Have to say, I think there's a lot of very high-quality stuff on The Athletic that you wouldn't get elsewhere and I'm happy to keep going with my subscription. I think Sam Lee isn't bad as a City reporter, but you can tell he doesn't have the passion for the club he's covering that many of their club correspondents have who are fans of their dedicated teams. This piece, however, is a bit disappointing, even if thme news it purports to break is welcome if true.
I'd single out this line:
The whole point is that Der Spiegel strongly pursued the line that the above was the truth but the evidence presented in support of that proposition was ambiguous and fell a long way short of meeting any standard of proof based on which meaningful sanctions could be applied to City. That doesn't necessarily mean that evidence meeting the required standrad of proof doesn't exist, but one would presume that Der Spiegel would have printed it if they had any.
So if UEFA have been relying on the Der Spiegel materials alone, they were always going to find it difficult to make a hard punishment stick. If, in covering this issue, The Athletic were to produce reporting that lives up to their own billing of their outlet, that would have been made clear in the article. That it hasn't been is shoddy.
I'd single out this line:
According to Der Spiegel, City had lied about the true source of millions of pounds’ worth of sponsorship income and hidden various costs that should have been factored into their FFP calculation.
The whole point is that Der Spiegel strongly pursued the line that the above was the truth but the evidence presented in support of that proposition was ambiguous and fell a long way short of meeting any standard of proof based on which meaningful sanctions could be applied to City. That doesn't necessarily mean that evidence meeting the required standrad of proof doesn't exist, but one would presume that Der Spiegel would have printed it if they had any.
So if UEFA have been relying on the Der Spiegel materials alone, they were always going to find it difficult to make a hard punishment stick. If, in covering this issue, The Athletic were to produce reporting that lives up to their own billing of their outlet, that would have been made clear in the article. That it hasn't been is shoddy.