This is so important. Russian money, cheating, and state funds have changed football for ever. Now £50m buys you an average player.
If I was a Liverpool supporting lawyer it KC I would give my time for free to sue those cnuts and send them into financial ruin.
I’m not arsed about being awarded the league titles we missed out on, and that option probably won’t even be discussed at the sanctions meeting.
What I do want is their titles stripped so the title winners list looks like the Serie A list.
Also for the punishment to go full blown Rangers esque.
I won’t be holding my breath for a punishment anywhere near that severe though, but the hope feels good right now.
You could maybe argue that domestically at a huge push. But internationally there’s no one who replaces their immediate appeal, especially in the areas where PL interest is growing fastest.
It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens but i think any talk of expelling them from the league or fining them £1b to be distributed amongst other clubs completely fanciful. I highly doubt the initial punishment is at that kind of level and by the time they’ve appealed it the punishment will be even less.
I think the really interesting thing here is how their behaviour stacks up against the owners fit and proper persons test for owners and directors. Surely cheating and then refusing to cooperate with the investigation contravenes some parts of that.
To a degree I get regular City fans cry arsing about the rules only changing once they came on board. But I despair with how many pros and other people with a platform giving validation to that being an unfair thing. A major club being bought by a SWF with the express goal using spending unlimited money to win things and use that to acquire geopolitical influence is a whole new ball game. Just because you can criticize the prem and the wider authorities for being slow to understand the detablilizing effect of an owner like Abramovic doesnt mean we should be locked into having no rules to address this.
FFP was never about Fair Play (a great example of how the public messaging from footballing orgs is dreadful). It was about financial stability, and not even for the individual clubs but the the system as a whole. The fact one or two clubs at the top had owners who could afford it is not a counter to the actual argument being made for why some sort of spending rules were required.
I know there has been a change of political parties since the investigation started, but I’ve believed from day one that some department from within government will be attempting to influence the end result, ie level of punishment, with a view to preserving/limiting damage to UK/UAE relations.
That’s my main reason for believing the sanction will be far less severe than they should be.
I’m just not sure UAE hold the leverage now that they had in the past.
Beyond football, the UAE have invested a LOT in manchester. Lots of pet projects of local politicians, including those of the new PM, only went forward because of Abu Dhabi funding. The influence peddling is extensive and transparent. I think the concern though is less politicians have been bought, but more now the concern of what happens to the local economy if they get the hump and pull out of the area.
Sure. But I think the leverage has gone now especially with UAE needing weapon sales and others from the UK.
Back then , that was more in favour of the UAE and the gulf states. Right now , I do believe that particular leverage isn’t there.
As far as what limie says about the investment in greater Manchester area that the city group has been responsible for , I do believe that it will be a sticking point.
Has any politician who represents the area where majority of Manchester City comes from in Manchester made a statement now ? After the findings ?
Burnham is unusually silent - or maybe there are no votes in it. Can he tax it?
So?
What happens when a company is found to have been defrauding other companies at an industrial scale? You let them off the hook just because the majority shareholders in that company also have investments in the nearby area and they threaten to pull those investments if they are found guilty and the perpetrating company is given a liquidation order?
You’re telling me that the people who profited off City’s “meteoric rise” had no idea whatsoever about the shitfuckery they were upto all these years?
Really?
Three words
Aiding and abetting.
Not even! It wasn’t enough for Sarr.
Hell , the heretofore unproven Jacques cost £60M!
You can directly point at the Abramovich Chelsea, the Abu Dhabi Citeh, and the Qatari PSG for that.
Can you revoke someone’s fit-and-proper certification after a certain scenario?
See the Durham video above.
Banging on about the cartel and the rules being anti-competitive.
Fucking laughable.
Wow.
City fucking off into a league of their own sounds wonderful, actually.
Was enough for me to refrain reading the rest of the discourse.
Fair play to Hughes and the scouting department though, he looks the absolute nuts.
What discourse? It was the mad thrashing about of someone who knows they are in existential crisis. Anything and everything they say will be delusional. The only thing they should do is to shut the fuck up and stay that way.
Way too early
Ta
