PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[Manchester1894]

Hmm. Interesting this legal action slant. Everton would go into admin?! So by my reckoning a guilty verdict in our case would bring multiple legal cases from every club in the PL and could it potentially extend to Europe and reopen any UEFA case? If we were relegated, sued by English and European clubs even for Mansour that would be a hefty bill. Hence why so much is riding on this.

 

[Big mals fedora]

CAS even went so far to say one of the reasons we got the non-cooperation charge was because if we'd actually send evidence at an earlier point in the process then it would never have got as far as it did.

But I am 99% sure that the PL doesn't have anything else to work with beyond leaked emails broadly in the public domain.

Didn’t we say we wouldn’t co-operate because uefa were leaking like a sieve?
CAS wouldn’t come out & say why we didint co-operate, they are just ruling in a black & white case, did you co-operate or not. We didn’t, hence the non co-operation charges stick. To the msm morons, that means we were obviously hiding something, without them knowing any of the facts as to why we wouldn’t co-operate.
My head hurts now, think I’ll leave this thread for a while!!……

 

[Dribble]

It’s all so unbelievable - how can this be allowed to happen? Why can’t the club object to this unregulated process & get it thrown out instead of having to wait years for the PL to decide how they are going to proceed

That's my point.

You can't go making accusations of infringements/crminality, but in the next breath say you don't have any evidence to disclose, but you'll investigate your accusations & hope to provide the evidence within the next 4 years.

It's utter, total bollox. I've never heard of anything like this in my life! 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

 

[swinton blue]

This needs government intervention quite rapidly.

The idea that 4 football clubs can sue another because its owner has financed losses is, quite frankly, absolutely fucking insane.

The PL is a circus and the clowns are in charge.

I don't know how 4 clubs can sue
Surely it can be only one. Considering you can make a loss of 105mil over 3 years Surely you only break that rule in the third year. For all we know Everton could have won the league in the third year and wiped out an losses in the last 2. Hence the team that finished 18th after the 3 years have a case but no one else

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

Of course, if this bit about Everton is true, it will expose the lie about FFP once and for all. The idea that it was about clubs not going bust and then a PL ruling puts Everton into administration and thus a docking of another 9 points, likely relegation and possible ruination of them tells you all you need to know. Saddest bit is that some Everton supporters and ex players are still saying ‘but what about City’ instead of smelling the coffee.
The other thing to remember about Everton is that if they’d finished 3 places higher in the last 3 seasons, they wouldn’t have been guilty of anything.…

Very, very well put. Oh you’re not sustainable? Better cut off any chance of that happening.

 

[Ducado]

From what I can see in order to prove the charges they would be effectively saying there has been criminal activity, which is pretty serious stuff which would then mean police involvement and a huge investigation costing millions, they would have to be 100% sure because if they are not it could be ruinous

 

[Rory Bluelow]

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.

Very interesting. What amazes and disappoints me in equal measure is that not one fucking journalist in this total shitshow - wilfully unleashed on our club - is doing a journalist‘s job and investigating what’s actually been happening here...
-UEFA sneakily shifting the FFP goalposts - between us closing our accounts then submitting audited ones - to ensure we failed, and we “took the pinch”
-Our two-year competition ban instigated by the (sic) “investigatory chamber“ based on fuck-all real evidence - thankfully quashed by CAS
-The ludicrous four year investigation and the “weaponised“ presentation of 115 charges (again with little or no evidence) but thereby allowing every moron and halfwit in the Country a free hit at currently the best football club in the world bar none. The said morons now being egged-on and goaded by a poisonous press pack of wanker sports journalists unworthy of the fucking name - including our little-esteemed national broadcaster - to conflate Everton’s wrongdoings with imaginary punishments for our unproven offences.
It’s fucking infuriating, after everything we’ve achieved against impossible odds at times, oh…and transforming football, rejuvenating a rundown part of a post-industrial City and dragging an ungrateful Premier League to reach its peak in modern times.
There‘s a real story to be told in support of our beloved club, its superb management and wonderful owner. It’s as frustrating a fuck that no one is stepping up to tell it and at least put our side of the story.
Don’t know if this rant makes sense, but I feel fucking better for it.

 

[Dribble]

Everton tried a Leeds United approach and it didn't work, although they managed to stay up.

This is one of the aims of FFP (as well as protecting the establishment). Stop Clubs gambling fortunes on their futures.

If Everton hadn't had wasted all those millions, been relegated a few years ago as they weren't good enough they would have bounced back by now in a far healthier position.

I'm not sure fines and Docking points are the answer to these type of offences but don't know what the punishment should be tbh.

This holds water if the debt incurred is levied against the club, hence putting it's future in doubt. This was the original intention of UEFA's debt management proposals in 2002, but which were thrown out in 2009 & changed for the current FFP model we have today which was meant to stifle competition from City & retain the hegemony of the elite clubs.

City's situation was completely different. We have a minted owner who cleared our debt & invested HIS OWN money to build the club we have today.

If HRH got bored & walked away, City are already a self sustaining model of excellence, so the club would be in little danger of folding.

Let's say we weren't financially performing as well as we are, at worst we'd have to sell our high earners & cut our cloth accordingly.

That would be us being financially prudent & is where FFP should come in to ensure those left at the club don't gamble it's existence on huge commercial borrowing in the hope it brings success to cover the costs.

The difference with City is HRH has used his own money, so if he stands the losses personally without leveraging the debt against City, that's his business, hence why FFP is overtly self serving to the G14 & old Sky Four & unashamedly bent.

 

[fierydan]

I think "City are FFP cheats", has become football folklore like fans chanting "Same old Arsenal, always cheating", or fans booing Jack Grealish, when most don't even know why they do it.

Football is emotive & fans get overly emotional. It's like mild mannered people who get cut up when driving, displaying road rage & suddenly becoming steering wheel warriors.

Football fans becoming aggressive & lairy when they feel a sense of injustice is par for the course. City have become the pantomime villain because all our recent success has been attributed to us cheating, with some fans thinking "If not for City being FFP crooks, we'd have won A B or C, qualified for the CL, or not been relegated". That's how the Red Tops have successfully scripted the narrative against us.

City are like family to me, so attacking the club is like attacking me & mine. I'll come out swinging in life or death defence every time.

With the concerted Red Top campaign to demonise us for their own gain & using their client media as a tool to bludgeon us with, I suppose it's understandable why your average football fan believes the bullshit headlines & can't be arsed reading the detail.

When Spuds were leading the table, my Cousins kept sending me screenshots of the league table thinking they'd win it.

7 days & 2 defeats later, they had that familiar sinking feeling, as they harked back to Harry Kane, & looked North toward Manchester & reverted to "The wheels falling off Spuds' bus is all City's fault, because they're FFP cheats".

What beggars belief though is why Burnley, Newcastle, Leicester & Wolves joined in to form the Hateful Eight to demand action against us?

Burnley & Leicester got relegated. Wolves have been flirting with relegation, & Newcastle have changed their tune since they won the lottery, so are now empathising with our position!

It's not lost on me that it was Alan Shearer who was pointing out this week, that FFP stops other clubs living the dream by challenging the elite.

It must be sticking in his craw that the PL are looking to block loans between related clubs, because Newcastle are hoping to loan Rúben Neves from his Saudi team until the summer.

Now they know EXACTLY how FFP's been used to nobble City. 乁⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠_⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠ㄏ

Sheared won his only league title due to there being no FFP

 

[HelloCity]

They’re going to burn the house down in order to try and establish United and Liverpool at the top. All those under investigation are those who have had ownership investing in their club. It will have a gigantic impact on the future of the league.