PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

bobbyowenquiff said:
I see Harris still believes City were "caught and punished" for financial breaches on two occasions. I presume he is referring to the 2013 settlement we made with UEFA (with no admission of liability) and has conveniently ignored the fact that we were cleared of the second UEFA allegations by CAS. In the second instance we deliberately and publically withdrew co-operation with UEFA because of their naked corrupion in leaking information to the media. CAS reduced the UEFA non-operation fine to just £10m. So just the usual tissue of lies from the man who says he "doesn't hate City."
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Little special about being "caught and punished" - a few others off the top of my head:

  • Paris Saint-Germain
  • Manchester United
  • Chelsea
  • FC Barcelona
  • AC Milan
  • Inter Milan
  • AS Roma
  • Juventus
  • AS Monaco
  • Olympique de Marseille
  • Sporting CP
  • FC Porto
  • Real Betis
  • Dinamo Zagreb
  • Fenerbahçe
  • Trabzonspor
  • Beşiktaş JK
  • AEK Athens FC
 
Toranaga sama said:
Well, this is from our dearest friend Mr Nick Harris. Interesting read though. Seems like he's not that confident. I wonder what changed lately....?


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Man City - what will the verdict be?​

This question came via DM on social media from somebody calling themselves ‘Bert’, and I can only assume they are a Manchester City fan. They said they know I hate City (not actually true) but they would be interested in my opinion about whether City will be found guilty and punished in the “115 case”, where closing arguments were heard last Friday.

As I have repeatedly written, and said, I have zero confidence in any prediction, and I think the outcome could range from City effectively being cleared of all charges to City being found guilty of many, but not all. Which means potential punishments ranging from a fine (for non-cooperation with the Premier League probe, which we know is a slam dunk, albeit a minor one) to a points reduction big enough to relegate them.

I honestly cannot say with any confidence which of these outcomes will happen.

For new readers or those who haven’t kept abreast of developments, you might be interested in pieces from recent months about new details of City’s financial chicanery over the years, or how City have tried to shape the 115 narrative with the help of client journalists, and how we got here in the first place as the 10-week independent commission began.

As for my best prediction on the outcome: I have no inside knowledge of what has happened at the commission hearings. I don’t know the full list of witnesses or what they said. I assume City will have used similar tactics they used when getting a two-year Champions League ban overturned at CAS in 2020. They obviously will not have provided information that would incriminate themselves, and instead left it to the Premier League to prove the most significant charges, of disguised investment.

I don’t believe the Premier League will have had any jurisdiction to access financial records of Etihad’s income. So even if City produce records showing Etihad did indeed pay for City sponsorships, there won’t be any ability to see if Etihad did so after having been funded to do so by a UAE government source.

The Mancini and Yaya Toure payments look damning as far as the leaked emails show (links to all documents in pieces linked above), but again there is an element of subjectivity involved.

I don’t think there is any doubt at all that City have failed to co-operate with the Premier League. A High Court judge made this abundantly clear in 2021 when myself and colleagues from the MoS, assisted by a QC, effectively won the right to report on City’s dawdling.

I think it’s important to understand that City have already been caught and punished, twice, for breaking various UEFA and Premier League financial rules. It is abundantly clear what they did. We have been writing about it, with evidence, for a decade.

But I’m not confident the Premier League will have delivered the burden of proof required. I think City will be punished, certainly with a fine, probably with some points deductions. Am I confident they will be hit with sanctions that will relegate them? No.
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So we are guilty, not quite sure what of, and we may or may not be punished as it’s hard to prove that we may or may not have broken any rules apart from being arsey with our email replies to the investigators
 
bobbyowenquiff said:
I see Harris still believes City were "caught and punished" for financial breaches on two occasions. I presume he is referring to the 2013 settlement we made with UEFA (with no admission of liability) and has conveniently ignored the fact that we were cleared of the second UEFA allegations by CAS. In the second instance we deliberately and publically withdrew co-operation with UEFA because of their naked corrupion in leaking information to the media. CAS reduced the UEFA non-operation fine to just £10m. So just the usual tissue of lies from the man who says he "doesn't hate City."
Click to expand...

Indeed. He also flagrantly misrepresents the nature of the most serious 'charge', disguised investment. The point isn't whether Etihad received government funding to fulfil its monetary obligations to MCFC, as Etihad is a government-owned asset in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and there's nothing wrong with a business receiving shareholder funding. The allegation is whether ADUG channeled money to Etihad to be remitted back to MCFC in disguised form.

He's also confused about which public authority is involved here. He refers to a "UAE government source", when in fact documents in the Open Skies case in the USA indicated that money came from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. This is roughly equivalent to mixing up the government of the state of California and the US federal government. The bloke's an idiot and a fraud, and yet there are still people who are so desperate to believe what he says that they ignore the blatant errors.
 
Toranaga sama said:
Well, this is from our dearest friend Mr Nick Harris. Interesting read though. Seems like he's not that confident. I wonder what changed lately....?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Man City - what will the verdict be?​


I think it’s important to understand that City have already been caught and punished, twice, for breaking various UEFA and Premier League financial rules. It is abundantly clear what they did. We have been writing about it, with evidence, for a decade.
Click to expand...
Can't be that important if he can't report it truthfully.
 
slbsn said:
Little special about being "caught and punished" - a few others off the top of my head:

  • Paris Saint-Germain
  • Manchester United
  • Chelsea
  • FC Barcelona
  • AC Milan
  • Inter Milan
  • AS Roma
  • Juventus
  • AS Monaco
  • Olympique de Marseille
  • Sporting CP
  • FC Porto
  • Real Betis
  • Dinamo Zagreb
  • Fenerbahçe
  • Trabzonspor
  • Beşiktaş JK
  • AEK Athens FC
Click to expand...
They got punished and Liverpool built a stadium haha.
 
slbsn said:
Little special about being "caught and punished" - a few others off the top of my head:

  • Paris Saint-Germain
  • Manchester United
  • Chelsea
  • FC Barcelona
  • AC Milan
  • Inter Milan
  • AS Roma
  • Juventus
  • AS Monaco
  • Olympique de Marseille
  • Sporting CP
  • FC Porto
  • Real Betis
  • Dinamo Zagreb
  • Fenerbahçe
  • Trabzonspor
  • Beşiktaş JK
  • AEK Athens FC
Click to expand...
Is that the new European Super League?
 
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