• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Naughty Emirates Marketing Project - Spot of Compo??

I'm guessing they're going to get a point deduction, say just enough to stay up, and some ban on buying players for a window or so.
They should definitely get expelled from the league though, preferably out of the footballing pyramid. It would probably mean Scum keep on winning for a while, but fudge these cheats - the game will be all but gone if they can go on like this unpunished.
As I said, any punishment they get will be far less than what the vast majority would consider appropriate.
 
I find it fascinating to be honest. The language from the investigators is very strong and the detail explicit. Yet City have responded just as strongly in maintaining their innocence and that they have evidence to support it.

Personally, I don’t see how they can be innocent. The sponsorship amounts are unrealistic and always have been.

It’s outrageous and I hope they get the good kicking they deserve. Gonna be interesting to see what sort of reception they get this weekend at Anfield and around the country during the season.

Maybe karma is a real thing though. Through all of their cheating, City were always Spurs’ bitches and gifted us 3-6 points most years. That’s pretty humiliating in itself.

I think it’s fascinating too. To answer @thfcsteff’s question, I don’t think Soriano’s statement means they are going to wriggle out of this. I think it’s literally the only thing they can say at this point, because they’re already in too deep. And the sheer, unwavering confidence in their own position is exactly the point, they WANT you to think that there’s a possibility they can wriggle free.

But I find it fascinating because this is essentially a game of strategy on a really high, consequential level, it’s a PR war, it’s obviously a legal one too. But when you think about the incentives for City’s owners, it was a sports washing project. They cannot admit to being cheats on any scale whatsoever, so they’ve essentially doubled down and doubled down again. In some ways it’s very Trumpian, calling out partisan influence of judges. But I really don’t see how they get out of it. And the PL’s statement today, the strength of it, is a really good sign. They aren’t going to be bullied, they know they have a tight case, and ultimately the facts are going to speak for themselves.

Not withstanding no one is taking City seriously in this guise ever again.
 
I think it’s fascinating too. To answer @thfcsteff’s question, I don’t think Soriano’s statement means they are going to wriggle out of this. I think it’s literally the only thing they can say at this point, because they’re already in too deep. And the sheer, unwavering confidence in their own position is exactly the point, they WANT you to think that there’s a possibility they can wriggle free.

But I find it fascinating because this is essentially a game of strategy on a really high, consequential level, it’s a PR war, it’s obviously a legal one too. But when you think about the incentives for City’s owners, it was a sports washing project. They cannot admit to being cheats on any scale whatsoever, so they’ve essentially doubled down and doubled down again. In some ways it’s very Trumpian, calling out partisan influence of judges. But I really don’t see how they get out of it. And the PL’s statement today, the strength of it, is a really good sign. They aren’t going to be bullied, they know they have a tight case, and ultimately the facts are going to speak for themselves.

Not withstanding no one is taking City seriously in this guise ever again.

Really good post.
 
This is not the end. This is just the beginning.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
This is not the end. This is just the beginning.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Yeah it's pretty obvious that it would have carried on in the years since - i don't know why 2018 is the cut off, read something about the evidence collected only reaching that point in time. Dunno when the investigation started but it's taken long enough to arrive at this point.
 
I heard someone say they would stay up even with a 40 odd point penalty... and it would be better if they got a 15 point penalty for each of the next 9 seasons instead. I mean it won't happen, but some kind of long term punishment would be more satisfying wouldn't it?
40 point penalty last season would have seen them relegated, my own solution would be 150 point deduction spread over three PL seasons i.e 50 points a season only when the are in the PL that would take something like 6 seasons up and down from Championship to PL to pay off.
 
40 point penalty last season would have seen them relegated, my own solution would be 150 point deduction spread over three PL seasons i.e 50 points a season only when the are in the PL that would take something like 6 seasons up and down from Championship to PL to pay off.

That feels quite lenient for the scale of fraud and the obstructive, mendacious intransigence when under investigation. 60 points per season for ten seasons would be a couple of decades yo-yoing.

My preferred solution is still that City is proscribed as an organisation, meaning that anyone who expresses support for them faces arrest and potential imprisonment.
 
Yeah it's pretty obvious that it would have carried on in the years since - i don't know why 2018 is the cut off, read something about the evidence collected only reaching that point in time. Dunno when the investigation started but it's taken long enough to arrive at this point.

The cuttoff was 2018 because they started the investigation in 2019 i believe.
 
I don’t know but the Beeb of all cautious actors have posted this on their website: albeit with an important caveatView attachment 23481

This is one of the missing links for me. I had assumed that the Sheikh owned a football club and an airline and had sponsored the former with the latter to create very high sponsorship incomes. As much as other footballer stakeholders can get all jealous about that, it is a model that brings money into football. However, it turns out the airline isn't funding 80% of it at all. It's just been posted that way in their accounts whilst the money comes directly from the Sheikh. Then City clearly non-cooperated so nobody could see the payer and payee. If it was an individual then it would be a taxable capital gain. If it is a business then it doesn't seem much different from our owners putting these £150m injections into their company. We do that, and correctly account for it. They hid it as sponsorship.

For me, this is false accounting and that is a criminal offence in our country. As football laid down some guidelines then I understand why they are investigating. What I'm still not understanding is why HMRC, The Serious Fraud Office and a bunch of forensic accountants aren't digging up 7 years worth of posted accounts and going through them with a fine tooth comb. To @DeanoAustin point above, it makes no difference whether City are publicly traded or not to me. It is still false accounting and sits above football governance. Looking at it from a government perspective football runs on consumer spending whether it is broadcasting subscriptions or gate receipts. It is still something they should care about.

When it comes back to the word "sustainability", you can see the risk. The question becomes in 2017/18 what would have happened if City lost their owners and their sponsorship. Well their revenues were £500m and their "sponsorship" was £135m. So their organic revenue was £365m and perhaps they could have picked up normal level alternative sponsors of £50m or less. That means with the same running costs they would have posted £85m loss against whatever P&L they posted. That is massively relevant.
 
The cuttoff was 2018 because they started the investigation in 2019 i believe.

Thanks, a 6-7 year investigation uncovering unprecedented levels of fraud and cheating will not pass by with a minor reprimand- this will see a huge punishment dished out.

I think City under Mansoor are finished
 
Should be ten year ban from the PL at a minimum. Trouble is it’s not fair to any other league to have them dumped there. Maybe they can be banned from England but allowed to play in the UAE league.
 
I tell you this...whatever the actual reasons were for not selling Kane to Emirates Marketing Project, there is further retrospective delight that they could not get him.

If we had not been cheated out of some of the trophies (or at least the real possibility of those trophies) by the two rampant cheats and they didn't have the money to throw around maybe Harry wouldn't be unsettled. We would not have finished 17th twice with kane in the team.
Similar with Kyle walker, the start of the decline of Poch can be traced back to that transfer.
This really is a huge can of worms and not only should city and Chelsea have the book thrown at them but the governing bodies need to hold their hands up and say they got this wrong and put in place protocols to ensure it does not happen again.
This could be hugely damaging to English football.
 
If we had not been cheated out of some of the trophies (or at least the real possibility of those trophies) by the two rampant cheats and they didn't have the money to throw around maybe Harry wouldn't be unsettled. We would not have finished 17th twice with kane in the team.
Similar with Kyle walker, the start of the decline of Poch can be traced back to that transfer.
This really is a huge can of worms and not only should city and Chelsea have the book thrown at them but the governing bodies need to hold their hands up and say they got this wrong and put in place protocols to ensure it does not happen again.
This could be hugely damaging to English football.

I think the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" arguments will soon get put to bed with all other clubs.

However, this potentially brings the super-league one step closer. There is still some ill feeling between Europe's biggest club and Ceferin's lot. Putting the Sheikh in a position where he has to get creative may not be good for us.
 
Back