PL charge City for alleged breaches of financial rules

I'm afraid of that too. Can they stretch this out as long as they want? I don't know, but that's the way they have worked so far. It's so obviously a trial by media that they want playing out.

One way of doing that would be to throw the book at us and force it to go to court, whilst at the same time painting a media picture of City being the cause.

But I know nothing except how dirty and hard the PL are playing this.

There is effectively no chance this is going to a court setting.
 
I live in Stoke and I've heard this constantly too. The belief is just that we'll get a slap on the wrist or they'll pay off the panel. Or they're already dividing up trophies between Arsenal, Utd and Liverpool.

There's no universe in which we actually won our trophies on the pitch or that we could be innocent.
I’m in Perth, Oz, and I constantly have a Scottish rag at our footy club harping on about the charges. He knows fuck all about it but it’s all he’s got. Always brings it up over a drink after training, every so often I engage him in front of everyone and you can see it sinking in with everyone except him.
 
The sub stack is an excellent read and clearly lays out the difficulties in proving these allegations.
One question does spring to mind though. Assuming there’s no ‘smoking gun’ for want of a better phrase, why would the PL lawyers have allowed it to go this far and, presumably, should the PL fail whilst blowing an enormous amount of cash, they will be looking for new representation?

Imho, it is the PL and their internal lawyers who decide how to proceed. External lawyers can only make recommendations and suggest scenarios. If they have acted poorly in the hearing, of course, that is a different matter.

As for why the PL proceeded with the allegations, I have previously posited why that may be, and why they didn't actually have much of a choice. May all be bollocks, of course.
 
That while City have put a huge amount of pressure on the panel to only accept proof, much like they did with CAS, the panel is not bound to follow the burden of proof, but a court of Law does.
So what reason does the cartel have to end this now, when it can get another 5 years of defamation in, it is not as though they are going to pay for it, as they will spread the cost right down to school football.
Your missing the point the panel cannot find city guilty based on us not proving our innocence they the premier league still have to prove guilt to the panel all be it to a lower level of proof then a court
 
Here's an example of how this shit impinges on normal life. I'm in a walking football club in the Midlands. Supporters of West Ham, villa, Southampton, wolves, Coventry and, of course, united, liverpool, spurs and arse.

A few weeks ago a liverpool supporter posted some shit about us cheating. I ignored it until the pile-on started when I just said "please fuck off with this shit". Well, of course, the scouser was all offended and I got a load of shit for being over sensitive. Anyway, it blows over.

Last night was the Christmas curry. I'm minding my own business talking football, price of replica shirts, admission, the future of football all perfectly amicable. Then an Arsenal fan chimes in, "I'm really enjoying watching City crash and burn". Now what do you say to that ?

As it's the season of goodwill, I was very polite and pointed out that I'd seen us win four in a row, win a treble, score a record number of goals and win a record number of points, seen Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne and Rodri at their peak, I can die happy. He then came out with a comment about cheating at which point I told him to fuck right off and it very nearly came to blows. It cast a cloud over the whole evening.

I should point out that not once did that bloke ever engage me in conversation to say something about the quality of football we were playing in our pomp, nor any word of praise. They are emboldened to think their opinion matters by the relentless negative press coverage.
I get it all the time mate. Doesn’t matter if it’s Arsenal, Villa, Brighton or Palace. I’ve spent the better part of 15 years promoting office harmony and not rocking friends’ boats, by saying next to nothing as City have systematically thrashed their teams over and over again. Once in a Blue Moon however, City have had an off day and lost. Did those individuals I soft pedalled for years, respond in kind? Did they fuck. Straight in with the snide digs, passive/aggressives, references to cheating etc. I’ve even had people I half know, find out my number from mutual friends, just to send me some exhausting piece of banter or other. I’ve had to ditch 2 acquaintances on Facebook for it (1 x Liverpool, 1x Arsenal), a 3rd (Brighton) has come mighty close and a 4th would have gone the same way, but for the fact he’s a relative and it would cause too much agg.
As to wearing City gear, I’ve had people shouting at me from passing cars and two individuals (one in an Arsenal top) audibly, and very deliberately, say “fucking cheats” as they’ve walked past me in the local Sainsbury’s. Both of the latter, I told to fuck off, without there being further incident, but the time will probably come when one feels emboldened to call my bluff.
I’m utterly fucking sick of the whole saga. There’s some on here, who seem to relish the prospect of 115 related relegation. I’m not one of them and in fact I dread it, cos the shit that will come our way (as Blues) will be fucking relentless, and my hatred of those fanning the flames in the media for clicks - and we all know who I’m talking about - is absolute. We simply have to win……
 
I’m in Perth, Oz, and I constantly have a Scottish rag at our footy club harping on about the charges. He knows fuck all about it but it’s all he’s got. Always brings it up over a drink after training, every so often I engage him in front of everyone and you can see it sinking in with everyone except him.

My favourite is to ask people when the charges are from and what they're specifically for.

Surprisingly, the level of independent research falls off at that point.
 
The sub stack is an excellent read and clearly lays out the difficulties in proving these allegations.
One question does spring to mind though. Assuming there’s no ‘smoking gun’ for want of a better phrase, why would the PL lawyers have allowed it to go this far and, presumably, should the PL fail whilst blowing an enormous amount of cash, they will be looking for new representation?
One side regularly loses cases they think they can win. Unfortunately, that does also apply to City.
 
Congrats @slbsn

Stefan's battle with Nick Harris was the most listened to episode in 2024 on the excellent Unofficial Partner podcast (a very popular Business of Sport pod). It gets very feisty about half way through. Brilliant stuff :)

"The Wrap UP of 2024

We published 84 podcasts in 2024 listened to in 154 countries.

Here are the top 12:


1.​


For those of you who have an hour to waste this is well worth listening to.
 

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