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

Were the Everton charges handled by an independent panel like City are being? Just trying to understand how consistent they will be knowing the sheer quantity of charges City are facing, much of them for refusing to show transparency in their accounting.

I’m with @Arminius that this looks like a really smart move to get this out ahead of any City ruling. My fear will always be that an independent panel will take an easy out (or just be paid out by City) and the Everton ruling makes that a tad more difficult.

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I totally have a girlfriend but you don’t know her because she goes to another school.

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John Wayne Gacy gave me his word that he never raped, tortured and killed anyone. What more evidence do you need of innocence?

The Benjamin Netanyahu seal of approval.

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5 points per season deduction for the previous 15 years please with any retrospective trophies awarded to the teams who get finished #2 instead

I remember a time , not that long ago , that City supporters were widely considered to be a decent lot. It’s funny what a bit of success can do to people.

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Fixed for accuracy

I have a friend who has supported City since the 70s. I get the impression that he was happier when they were plucky underdogs rather than having to justify funny money.

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In all seriousness , does anyone think that City are looking at a punishment similar to Everton ?

Will be a lot worse in my opinion

Everton was for issues relating to 1 or 2 seasons. City has been cooking the books for 10 seasons.

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No. They’ll bribe their way out of it.

The nearest parallels I could think of are Rangers and Juventus, but in both those cases it was unlikely that other clubs would be involved.

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Blood doping

I’m hopeful. The Everton ruling sets a standard, a milestone for want of a better word. So that standard needs to be applied across 115 charges and combined with the utter contempt they have shown towards the rules, being cooperative and the fact that it is has been a plan that has been in operation since day 1 of their ownership.

If I had my way they would be relegated to the bottom of the pyramid with supplemental punishment where it would take an equal amount of time for them to climb back to the PL as they have been owners. I’d also look at seeing what could be done to remove their ownership of the club, or prevent them managing it.

Rangers had it easy compared to what I want to happen to this lot. They need to be lost for a generation imo.

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My fear is Man City will be hit with something like a 30-40 point sanction, and a transfer ban for a window or two, and that’s it.

They will stockpile further before the transfer ban hits, and the points deduction won’t be enough for them to drop out of the Prem, and they will only miss a season in Europe.

The Prem will say it was the biggest punishment in history, but it will be tiny compared to what it should be.

A just punishment would see titles stripped, and a reset to the bottom of the pyramid, not just one level down. They cheated over many years. It should take them years to get back to the Prem.

Edit:
Moving forward, the Prem should also have all books independently verified for any transgressors, at their expense. The accounts submitted should not be taken as fair, full or accurate, but instead, a specialist team of forensic accountants need to be satisfied with all financial reporting. This last part needs to be a requirement for all financial cheats.

Non cooperation will be punished instantly, rather than being stalled and argued over for years.

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Annoyingly, it is not just the new plastic fans either. A lot of the old school Colin Bell/Paul Lake era fans are just as in the tank and bitter

My dad was definitely like that for a period. He enjoyed the early period with lack of foresight for what it inevitably meant. He soon hit a point though of thinking it was all pointless, like playing a game on a cheat code, but that didnt last long. I think probably somewhere around the beginning of the Klopp era he went full in the tank. Bitter, hostile to everyone who wasn’t bowing down to Pep or had the temerity to try to win against them.

I think for him it was maybe a social media thing, and I think that is pretty instructive in general as an indication of what modern football fandom is now. It’s just as much about getting on twitter and calling the fans of rival clubs cunts as it is watching your games. The irony is we live in a time when football has never been more televised than it is now and yet it still isnt the core activity around what a large group fans most associate with.

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I’ve never really understood that mentality. It’s like when your club wins a trophy and you get the “are you watching <-insert name of rival->” chant.

I mean if we win something I couldn’t give a toss about any other team because I’m too wrapped up in the moment.

Football is far more enjoyable without that toxic fan culture.

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As mentioned above, if The Cheaters get say a 30points deduction (fingers crossed), it will transpire as nothing more than a short-term hit. It is not going to see them get relegated and they miss out on Europe for a season because of it… but season after it will be back to normal.
Would be better if they were deducted 10points a season for 3 consecutive seasons… for this would have better chance of depriving them from challenging for the PL for this duration.
They need hammering, and their achievements to date need for ever to have the stain of ‘Cheats’ attached for the footballing world to see. Not just present day fans, but this stigma should remain on record for the decades of fans yet to be

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They aren’t going to be relegated back to the Stone Age. The most that will realistically happen is a major points deduction that leaves them outside the CL places, and stripping them of titles (if the PL wants to try to set that precedent).

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how many points deduction in your opinion?

and for how many seasons?

for me 10 - 20 points would still give them a chance at champs league qualification,
and for 1 season would’nt be enough

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That would depend completely on whether the PL takes the action of points deduction (and therefore at best relegation to the First Division), or full blown expulsion from the PL.

I realise that would be quite a measure to take, and I don’t know if such an action would require unanimous ratification from clubs (NCU would block it) or if it’s an action that can be taken directly from the top, but expulsion would mean all the leagues below would effectively get to decide to include them or not, which certainly wouldn’t be guaranteed.

That’s at least my understanding of it.

In any case, as much as I like the idea that this option is being considered, I think the likeliest is that a massive points deduction, hopefully the full 114 possible points, and being stripped of every title in those years they have been found to have broken the rules, is the action taken.

The latter is what will be the deterring factor for clubs like NCU and the Boehly Globetrotters so I don’t think it will be skipped over.

In fact, after the Everton decision, the above is my minimum expectation.