Let's All Laugh At... Lets all laugh at Man City

[beats1]

I'm certainly no expert on either the PL rules or the Law.

Correct Sheffield United were awarded £30m in an FA Arbitration over Tevez so perhaps, as you say, that is the agreed process for disputes between clubs.

That's a separate point however.

My understanding of the allegations is that players and staff have been paid for their work in the UK (or compensation for terminated Contracts), but paid offshore. Particularly Mancini.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Surely IF that's is the case, then it then becomes a criminal matter of Tax avoidance and Fraud.

Players, Agents, Staff, and Company Directors would then be accountable and obligated to submit evidence under penalty of perjury.

So I'm interested to see what evidence eventually comes out.

With our current government that just sounds like an honest mistake, so it wont result in anything

 

[Trotter]

This is how they reason. They can't fathom the difference between football and other business industries.

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I have some sympathy for that view, football has never been a level playing field, the richest teams have more often that not always been at/very near the top of the league since football started, not just in this country but everywhere. And doesn’t just happen in top divisions, owners all the way down pyramid pump in money, chasing the dream

Is what they are doing different to what Jack Walker did ? Sure the sums involved are a lot more, but the theory isn’t, only difference now is that rules are in place to make it a more level playing field now that the sums involved and the amounts some owners are willing to put in are astronomical.
What other business stops an owner ploughing in money to the company as they see fit ?

However the rules are there, they have obviously broken them (whether legally broken waits to be seen, but certainly in the spirit they were written) and should be harshly punished if found guilty.

 

[Joe Bjorn Hotspur]

With all this coming out, no surprise at all, will this be yet another case of City get away with it again. Also, perhaps a reason why other potential oil state owners who’ve been rumoured to be interested in stakes or ownerships of Spurs or Liverpool are waiting to see how this one will go.

I’ve been very sceptical of our owners for years just not as fully passionate as those who are full on with getting ENIC / Levy out. I feel as long as they sell up in a responsible fashion fair enough but defo no rush when you look at the bigger picture. When looking at City, Newcastle (not even put in a full cheat code yet) and Chelsea this is all plastic: deep down you know what you are. I’m proud to be Spurs and the identity we have in comparison to those three. With what Chelsea and City are doing there simply needs to be proper reform rather than a slap on wrist to a billionaire who will just pay UEFA or the FA what they see as chicken feed.

 

[lottie222]

Forgive me for asking but there are a lot of pages to this thread already, but has anyone worked out how much their potential cheating has cost Spurs.

I think we finished fith in the league four times when we would have qualified for the Champions League, and then there was the drop into the third tier Uefa competition when we would have got Europa league, added to that a potential lost place most seasons in the Premier and the cost to us probably runs into the tens of millions

 

[GMI]

Forgive me for asking but there are a lot of pages to this thread already, but has anyone worked out how much their potential cheating has cost Spurs.

I think we finished fith in the league four times when we would have qualified for the Champions League, and then there was the drop into the third tier Uefa competition when we would have got Europa league, added to that a potential lost place most seasons in the Premier and the cost to us probably runs into the tens of millions

We’d also have a League Cup Trophy to our name.

 

[beats1]

That was Aguerooooooo and their first title.

Can you please not mention that year, its a rough period for some of us

We would have gone 2 points off City and Utd had we beaten them and tbh, if we got a striker earlier in the window, I think we could have

This was the start of the window

Spoiler alert: We gave Modric, VDV, Bale, King and Lennon, Louis Saha to feed, after having an amazing goalscoring record that season of 1 goal in 18 games

 

[Harrier]

City fans can bleat all they like, but if they’re found guilty I hope they throw the book at them!

If you’re deliberately flouting rules specifically set up to allow fairer competition, then it’s cheating plain and simple.

I don’t see it’s much different to Lance Armstrong, just involving cash doping to gain an advantage, as opposed to blood doping!

 

[neogenisis]

City fans can bleat all they like, but if they’re found guilty I hope they throw the book at them!

If you’re deliberately flouting rules specifically set up to allow fairer competition, then it’s cheating plain and simple.

I don’t see it’s much different to Lance Armstrong, just involving cash doping to gain an advantage, as opposed to blood doping!

Fair amount of City fans are saying *if* they are found guilty then they should have the book thrown at them.

 

[joey55]

If the charges are upheld, then it can't be a simple releagtion as punishment. They've destroyed close to a decade of football. It's not just about league titles, but European places and relagation over several seasons. They should be banned from the football league and have to start again. They could come back as AFC Manchester or The City of Manchester Football Club.

 

[Trix]

I have some sympathy for that view, football has never been a level playing field, the richest teams have more often that not always been at/very near the top of the league since football started, not just in this country but everywhere. And doesn’t just happen in top divisions, owners all the way down pyramid pump in money, chasing the dream

Is what they are doing different to what Jack Walker did ? Sure the sums involved are a lot more, but the theory isn’t, only difference now is that rules are in place to make it a more level playing field now that the sums involved and the amounts some owners are willing to put in are astronomical.
What other business stops an owner ploughing in money to the company as they see fit ?

However the rules are there, they have obviously broken them (whether legally broken waits to be seen, but certainly in the spirit they were written) and should be harshly punished if found guilty.

The rules are there for two reasons firstly it was necessary to protect fans and to stop clubs going to the wall due to stupid owners feeling the necessity to risk everything to keep up with the richest clubs. The less official reason is as you describe. They were 100% required even if they were implemented badly initially.

 

[rightwayup]

Does the Premier League have the ability to throw City out of the Premier League rather than relegate them on the basis of cheating. Would have thought that difference would mean they would not automatically end up in the Championship. Probably just wishful thinking

 

[Guernman]

It is not a phantom company, it is Al Jazira that allegedly paid the extra monies for the “consultancy work”, and it won’t be for them to prove the work they were being paid for was not consultancy work, would be other way round HMRC would have to prove they were being paid for other stuff than their contracts said and prove that work should be taxable in UK, which will be nigh on impossible as the paper trail supports it.
There is going to be a lot of what we believe versus what can be proved in this case, as getting information of the UAE will just not happen, UEFA sided with what we believe and found them guilty, CAS overturned that saying UEFA don’t have the proof.

Do we have any idea if the players involved actually did turn up each year in the UAE to undertake these consultancy roles?

 

[allatsea]

This is how they reason. They can't fathom the difference between football and other business industries.

View attachment 122333

idiot

 

[SirHarryHotspur]

Does the Premier League have the ability to throw City out of the Premier League rather than relegate them on the basis of cheating. Would have thought that difference would mean they would not automatically end up in the Championship. Probably just wishful thinking

Here's the rule book but not sure if it lists what punishments are available..

https://resources.premierleague.com/premierleague/document/2022/07/19/40085fed-1e9e-4c33-9f14-0bcf57857da2/PL_Handbook_2022-23_DIGITAL_18.07.pdf

 

[Guernman]

We’d also have a League Cup Trophy to our name.

We did come third in a two horse title race, so I reckon we could have found a way to lose a one team final...

 

[McFlash]

If the charges are upheld, then it can't be a simple releagtion as punishment. They've destroyed close to a decade of football. It's not just about league titles, but European places and relagation over several seasons. They should be banned from the football league and have to start again. They could come back as AFC Manchester or The City of Manchester Football Club.

This is the thing that's getting me, it's not just their cheating ways but the ramifications it's had on every Premier League club and beyond.
The ripples from this spread out so wide that it could be a legal nightmare for years because so many clubs could've been affected

 

[Trotter]

Does the Premier League have the ability to throw City out of the Premier League rather than relegate them on the basis of cheating. Would have thought that difference would mean they would not automatically end up in the Championship. Probably just wishful thinking

Technically they can chuck them out of the Premier League, whatever they do has no effect to what the Football League does, EFL could start them in Championship, League 1, League 2 or not accept them at all.
The precedent is Swindon Town in my view who were found guilty of making 35 irregular payments to players in 1990, and dropped from Premier League, initially to the current version of League 2, but instead to League 1 on appeal

 

[neogenisis]

This needs to be done, but jeepers the grenades pin has been pulled and we are waiting for the explosion, the blast area is going to be the really interesting part.

 

[Trotter]

Do we have any idea if the players involved actually did turn up each year in the UAE to undertake these consultancy roles?

Yeah
They did pre and post season over there every year, and did lots of marketing and media stuff whilst out there apparently. Don’t think it can be proved they didn’t, just whether getting a couple of million a year is justifiable, but hard to prove otherwise

 

[TheChosenOne]

We’d also have a League Cup Trophy to our name.

I thought that - then I heard today the Carabao/League Cup is in the Football League's domain, nothing to do with the PL.

Sadly. But then again Arsenal would have got 2 of those.