Manchester City Found Guilty Of Almost All Charges

[shen]

18 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Not especially no.

 

If you've got enough money, everyone knows who the best players are. Can't think of any Man city signing in recent years who was a rough diamond that got polished - they get them already polished.

I imagine not everyone could get the best out of these players though. Did he make them better as a team? I think so. And that's all one can really judge on.
 

7 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

All whilst cheating?? I think this puts a huge astrix next to his claim to be the most successful ever? 

Eh. People will always aim for the ones at the top of the step. "All good Pep winning things with Barcelona, Bayern, Man City. Give him a team like Stoke and see how he does". Ancelotti, arguably the most successful coach of all time should have multiple asterisks as well then. Fergie Time was so prevalent it became a thing. As stated earlier in the thread, you can argue that Pep had the same kind of budget available as the other big clubs, whom he beat at the same game. 

 

[shen]

3 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

Agreed. Owners should have to put some money into a protected account that ensures the clubs future is safe even if their ownership fails for whatever reason. Whether they do that at the start of their ownership or they pay a percentage of any money spent in a window or whatever 

 

But framing this PSR bollocks as "protecting the clubs" is clearly bullshit and I think most people see through it now

Can we stop calling it "clubs" when they are privately owned companies/franchises? Surely, using "club" as a guise is verging on fraudulent and shouldn't be allowed... I'm getting carried away a bit here 

[Noahfence]

Burnham is an embarrassment 

[slymunn]

45 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

All whilst cheating?? I think this puts a huge astrix next to his claim to be the most successful ever? 

Which elite club/manager hasn't cheated or bent the rules at some point?

 

Its very hard to find one that hasn't at some point. 

[Finnegan]

I assume all of the people rushing to have a moan about Burnham are all politically neutral people with no natural grudge against the Labour party and have all thoroughly read or listened to what he said properly and aren't just calling him a dickhead because they read an editorialised headline and jumped to conclusions?

 

Naturally, I mean, I assume this because you're all extremely intelligent and thoughtful people on here that wouldn't fall in to that sort of trap.

 

[Noahfence]

17 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

I assume all of the people rushing to have a moan about Burnham are all politically neutral people with no natural grudge against the Labour party and have all thoroughly read or listened to what he said properly and aren't just calling him a dickhead because they read an editorialised headline and jumped to conclusions?

 

Naturally, I mean, I assume this because you're all extremely intelligent and thoughtful people on here that wouldn't fall in to that sort of trap.

 

Oh I wish I could be as wonderful as you Finny 

[Finnegan]

21 minutes ago, Noahfence said:

Oh I wish I could be as wonderful as you Finny 

 

Don't beat yourself up, man, that's a pretty common wish.

 

[Stevosevic]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

 

He didn't cheat though did he? His club broke a bunch of accountancy rules imposed by the league. He just went out and coached a squad he was given. It might be a squad his club wasn't allowed to afford and it might be a squad the other clubs couldn't compete much with but eh. 

 

Roman Abramovic spent eye watering amounts at Chelsea, out spent every on during their peak and broke various rules numerous times, getting transfer bans and being accused of tapping up and all sorts. 

 

Nobody's ever questioned that Jose Mourinho and his team were worthy league winners though? 

 

I don't really have much patience for people determined to try and downplay Pep's ability as a coach. They seem like flat earthers or vaxine deniers to me. His talent is just objective fact, there's nothing to argue about. 

 

People that don't like his style and think it's ruined modern football I can completely understand. But there's not really an asterisk next to his name is there, I'm sorry, that's daft. 

 

Are you next going to suggest that Erling Haaland or Kevin De Bruyne aren't or weren't generational talents because they're playing for a team whose lawyers and accountants fudged the books? Come on. 

 

Completely agree. This shouldn’t take anything away from Pep and the players and their abilities.

 

The budget Man City had, where ever that money came from, allowed them to compete with the other top clubs. The other top clubs were spending the same amounts of money and had similiar values on the pitch - they still had to go out there and beat them. 
 

 

 

 

[AKCJ]

The Stick to Football podcast is nauseating.

 

Carragher, Neville, Keane and Wright all jumping over each other to tell David Ornstein how things actually are.

[TheGoldenGod]

9 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

The Stick to Football podcast is nauseating.

 

Carragher, Neville, Keane and Wright all jumping over each other to tell David Ornstein how things actually are.

I'd argue Ornstein was a waste of time to be honest...terrified of getting tangled up in any sort of libel so couldn't really offer much insight. Pointless him going on! The KC was a much more interesting listen...

[kenny]

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/10/01/manchester-city-unpaid-tax/

 

Dan Neidle reckons £12m in unpaid tax and NI.

 

Quote

Manchester City’s rule-breaking may go beyond football. The independent Commission found that the club inflated its income, concealed expenses and paid a key individual through a sham consultancy. Leaked documents identify him as City’s manager, Roberto Mancini, with payments routed to his company, Sparkleglow Holdings Ltd. We believe the evidence points to £12m in unpaid UK tax. The consequences could include a much larger tax bill and a criminal investigation.

This report is subject to four important caveats.

First, our analysis assumes that the Commission’s findings of fact are correct. City maintains its innocence and says it will appeal, alleging material errors of law, principle and fact (but not identifying any of them).

Second, we have only the heavily redacted, 40-page core decision. The detailed appendices remain unpublished. They are likely substantial: the parties’ document index alone ran to 750 pages.

Third, we rely on documents obtained by Der Spiegel as part of the Football Leaks investigation, and on the original 2018 reporting by Der Spiegel and L’Espresso, also covered by The Guardian. We have reviewed the underlying materials ourselves and assume the documents are authentic; to our knowledge, this has never been questioned.¹

Four, we make no claims that any named individuals committed tax evasion or other criminal offences; the facts suggest that they may have done, but this will depend on their state of mind at the time.

This report is therefore a preliminary assessment based on the evidence currently available. We conclude:

• Roberto Mancini received large payments under a consultancy contract with Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club.
• On the basis of the Commission’s findings and leaked documents, the contract was a sham, and in reality represented remuneration for Mr Mancini’s employment with Manchester City.
• Manchester City should therefore have applied UK PAYE income tax and National Insurance in the usual way – but the evidence suggests the club unlawfully failed to do so. We expect around £12m of tax went unpaid.
• We don’t know whether HMRC has commenced an investigation into these arrangements and, if it has, whether it has been resolved – but there’s no sign of any settlement payments in Manchester City’s accounts.
• The highly irregular nature of the arrangement, and the Commission’s findings of sham and intentional concealment, suggest to us that there should be a criminal investigation into whether tax evasion offences were committed.
• The Commission’s finding that Manchester City knowingly filed false accounts suggest that Companies Act criminal offences may have been committed.

 

[AKCJ]

16 minutes ago, TheGoldenGod said:

I'd argue Ornstein was a waste of time to be honest...terrified of getting tangled up in any sort of libel so couldn't really offer much insight. Pointless him going on! The KC was a much more interesting listen...

If he wasn't there it would just be that quartet crying on about how badly affected their precious super league clubs have been treated. He spoke with facts about the current position and didn't get caught up in conjecture. 

 

 

[AKCJ]

6 minutes ago, kenny said:

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/10/01/manchester-city-unpaid-tax/

 

Dan Neidle reckons £12m in unpaid tax and NI.

 

 

Looking forward to hearing Man United fans crying about this when their billionaire owner doesn't pay a penny of tax.

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, Chelmofox said:

And then ironically Man City usually had to give them a year to get up to speed with Pep ball.

 

Although, what would you call Jack Grealish? Over 100m, a huge Salary,  and never hit the ground running.

Money laundering?

[Lambert09]

1 hour ago, Stevosevic said:

Completely agree. This shouldn’t take anything away from Pep and the players and their abilities.

 

The budget Man City had, where ever that money came from, allowed them to compete with the other top clubs. The other top clubs were spending the same amounts of money and had similiar values on the pitch - they still had to go out there and beat them. 
 

 

 

 

If man city weren’t cheating it doesn’t mean pep would have sat at home … he would have been at man united or Chelsea dominating English football.  He was going to end up at the biggest club with the most to spend one way or another. 

[Leicesterpool]

7 hours ago, Sly said:

That might not be a bad thing, on a domestic sporting level at least.

 

The best thing for football in this country would be a massive reset, then work toward a salary cap and “X” amount of players that are non EU based in 5 years time etc

 

However, internationally, this would be a disaster, as the likes of PSG, Madrid, Barca etc would effectively then dominate with the amounts of surplus money they’d have. It would be similar to the situation in Rugby, where everyone went abroad.

 

Rules at present certainly arent level. I always think every club should be capped what they spend over a season £120 million the limit. This includes installments payments. 

 

Also in terms of protecting youth players coming through. In your 25 man squad you must have at least five home grown players and in a matchday squad you must have at least two.

Edited 4 hours ago by Leicesterpool

[AKCJ]

4 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Not especially no.

 

If you've got enough money, everyone knows who the best players are. Can't think of any Man city signing in recent years who was a rough diamond that got polished - they get them already polished.

I don't think this is fair to suggest.

 

As Jamie Carragher himself said a few weeks ago, the Premier League does not buy ready made world class players in the same way Barcelona or Real Madrid do. I think the only players you could look through and say that Man City signed at the top of their game are Haaland and Donnarumma and both of those came in with genuine question marks. Haaland was questioned as to whether he genuinely was the real deal before that move and Donnarumma has (and still does have) genuine question marks regarding his ability with the ball at his feet.

 

The problem with Man City is that they're able to absorb the failures. Robinho, Jo, Santa-Cruz, Adebayor, Garcia, Nastasic, Jovetic, Negredo, Mangala, Bony, Mendy, Danilo etc all bought in that time frame for big money.

 

But even then, if you look through this list the number of failures that weren't sold for good money is very small over such a long time.

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-city/alletransfers/verein/281

 

As David Ornstein has said today. They could have done all of this legitimately. Their problem was they wanted it all in time for Pep Guardiola.

 

The idea that Man City (or any other club) could not or should not have collated the players they did is wrong IMO. Man City's real core of Ederson, Kompany, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne and Sterling was largely bought for money that all of the established elite could match if they wanted to and none of those players were established as world class before Man City bought them.

[The Year Of The Fox]

6 hours ago, Samilktray said:

Generally speaking if you don't post like an idiot you won't end up reported or banned pal, very simple imo

If only that was accurate.

[Corky]

7 hours ago, Manwell Pablo said:

Not the point is it.

I know. I find the idea of clubs suing each other ridiculous and, as others have pointed out, how far back and down do you go?

[Spudulike]

7 hours ago, Noahfence said:

Burnham is an embarrassment 

No. 10 has gone into reverse 

 

BBC News - Burnham's Man City comments 'completely out of touch', Tories say
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3v4vn3ydw1o