry for them
In the same way because Chelsea are a bit of a joke (for now) no one really cares about the spending.
But with us it’s a totally different ball game. It’s like they hate us because we’re winning and our success is eating them alive.

Which leads us to the real reason why we are where we are. Jealousy. Shameless, frothing at the mouth jealousy.

I don't know if I'd have it any other way in all honesty.

 

[mancboy]

I keep reading about how hard done by Everton are
Where has this narrative come from?
its almost like because they are shit, everyone (spitty, Oliver holt, Simon Jordan etc) feels sorry for them
In the same way because Chelsea are a bit of a joke (for now) no one really cares about the spending.
But with us it’s a totally different ball game. It’s like they hate us because we’re winning and our success is eating them alive.

Ghandi said it best, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

We've been through the first 3 stages, now we are going to win.