Man City charged by Premier League with numerous breaches of financial rules

[Timberwolf]

I'd thoroughly enjoy watching Man City vs. Bolton next season. Back to basics route-one football. Defenders with names straight out of Victorian literature.

Can’t see the Premier League expel one of the PL’s best advertisements. That’d be like chopping your own **** off coz the wife cheated on you. Never going to happen.

 

[justanotherwolf]

They may have been heartened by the recent ECJ ruling on the ESL which essentially gave UEFA the right to set and enforce rules within its competitions. As I suggested in an earlier post on FFP legal challenges, I imagine that limits the legal pathways for clubs to challenge enforcement of any league rules to essentially disproving the charges relative to the rules, rather than challenging the legitimacy of the rules themselves. So City might seek to argue that they’ve acted within the PL rules, but couldn’t challenge the rules themselves. That makes it somewhat easier for the PL to determine whether it thinks it has a solid case or not.

Just to add a slightly pedantic but important distinction, the ECJ has not yet 'ruled' on the UEFA/ESL dispute. All that's been published is an ECJ Advocate General's legal opinion. There's now a set time period when other stakeholders can add their input (e.g. national governments) before ECJ judges will convene and issue their ruling.

While it's unusual for the court to rule against its appointed AG's opinion, it does sometimes happen, particularly when there are vested interests.

We need to wait and see before giving UEFA the victory and ESL total loss...

 

[WickedWolfie]

View attachment 33034

In which case they will almost certainly pursue legal action in the UK Courts....

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

They didn't exactly win at the CAS against UEFA. They were never cleared of any charges. It was only a technicality over time limits for what payments could be looked at that led to their ban being overturned. In addition, from what I can gather any sanctions handed down by the EPL can't be appealed to the CAS so City can't pull that one again. The more this unfolds and the sheer number and weight of charges against them feels like this could actually be quite serious for them. After all, being the biggest club in the country didn't ultimately prove any protection for Rangers or Juventus.

Rangers went into liquidation after being in administration for months nothing to do with FFP
Juventus is still one of the most controversial cases around,including several other teams ,match fixing and referee bribes,all i may add never actually proved, but again nothing to do with FFP and mostly ruled out on the statute of limitations which im sure Man City will cite on a lot of these claims

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Hold on a minute?!? So City spending literally billions may have been dodgy. Why the hell haven't any of us noticed this?? Thank god for these reviewers spotting it.

 

[VancouverWolf]

Wow…..this story was even on the NYTs front page and although the idea of expulsion is delish, it’ll never happen.

Manchester City Charged With Years of Financial Violations​

The Premier League accused City of breaking rules related to revenues, sponsorships and contracts. One potential penalty is expulsion from the league.

Manchester City Charged With Years of Financial Violations (Published 2023)

The Premier League accused City of breaking rules related to revenues, sponsorships and contracts. One potential penalty is expulsion from the league.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Werewolf of Wombourne]

Rangers went into liquidation after being in administration for months nothing to do with FFP
Juventus is still one of the most controversial cases around,including several other teams ,match fixing and referee bribes,all i may add never actually proved, but again nothing to do with FFP and mostly ruled out on the statute of limitations which im sure Man City will cite on a lot of these claims

I wasn’t making a direct comparison between the cases, I was just making the counter point to posters thinking City are too big and powerful to be punished and will only get a derisory fine

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Your probably spot on there with that theory SingYourHeartsOut,. you just know nothing will come of it,

I didn't realise it literally does just start off another process, which will take at least the rest of this season. Apparently the PL doesn't allow appeals to CAS though.

I can't really work out how bad it all is. Paying Mancini more than they said is hardly crime of tbe century and a lot of it is all wrapped up together, not 100 separate offences. However one of the disgusting things is that apparently the commission meets in secret and the evidence is confidential, so nobody will trust the process!

 

[Oldskooldayz]

Will get a transfer embargo and a big ( for most clubs fine) is my guess, don't see the premier league having the balls for a points deduction never mind expelling them from the league

 

[Madmalc]

Premier League could hit Man City with punishment that has impact on Wolves

Latest Wolves news from BirminghamLive takes a look at what the Premier League's charges against Manchester City lead to

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[like a rollingstone]

X

 

[lycophilos]

The PL was created to benefit clubs like Man U and they knew exactly what they were doing.

The most incredible thing is the Turkey's of the likes of Wimbledon, Luton and Coventry were convinced to vote for Christmas. It makes me less sympathetic to the troubles those clubs have had since.

The present AFC Wimbledon are not the former "Wimbledon" which corrupt owners, with the encouragement of the FA turned into the MK Dons.

AFC Wimbledon are a fan-owned club (I own a tiny part of it), which would be surely the ideal for all clubs if we could start professional football over again from scratch. Sadly that horse has long ago bolted the stable, and we (AFCW) cannot expect to do better than to do as best we can in leagues 1 and 2. It is already a remarkable story that we made it as far as League1 for a few seasons. If by any chance we manage to make it into the Championship and higher, it will be a miracle far greater then the rise of the original Wimbledon to the EPL. We do not want, or need, your "sympathy", but neither do we deserve the condemnation apparent in your post.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

All the media seem to be saying that Man City will never get points removed or expelled simply because they're "a big club"
That is very true but had we been up to similar things they wouldn't hesitate and that's why football stinks to high heaven.

 

[AndyWolves]

If the PL.have imposed sanctions on any other PL club, well, if I was one of those PL clubs I'd be watching very closely

 

[stever]

As someone mentioned earlier, we might as well spend 500m and wait for the consequences ten years later. The smell of corruption is rife and the silence is deafening

 

[Bryce]

Oh dear how sad never mind.

Let’s see how this turns out

I’ll get the popcorn

 

[xbomber]

I just don't think they'll find a smoking gun. City have the best accountants, strategists and lawyers because of course they do. That's what money gives you.

If they did find that smoking gun in City's hand though. Big IF. Well it gets interesting then because of course they need to get a precedent don't they, especially with Newcastle agitating towards the top plus goodness knows who else is going to get snapped up by an oligarch or corrupt state? So what are they going to do with that in mind and the proof they need in their hand? Eh?

I'll tell you what - they'll pull down City's keks and give them a big public bottom slapping on their way out of the Premier League.

But like I say, unlikely to happen. Money isn't it?

 

[Contrarian]

Who'd have thought it?

 

[Sedgley Gold N Black]

I just don't think they'll find a smoking gun. City have the best accountants, strategists and lawyers because of course they do. That's what money gives you.

I suspect the PLs legal team won’t be too far behind them.

 

[waggys left foot]

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport

Stakes are high -not content with having unlimited funds they allegedly cheat as well.Newcastle and Chelsea will be watching closely.

 

[Scallywolf]

I can see an H M Revenue and Customs investigation coming next for City.

One of the main charges appears to be a lack of ‘Accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the clubs financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue), it’s related parties and it’s operating costs’.

HMRC will no doubt pick up on that one statement alone as a reason to investigate. They can go back years if they find anything wrong.

Financial accounts contain an Auditors Report stating that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs It appears City’s financial accounts do not give a true and fair view based on the above charge.

Good luck with that as well City!

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Just to mention, one of the reasons a lot of the charges didn't stick at CAS was that the information they were based on was deemed inadmissible as evidence as it was obtained through a hack. However the PL have said they don't have a 'judicial standard of evidence', so the commissioner can decide findings including this information.

I get that the PL won't want to make itself a laughing stock, or potentially cut off a big source of income. However there are 19 clubs with a vested interest in seeing City suffer (including the rest of the Big 6).

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

The present AFC Wimbledon are not the former "Wimbledon" which corrupt owners, with the encouragement of the FA turned into the MK Dons.

AFC Wimbledon are a fan-owned club (I own a tiny part of it), which would be surely the ideal for all clubs if we could start professional football over again from scratch. Sadly that horse has long ago bolted the stable, and we (AFCW) cannot expect to do better than to do as best we can in leagues 1 and 2. It is already a remarkable story that we made it as far as League1 for a few seasons. If by any chance we manage to make it into the Championship and higher, it will be a miracle far greater then the rise of the original Wimbledon to the EPL. We do not want, or need, your "sympathy", but neither do we deserve the condemnation apparent in your post.

The present AFC Wimbledon have far more in common with the 1992 Wimbledon than MK Dons do.

Yes MK Dons are technically the same club as the now defunct Wimbledon FC, but they've distanced themselves from that football club.

The Wimbledon that won the cup in '88 and played at plough lane until '91 is the Wimbledon voted for the Premier League and to pull up the ladder in '92.

Maybe it wouldn't take a miracle for AFC Wimbledon to repeat what Wimbledon FC done if there was a more even distribution of revenue throughout the pyramid, a system Wimbledon '92 voted to cripple for its own ends.

 

[lycophilos]

The present AFC Wimbledon have far more in common with the 1992 Wimbledon than MK Dons do.

Yes MK Dons are technically the same club as the now defunct Wimbledon FC, but they've distanced themselves from that football club.

The Wimbledon that won the cup in '88 and played at plough lane until '91 is the Wimbledon voted for the Premier League and to pull up the ladder in '92.

Maybe it wouldn't take a miracle for AFC Wimbledon to repeat what Wimbledon FC done if there was a more even distribution of revenue throughout the pyramid, a system Wimbledon '92 voted to cripple for its own ends.

MK Dons may have supposedly distanced themselves from the now defunct Wimbledon FC, but financially etc. they are the direct continuation of that club. They are only where they are because of that continuation. They took over the position in the league pyramid which the former Wimbledon FC - the one which voted for the Premier league - occupied, precisely because financially and legally they were the same "club", owned by the same company. The identification is not just "technical".

It is true that almost all the fans of the Wimbledon/MK Dons did not follow the club on their 80 mile move, but instead set up the new AFC - so that in spirit AFC is the true successor to the old defunct Wimbledon. To give MK Dons their due, they have eventually agreed that the footballing achievements of the old Wimbledon, such as the '88 cup win should be transferred to AFC, though they have kept the "Dons" name, which is actually meaningless in the MK context. It's as if Wolves were moved to a city/town a distance away, and retained the name Wolves.

I agree with your last paragraph, although I doubt that a much more even distribution of revenue will ever happen. But the "Wimbledon '92" who voted for the Premier League for its own ends is now MK Dons. And indeed once the former owners, Sam Hammam and his successors, moved the club away from Plough Lane, they immediately started to attempt to move the club out of the Wimbledon area - even once to Dublin, a move supported by the then Wimbledon manager, Joe Kinnear. The move to MK was the last and finally successful bid by the owners to betray the club and its fans, for the sake of their own finances and purposes. As an AFC fan, I will certainly not accept that we are responsible for the actions of Hammam etc., including setting up the Premier League.

 

[wolfslair]

Got away with the euefa stuff with CAS over timing of evidence, they don’t get the same freedom with the premier league to have historical evidence be “timed out”

They could really be in the stink after doing some reading

 

[wolfslair]

We can swap for a couple of tins or tartan paint mate. I’m feeling in a generous mood after the weekend

That would go well with the long weight I was asked to get, but not had time to get to the shops

 

[Howler]

I'm not a fan of the "fair play" rules so if this ends with Citeh taking the whole farce of a system to the courts and getting it abolished then this would be a huge win for everyone. Citeh have no finance problems, the billionaire owner wants to win a professional league and wants to do it with his own money - instead he has to "cook the books" with fake sponsorships to try and get around a system in place which has no evidence of achieving a single positive thing.

There are other ways to keep clubs financially resposible, the fair play rules ain't it - if anything they've made it worse.

 

[VancouverWolf]

I'm not a fan of the "fair play" rules so if this ends with Citeh taking the whole farce of a system to the courts and getting it abolished then this would be a huge win for everyone. Citeh have no finance problems, the billionaire owner wants to win a professional league and wants to do it with his own money - instead he has to "cook the books" with fake sponsorships to try and get around a system in place which has no evidence of achieving a single positive thing.

There are other ways to keep clubs financially resposible, the fair play rules ain't it - if anything they've made it worse.

City doesn’t have “to cook the books” as you put it…….they are supposed to obey the rules. No one is making them cheat. They choose to cheat.
Several years ago Guo put his money in buying Wolves but he had no idea that City were stacking the deck.

 

[Hawkguy]

City doesn’t have “to cook the books” as you put it…….they are supposed to obey the rules. No one is making them cheat. They choose to cheat.
Several years ago Guo put his money in buying Wolves but he had no idea that City were stacking the deck.

Bingo.

I don't know exactly how FFP works, but in North American sports I have always preferred some type of "salary cap." Whether it's a hard cap like the NHL, so all teams are on an equal playing field (aside from local taxes, etc) or it's like Major League Baseball, where you can spend over the cap but are then required to pay a "luxury tax" which is split between teams that didn't exceed the threshold.

 

[Howler]

City doesn’t have “to cook the books” as you put it…….they are supposed to obey the rules. No one is making them cheat. They choose to cheat.
Several years ago Guo put his money in buying Wolves but he had no idea that City were stacking the deck.

There's no stacking the deck.

The intention of the rules are "responsible spending", not evening the playing field. (it's the same few clubs winning everything as we approach 15 seasons of this nonsense) Mansour is worth 20 billion+ and he should have to get outside sponsorships to fund his club over a certain amount to make it appear like Citeh are "self sufficient"? Ridiculous. Should he build a 100,000 seat ghost stadium and buy the remaining tickets every week to "correctly" get around the rules? Farce.

Citeh are not under financial stress, they aren't cheating **** - they're being restricted. (as are many others)

 

[BCWolf]

Bingo.

I don't know exactly how FFP works, but in North American sports I have always preferred some type of "salary cap." Whether it's a hard cap like the NHL, so all teams are on an equal playing field (aside from local taxes, etc) or it's like Major League Baseball, where you can spend over the cap but are then required to pay a "luxury tax" which is split between teams that didn't exceed the threshold.

Its always amused me that in the land of rampant and obese capitalism that the professional sports leagues have a form of socialism while in Europe, where forms of socialism are more accepted, it's practically the opposite. Similarly Muricans pay tax on their lottery winnings while Canada, a mixture of sentiments ranging from European socialism to American libertarianism (Alberta), doesn't.

Anyway, if guilty, I hope Citeh is relegated to the NW Counties League (if that still exists) with games against Skelmersdale and United of Manchester for them to look forward to. If starting again at the bottom was good enough for Rangers and Juventus then its good enough for Citeh.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Relegation for city??

 

[Sedgley Gold N Black]

I'm not a fan of the "fair play" rules so if this ends with Citeh taking the whole farce of a system to the courts and getting it abolished then this would be a huge win for everyone. Citeh have no finance problems, the billionaire owner wants to win a professional league and wants to do it with his own money - instead he has to "cook the books" with fake sponsorships to try and get around a system in place which has no evidence of achieving a single positive thing.

There are other ways to keep clubs financially resposible, the fair play rules ain't it - if anything they've made it worse.

I agree that FFP is restrictive and very much anti fair play but the issue is, that’s been implemented and that is what the clubs have agreed to sign up to.

Clubs have and will try and find loop holes within that but this appears to suggest City have been going beyond loop holes and actively cheating the rules which have constrained others.

There was nothing stopping their owners from repeatedly trying to challenge those rules, they could have thrown significant sums at it, and then once they’d been successful spend as they wished.

 

[wolfslair]

I know it is a different sport, but this is so similar to what Saracens did in rugby. In terms of financially doping to win.

They had multiple England players and were the leading light in European cups for our premiership.

They had enough points deducted to make sure they got relegated.

If they are guilty and the same isn’t done, then for me football is dead

 

[Leominster_Wolf]

I can see an H M Revenue and Customs investigation coming next for City.

One of the main charges appears to be a lack of ‘Accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the clubs financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue including sponsorship revenue), it’s related parties and it’s operating costs’.

HMRC will no doubt pick up on that one statement alone as a reason to investigate. They can go back years if they find anything wrong.

Financial accounts contain an Auditors Report stating that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs It appears City’s financial accounts do not give a true and fair view based on the above charge.

Good luck with that as well City!

Was thinking the same myself

 

[Boss Hogg]

Make them play in skins. That’ll stop them having inflated shirt sponsorship deals

 

[Big Saft Kid]

I can see an H M Revenue and Customs investigation coming next for City.

One of the main charges appears to be a lack of ‘Accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the clubs financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue including sponsorship revenue), it’s related parties and it’s operating costs’.

HMRC will no doubt pick up on that one statement alone as a reason to investigate. They can go back years if they find anything wrong.

Financial accounts contain an Auditors Report stating that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs It appears City’s financial accounts do not give a true and fair view based on the above charge.

Good luck with that as well City!

Totally. Once HMRC get their teeth into you, the best of luck. My thought is that if that were to happen, the UK government might see it as a negative and protect Citeh, given that the UAE are close allies. But that'll be less likely with the Labour govt that's looking likely after 2024.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

I'm not a fan of the "fair play" rules so if this ends with Citeh taking the whole farce of a system to the courts and getting it abolished then this would be a huge win for everyone. Citeh have no finance problems, the billionaire owner wants to win a professional league and wants to do it with his own money - instead he has to "cook the books" with fake sponsorships to try and get around a system in place which has no evidence of achieving a single positive thing.

There are other ways to keep clubs financially resposible, the fair play rules ain't it - if anything they've made it worse.

I’m certainly no fan of FFP, when it’s clearly designed to protect the established elite clubs, and it’s been admitted in private that this is the case. However, I have absolutely no sympathy for a club like City if they have deliberately tried to escape the limits when others have tried to operate within the letter of them, if not the spirit. The same thing happened in the Championship with Derby, who breached FFP rules when the majority of clubs operated within them, and in doing so caused clubs to get relegated who shouldn’t and others to miss out on the chance of promotion.

If the elite clubs vote for a system to protect themselves, then don’t want or feel the need to themselves operate within its constraints, then they deserve punishment, and in a manner which directly undermines what they were trying to achieve. That means points deductions, transfers bans, stripping titles and even demotion. The same elite clubs would have no qualms punishing an upstart club who overspent by accident, as UEFA did with Wolves by qualifying for the EL before we had properly established ourselves in the PL.

 

[WolfLing]

I can see an H M Revenue and Customs investigation coming next for City.

One of the main charges appears to be a lack of ‘Accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the clubs financial position, in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue), it’s related parties and it’s operating costs’.

HMRC will no doubt pick up on that one statement alone as a reason to investigate. They can go back years if they find anything wrong.

Financial accounts contain an Auditors Report stating that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs It appears City’s financial accounts do not give a true and fair view based on the above charge.

Good luck with that as well City!

Maybe.

But what City are alleged to have done has overall, probably increased the revenues collected by HMRC.

HMRC are such a state at the moment, I can’t imagine they would spend millions on an investigation if it didn’t lead to them increasing their revenues.

 

[hollo]

And then there will be civil cases brought against city. Teams who have missed out on europe like ourselves.