I don't expect any major punishment... But Premier League could really throw a warning here to any foreign owners trying to buy the league (Newcastle's Saudis, Qatar, etc) that rules will be followed or severe punishments. Kicking City to the Championship and not allowing them promotion for five years would send a clear message. Instead I expect a small Fine and something negligible, like a one time ten point Penalty... But they will protest and get the point Penalty removed.
The PL will want to be seen to be doing something even though we all know they don't really care that the rules have been broken. I expect ciity will be given a small fine.
can the premier league actually do anything bar strip them of Premier league titles or expel them? every league Cup is efl ran and fa cup is well.. obvious.
Pep said he trusted the club was telling the truth when the previous allegations were made and he said he would walk if he was being lied to. 100 further allegations suggest he was being lied to. You talked the talk Pep….
he will claim its all lies on the Premier leagues part. the only lie city have told that man is that their financial arrangement would never become public.
I said the same when the story broke. Having read up a bit about it, the only thing that makes me think something serious will be done this time is that the PL have persisted and hounded City for 4 years over this investigation. The statement they made is pretty damning and the figure of 100+ incidents of breaches. IF, after all that, City get found guilt of breaching even some of those, and the PL don't throw the book at them.... well just how piss poor weak and undermined would the PL look? I think that might be the only argument for having some faith something will be done this time.
the der speigel story broke in 2018. it has forced all of this. nobody ever sued them and won. that tells it all. it was 2019 that uefa actually started getting their act together and it seems at some point the Premier league started then as well. in May 2019 City said exactly the same about uefa. they were "disappointed" the same defense has been used. deflect, deny, obstruct. City then sued uefa to block their case, claimed damages and all sorts. in 2020 uefa dropped the 2 year European ban on City who then appealed and won. it begs the question exactly what the **** the prem has been doing for 3 years including enabling City win the first ever domestic Treble.
Everyone seems to forget that uefa actually found them guilty and the only reason they got off, was because it was time sensitive. It went over the 5 year period. Prem doesn’t have those rules. it also states that it doesn’t matter how the info comes about so even though it may be from hacked docs, they Pl can use it. Now I’m not sure how that would stand up if city appealed as general law makes anything illegal obtained admissible in court? The fact they were still fined even after going to cas shows that they were clearly guilty of something!
It's important to note that very little of this case is actually aimed at City breaking FFP rules. It's mainly three things - The fact they were dodgy with their revenue (i.e. sponsorship deals) The fact they hid total payments made to a manager and players. The fact they wouldn't cooperate and assist with the PL's investigation e.g. providing relevant documentation. Now I appreciate that this was ALL indirectly done by City to mask the fact they were breaking FFP rules, but it's not actually about the breaking of those rules. Before anyone points out that there is a charge of breaking FFP also in there. Yeh there is BUT if it weren't for those 3 charges above, the FFP charge would've been totally ignored after the UEFAA case was overturned. In short, what I'm saying is had City just openly flouted FFP without trying to use illegal means to do so, they would've got away with it because let's face it - the FFP rules themselves are completely toothless.
But the reason they didn’t break ffp is because they overinflated their income and under reported their outgoings. Now who knows if they added another 10m a year in manager wages onto their outgoings and removed X amount from fake and overinflated sponsors whether they would have actually broken ffp
No I agree with all that. But these charges are precisely about the cover up that you mention, and little to do with the actual breaking of FFP. It's akin to the FBI going after Capone for tax fraud rather than bootlegging and murder charges.
As fast I can tell the timing seems to be because there's a review about government or independent regulation coming up and the PL wants to be seen to be doing something so that they can say they can regulate themselves. I don't think they have any real interest in pursuing Man City otherwise this would have happened much quicker. One thing that gives me slight hope is that apparently they can't appeal to CAS this time.
I get the point you're making, but you can't say it's nothing to do with FFP, it's just a different part of the rules they're breaking. Speaking of tax fraud, it's more like people hiding profits to reduce the tax bill rather than openly not paying the rate of tax due. The intent is still the same.
which is why I didn't I agree about your tax analogy. The difference being that if someone openly doesn't pay the tax due, the HMRC actually does something about it. The hiding of it is part of that. The PL don't do anything about breaking FFP, but will use the hiding of it as their main form of attack. I still think this will do little to put off clubs from breaking FFP. All they'll do is stop hiding it... or find better ways of hiding it.
City already have. highest revenues of any club on the planet. clubs with actual global support are now far behind their fake sponsorships. as each one is signed off on the gap increases. as in when a fake betting company with no app, offices etc turns in with 50mil or whatever alarm bells should be ringing somewhere.
