Manchester City Found Guilty Of Almost All Charges

[StanSP]

“The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules.”

 

 

[jammie82uk]

550 pages submitted by the premier league covering the breaches 
 

The PL set out its case in a Statement of Charges (subsequently amended) and a Statement

of Facts. Together those documents (which ran to approximately 500 pages) set out

a) The 100+ breaches of the PL Rules alleged by the PL to have been committed by the

Club, and

b) The facts and matters on which the PL relied to support the Charges.

Section E of the Statement of Charges recorded that the PL regarded the Club’s conduct as

having involved ‘extremely serious, significant, sustained and intentional or reckless

breaches of rules critical to the proper and fair operation of the PL’s league competition’.

11) The PL’s Statement of Charges and Statement of Facts were subsequently supplemented

with an additional 50 pages of Further Information.

[Chelmofox]

3 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Several points to be deducted as I think these were similar breaches to ourselves and other clubs? 

 

The independent Commission found that between Seasons 2009/10 and 2017/18:
- Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs
- The club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators
- Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits
- During the Premier League’s investigation, Manchester City committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the League (three of the four alleged breaches were upheld)

 

 

I mean, that in itself requires a severe penalty outside of what the PL should do. Requires a thorough criminal investigation if true.

 

I actually dont see the similar breach to us, apart from exceeding spending limits, but we didnt try and hide it?

[CosbehFox]

If they get any relegations, it should be with a points deduction too. It would completely skew the divisions without. 

[lfu]

Meanwhile in cloud cuckoo land

https://www.mancity.com/news/club/manchester-city-club-statement-premier-league-63926128

 

"Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today.
The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case.  The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums. "

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[jammie82uk]

 

The substantive hearing took place over 42 days in the last quarter of 2024. Oral evidence

was given by factual and expert witnesses over the course of 34 days. The parties spent 4

days at the start of the hearing and 4 days at the end of the hearing making oral submissions

to the Commission to supplement their written submissions (which themselves ran to

several hundred pages on each side). The bundle of legal authorities contained over 300

authorities, including numerous iterations of the PL Rules, UEFA Statutes and Regulations,

English, AD and overseas legislation, English, foreign and CAS caselaw, accounting rules

and guidance and academic commentary.
 

It has taken us much longer than we would have wished, and much longer than we had

anticipated would be the case when the hearing concluded, to produce our Decision. That

is regrettable. However, we were fortunate to have available to us throughout the period in

which our Decision has been being prepared not only all of the documents that were used

at the hearing but also

a) Verbatim transcripts of the evidence given by each witness and expert at the hearing.

Those transcripts ran to approximately 7,000 pages, and

b) Extremely detailed written submissions from the parties (that they had supplemented

orally over 4 days at the end of the hearing) on the evidence and each of the numerous

issues that we were tasked with determining in the proceedings.

 

[Chelmofox]

9 minutes ago, lfu said:

Meanwhile in cloud cuckoo land

https://www.mancity.com/news/club/manchester-city-club-statement-premier-league-63926128

 

"Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today.
The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case.  The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums. "

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Oh my - a gang of criminals think they are innocent. They have cheated my means of self regulation and been found out. Just accept it and what is coming to you.

Edited 2 hours ago by Chelmofox

[Bourbon Fox]

6 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

I mean, that in itself requires a severe penalty outside of what the PL should do. Requires a thorough criminal investigation if true.

 

I actually dont see the similar breach to us, apart from exceeding spending limits, but we didnt try and hide it?

This is far, far worse than what we did

[lfu]

Just now, CosbehFox said:

If they get any relegations, it should be with a points deduction too. It would completely skew the divisions without. 

They inflated their accounts by more than £900m over eight years, or avg £112m per season

So I think a 112pt deduction for the next eight seasons (on top of forced relegation(s)/expulsion) would be in order

[Tuna]

Do you think there will be any real punishment? Embargoes, relegations and points deductions absolutely have to happen but I have no faith that they do, my pessimistic suspicion is it will be an enormous fine, effectively bribing their way out of it.

[StanSP]

 

This is the equivalent of making your handwriting bigger to make it look like a bigger piece of work in an exam

 

 

 

[Gamble92]

When you see the fake sponsor stuff, let’s just hope there’s nothing to be seen with BC Game.

 

in typical Top fashion though, we haven’t seen any evidence whatsoever of it benefitting us. 

[CosbehFox]

6 hours ago, TheGoldenGod said:

I genuinely thought this was a given....stunned people on here think we don't have a case? I can promise you everyone and their dog is going to demand compensation for this and all will have a case that will need hearing. That's the reality.

The problem is the legal proof of that. That's the angle where people don't think we have a case. We were affected but try to categorically approve it. 

[VLC86]

7 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

If they get any relegations, it should be with a points deduction too. It would completely skew the divisions without. 

I agree, but realistically it’s going to be skewed anyway isn’t it as they will earn a stupid amount of money from their squad etc.

[Bourbon Fox]

7 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

you can make a valid case that Manchester City had built a platform for sustained success from 2018 onwards

 

6 hours ago, TheGoldenGod said:

I genuinely thought this was a given....stunned people on here think we don't have a case?

No question. Think of the increased revenues earned during this period of cheating, and how that increased revenue allowed Man City to fund their playing squad in the following seasons.

 

We missed out on CL revenue twice by a points margin that could have been wiped out by draws or wins against a legally-assembled but slightly less brilliant Man City team.

 

I do think though that this is such a massive can of worms that there is no way they will open up the possibility of clubs suing Man City. It would be chaos.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Bourbon Fox

[StanSP]

Can they get given a relegation/demotion? I thought because PL and EFL are different 'entities' then it's not possible? 

 

(I know if they get given a mammoth deduction it's basically relegation by default) 

[jammie82uk]

 

 

Manchester City submitted annual accounts that did not provide a “true and fair” picture of its financial position.
•    Sponsorship agreements with companies connected to Abu Dhabi were found to have recorded fees substantially higher than their true commercial value.
•    The commission concluded that some of the sponsorship income was actually owner funding from ADUG, disguised as commercial revenue.
•    The club’s reported income was therefore overstated by more than £830 million between 2009/10 and 2017/18.

 

After correcting the accounts, the commission concluded that Manchester City:
•    Failed UEFA’s break-even requirements in every relevant season.
•    Failed the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability requirements in every relevant season examined.
•    Breached the Premier League rules requiring clubs to comply with UEFA regulations.
The commission said that even if its strongest conclusion about the sponsorship agreements was wrong, reducing the sponsorship figures to their fair market value would still have left Manchester City in breach. 

[Chelmofox]

3 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

When you see the fake sponsor stuff, let’s just hope there’s nothing to be seen with BC Game.

 

in typical Top fashion though, we haven’t seen any evidence whatsoever of it benefitting us. 

I'm pretty sure what we have done is in line with what many PL clubs have done. As crap as it looks, BC Game does exist as a business and when i was last in the US there were lots of legitimate ads for them. Completely unethical, and if we have done anything illegal they should throw the book at us. 

 

But what Man City have done is a completely different level and until proven otherwise, we shouldn't be saying things like 'they did the sort of thing we have done'.

[Chelmofox]

I think the most fitting punishment for them, something that will really hurt, is a complete ban on anyone ever calling them 'City'. They are not 'City', and never have been. That phrase should be retired.

[Samilktray]

I mean fair play to them if they’ve cheated, at least they’ve won everything doing so

[Foxmeister]

5 minutes ago, Bourbon Fox said:

 

No question. Think of the increased revenues earned during this period of cheating, and how that increased revenue allowed Man City to fund their playing squad.

 

We missed out on CL revenue twice by a points margin that could have been wiped out by draws or wins against a legally-assembled but slightly less brilliant Man City team.

 

I do think though that this is such a massive can of worms that there is no way they will open up the possibility of clubs suing Man City. It would be chaos.

 

 

Who has got the authority to do that when other clubs have already sued rivals?

[LVFox]

Not sure if anybody on here listens to the football boardroom podcast, but Christian Purslow made a great suggestion in that Man City would be wise to accept relegation and a huge fine, which the PL itself divvies out to all affected clubs (Which is all PL clubs during that time, with more going to those that missed out on European football, titles etc). This would wrap the whole thing up quickly, and stop an absolute raft of legal fees going Man City's way.

[AyewJoking]

this is interesting finding out just how naughty they have (allegedly) been but surely they just blow this out of the water in appeal??

[trooky]

4 hours ago, AKCJ said:

It also wouldn't surprise me if the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea told them where to go.

They all risk -30 points deductions for any future break away attempt. 

[st albans fox]

Well that’s come out of left field …….