PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

[Alan Harper's Tash]

If City are cleared of the breaches they will not accept any "guilty" verdicts on non cooperation. Khaldoon told me this, and every other supporter when he said "we will take the pinch this time." He also told me and every other supporter, he would rather spend £30 million on lawyers for the next ten years than take another pinch. Khaldoon is leading the fight against this injustice and in my opinion, will not accept anything other than a complete climb down from the PL if he succeeds with the IC. Khaldoon will go in with no mercy if he wins. Beneath that smiley front I feel there is a man of steel and honour. We are lucky to have such a man as our chairman.

He said that before CAS though, didn’t he? Seems like a decade ago. Wasn’t it after the first UEFA FFP charges?

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

That might be more related (in some shape or form) to the opposition and a Crystal Palace DJ on Monday night football?

That was my first thought, especially as Chelsea sang it throughout the Second Half at Selhurst Park.

 

[Colin Bell (genuine name)]

We all witnessed after CAS found no evidence to substantiate any charges that our failure to cooperate fully still rendered us cheats and still does to this day.

There is no fucking way that City will be accepting a failure to cooperate charge this time.

 

[bluemanchester]

He said that before CAS though, didn’t he? Seems like a decade ago. Wasn’t it after the first UEFA FFP charges?

Not sure of the date. After observing him for nearly 16 years like most fans, my opinion is he is a man that sticks to his word and his statements are as relevant today as they were then. As a comparison I would say if he was in charge of FFP, when the goal posts were moved after we sent our accounts in, and it was another club they tried to do over he would not have allowed such a move. My opinion only of course.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

We all witnessed after CAS found no evidence to substantiate any charges that our failure to cooperate fully still rendered us cheats and still does to this day.

There is no fucking way that City will be accepting a failure to cooperate charge this time.

We’ll be called cheats whatever the outcome is.

 

[halfcenturyup]

If the charges are dropped there's no way City will accept non co-operation, that would still suggest we were holding something back.

Agreed. In view of the HC judgment and the club saying they have fully cooperated (insofar as they think they have to), I doubt they are in the mood to accept even non-cooperation. I doubt it's like the UEFA case where the club deliberately didn't respond to requests from UEFA.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Not sure of the date. After observing him for nearly 16 years like most fans, my opinion is he is a man that sticks to his word and his statements are as relevant today as they were then. As a comparison I would say if he was in charge of FFP, when the goal posts were moved after we sent our accounts in, and it was another club they tried to do over he would not have allowed such a move. My opinion only of course.

Just checked it and it was 2014 after we were fined and the squad reduced by UEFA.

He's done everything possible to prove our innocence. We took the CAS verdict with good grace, despite the fine for non-cooperation.

Therefore we have a precedent as to what we will accept and what we won’t.

None of us know for sure what the outcome will be and how City will react to a partial victory.

Saying there is no chance that we’d accept a fine for non-cooperation isn’t true though. We might or might not.

All we have is our own opinions. None are wrong at the moment anyway!

 

[dario2739]

I know. I was replying to a post that we might accept a non-cooperation fine, as at CAS.

My post was suggesting that this might be different

I know. I was replying to a post that we might accept a non-cooperation fine, as at CAS.

My post was suggesting that this might be different.

After the PL's refusal to release the minutes of their meeting with the Government... i.e. their non-cooperation, then we should tell them to stick those charges right where the sun don't shine!!!

 

[Didsbury Dave]

That was my first thought, especially as Chelsea sang it throughout the Second Half at Selhurst Park.

Yes, I also suspect that’s what they will have been referring to. It made the news this week.

 

[Chris in London]

As far as I can recall I have not previously posted on this subject.

Speaking solely for myself I will be glad when the matter is finally resolved one way or another, preferably of course in our favour. I would also prefer it to be sooner rather than later. I appreciate however as a former solicitor that for a variety reasons this may not be possible.

At the moment it is a cloud hanging over the club and everything we are achieving on and off the pitch.

If ultimately we are cleared all well and good. If not then those people at the club who put us in this position will have to answer for their wrongdoing and what they have done to the club and it’s fans.

I agree with a lot of what you say, and in a sense what I'm about to say is not aimed at you in particular, it is just a thought that I have been having more and more recently.

I have been working on the assumption that we will be cleared of the most serious charges for reasons discussed at length in this thread.

However the thought that if/when that happens the red-tops and their client journalists will just accept it and go away seems to me to be completely pie in the sky. For as long as the rags, dippers and (to a much lesser extent) Arse and Spuds have friends in the media, we will continue to be hounded, our club belittled, our achievements denigrated.

The cloud, as you put it, that is currently hanging over us will, in other words, be replaced by another one, as sure as eggs are eggs. I don't know what the next cloud will be. If the PL case goes our way, as many of us expect, we might well see a rehash of the 'they got off on a technicality' stance that belittles/ignores the number of times CAS said 'no evidence.' We might see innuendo that we have bought the result. It might be something else completely. But the red-tops will not go away. They know that every small boy who starts supporting City is a future supporter of theirs - and therefore a potential source of income - that they have lost, and so they will keep on going in their attempt to make us the most unpopular club in the league. They can't make us unsuccessful on the pitch. But they can try and make us unpopular off it.

So the way this ends is not that the PL panel acquit us of everything and the anti-City narrative stops. The way this ends is that the media begins to be populated more and more by those who don't remember the glory days of the class of 92 and that magical night in Barcelona, whose formative years featured the Agueroooo goal, the formidables, the real treble winners, the centurions and so forth. (I remember a time when we complained we had no voices in punditland. These days we do. We regularly see Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Shay Given in the media, not to mention Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and izzy Christiansen. That progression will keep going.)

Alternatively, at some point Pep leaves, his replacement is markedly less successful than he is and normal service, as the red tops would have it, is resumed. We stop being a target, in other words, when we stop being such a threat.

Either way, the dirty tricks campaign is likely to continue for many years to come. And make no mistake, the red tops are behind it.

So my advice, and I repeat that this is a reply to you without being aimed at you necessarily, is to buckle down, and get used to that cloud hanging over your head. It's not going away any time soon, and when it does it will just be replaced by another.

And reflect on the fact that as dark as that cloud may seem, that is simply a reflection of the beautiful winning football we see week in week out on the pitch, and the extent to which our success hurts the red-tops to their very core.