Manchester City* - 130 charges (and counting...)

Domestic competitions would have stayed as they were and it would just be replacing the CL.

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I think that is very much up for debate.

They are still transparently inflating their income.

The thing is that to bring in the kind of money City claim, you need a global fanbase to leverage, either in terms of direct income through merchandise or the money you can screw out of sponsors. They just donā€™t have it.

The premier league is the richest league in the world and Cityā€™s unique contribution to that is unlikely to contribute that much. In contrast, the selling point is the top to bottom competitiveness of the league. Regardless of whether that is true, it is what the marketing sells. Narratives are difficult to shift once they are in place, but how many more titles can city stroll to before people stop buying it and turn over to Serie A?

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Itā€™s primarily to do with salary caps and reverse drafts both of which work well in a closed single division found across those sports. Football doesnā€™t operate like that, unless we move to a closed shop super league.

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And whatever amount is legitimate is insecure. Their fan base are star fuckers, not fans of the club. If their penalties result in a player exodus and Halaand, De Bruyne and Grealish get replaced by a bunch of cheap average swedes, is anyone tuning in to watch them or buy their shit?

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I understand your point, but
:rofl:
We are further away from that than ever. Kicking Abu Dhabi really hard, to the point of making them lose their dominance, would go a long way indeed.

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That is likely why the stakeholders other than the clubs impacted by it may finally be seeing the need to take action. This year we have finally started seeing discussions in the media entities who make money covering it about the lack of competitiveness in the league. This is the first time in my life this issue has been raised in these areas.

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Cityā€™s money buys more than players or expensive lawyers.
Its not beyond the imagination to think they donā€™t buy people as well

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If Man City had a poor season does anyone expect they would appear on Sky and BT into March and April.

There is your difference between us, Man Utd and them. We could be mid table and we will be picked 8 times out of 10.

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Is true. If Iā€™d really wanted to I could have watched every single game of ours and United for this season live on my subscription be that Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup and Premier League. By comparison, not every City game was live and Chelsea have fallen off the viewing completely. Not sure about Arsenal.

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Re: EPL teams looking for compensation if Man City are found guilty

was any compensation paid in the Italian league when Juve, Milan, Lazio etc were all found guilty of match fixing?

anyone know?

No, a Court of Appeal rejected claims relating to 2004-05. I believe it related to the fact that after the Calciopoli Bis affair, no club in Serie A had clean hands

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Chelseaā€™s two should be asterisked- Abramovich was just the precursor to the oil states.

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The biggest problem is that they are tackling the 115 charges in one go.

The simple act of obstruction is sufficient to dock points.

League is fully within its rights to dock them 20 points every season until they open up their books. A minimum expectation for all PL clubs.

Separately they should be investigating if the books are fraudulent. Which will take years.

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If they did 10 charges a season over the next 12 seasons that would be nice. City starting every season on -20 points would be lovely

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:speaking_head:Kevin De Bruyne: ā€œWhen I was 14, I left my parents to join Genk training center. The first year I ended up in a large boarding school, where you sleep with everyone.

Fortunately, in the second year, I was with a host family. But things went differently than planned. Iā€™m someone who is fine on my own, Iā€™m kind of shy. I thought everything was fine, at the end of the year, everything was going well. My foster parents never had to go to school for problems, academic or disciplinary.

I said goodbye to them without knowing what was going to happen. Then one day I came home and my parents were sad, they were crying, I asked, ā€˜Whatā€™s wrong?ā€™, And there they told me that my host family didnā€™t want more of me. I asked them why and they said it was ā€˜because of who you areā€™. I did not understand.

ā€˜You are difficult to pin down, you are very calm. You have trouble interacting with the other children. They find you difficult.ā€™

Itā€™s not nice to hear that when youā€™re 15 or 16. That day, I kicked the ball against a wall for hours. I told myself that everything was going to be fine and that in a few months, I would be in the first team, and that I would no longer experience failure.

When I came back after the summer, I was in the B team and I told my parents that in two months I will be in the first team. I trained like crazy, I had fire in me. It was as if I had gone mad. I remember we were playing on a Friday night, I was a substitute. I came on in the second half and I scored five goals. That day changed my history in the club and I joined the first team.ā€

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Heā€™s still a cunt for taking bloodstained Abu Dhabi money.

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Iā€™m seriously liking your thinking. Punishment could be ramped up over time.