Manchester City Found Guilty Of Almost All Charges

[indierich06]

This is why all of these FFP rules are ****ing nonsense btw - they either get circumvented like this, or they just keep down clubs like ours, like Villa, like Newcastle etc. Just scrap the lot, if some billionaire wants to throw money at a football team, then let them.

[shen]

24 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Because Adidas aren’t owned by Jim Radcliffe or the Glazers. Alongside proof that they can illustrate a tender process as well 
 

In the leaked emails the Man City CFO literally types that on the Eithiad sponsorship deal that £8 million comes from the company and another £80 million from the government. 
 

Man City went from 0 to 100. No incremental increase to at least try and show it the value of their deals following a market. 

But from a sporting perspective, how is it different? You're arguing the legal and ethics of it, but I argue that on the sporting side, it doesn't matter where the money comes from. Man CIty haven't (?) spent egregiously more than e.g. Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal in that period. And they've obviously spent it better. 

I know they've broken rules and done it knowingly and then lied about it, which, again, I don't condone. 

[shen]

21 minutes ago, indierich06 said:

This is why all of these FFP rules are ****ing nonsense btw - they either get circumvented like this, or they just keep down clubs like ours, like Villa, like Newcastle etc. Just scrap the lot, if some billionaire wants to throw money at a football team, then let them.

The whole point of PSR was to protect clubs from going bust once their wealthy owners stopped bankrolling them. There's a local, regional and national interest to save employment and communities, which is sound. The FFP/PSR/SCR framework has a major flaw in that it makes for an unfair advantage for established clubs. Devise a system that actually protects these clubs and communities and protects sporting integrity to some degree.

[trooky]

On 01/10/2026 at 06:43, 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.

 

International finances are very murky PSG are owned by the Qatar, rumours have always linked Real Madrid and the Spanish government sponsoring them whilst  Barcelona are 1.84 billion in debt. 

[CosbehFox]

16 minutes ago, shen said:

But from a sporting perspective, how is it different? You're arguing the legal and ethics of it, but I argue that on the sporting side, it doesn't matter where the money comes from. Man CIty haven't (?) spent egregiously more than e.g. Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal in that period. And they've obviously spent it better. 

I know they've broken rules and done it knowingly and then lied about it, which, again, I don't condone. 

I think the legitimacy of the money does matter if it’s effectively coming from a government or a state 

 

I get your point about investment is investment. Cost controls do need to be in place and yeah the FFP’s view that can only be pinned to your revenue is faulted 

[TiffToff88]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

I can't help but feel aggrieved that Spurs with 1 trophy make the list, Leicester are in other clubs.

 

At least our trophies were counted in the list. It fails to even acknowledge Aston Villa's Europa League win and the Conference League trophies West Ham and Crystal Palace won. Just highlights how little interest some outlets have in English football beyond the "Big 6"

[kenny]

2 minutes ago, TiffToff88 said:

 

At least our trophies were counted in the list. It fails to even acknowledge Aston Villa's Europa League win and the Conference League trophies West Ham and Crystal Palace won. Just highlights how little interest some outlets have in English football beyond the "Big 6"

They are the 'other clubs' i assume.

[urban.spaceman]

Appeal confirmed:

 

Manchester City Football Club can confirm that at 7pm on Thursday 1st October 2026 the Club lodged its comprehensive Appeal against the opinion of the Premier League Commission, in relation to the Premier League disciplinary matter.

The Club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe.

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.

We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete.

[urban.spaceman]

WE WILL CONTINUE TO RESPECT DUE PROCESS  

[lfu]

Just now, urban.spaceman said:

Appeal confirmed:

 

 

Manchester City Football Club can confirm that at 7pm on Thursday 1st October 2026 the Club lodged its comprehensive Appeal against the opinion of the Premier League Commission, in relation to the Premier League disciplinary matter.

The Club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe.

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.

We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete.

I love how they refer to it as the PL commission's "opinion" as if the Legal Opinion is just what a bloke down the pub in Salford thinks rather than a contractually binding ruling 😂

[TiffToff88]

13 minutes ago, kenny said:

They are the 'other clubs' i assume.

They're not, there would be a 1/2 under the Europa League and Conference League collumns

[Lambert09]

The guy who hacked the original emails is claiming he’s going to drop another nuke at 6pm. 
 

wonder who he’s about to drop in it now 

[Les-TA-Jon]

29 minutes ago, lfu said:

I love how they refer to it as the PL commission's "opinion" as if the Legal Opinion is just what a bloke down the pub in Salford thinks rather than a contractually binding ruling 😂

"Legal Opinion" is a specific phrase in law though, to be fair

[foxfanazer]

6 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

The guy who hacked the original emails is claiming he’s going to drop another nuke at 6pm. 
 

wonder who he’s about to drop in it now 

Top and Rudkin frantically deleting emails after reading that

[Tiny earl]

8 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

The guy who hacked the original emails is claiming he’s going to drop another nuke at 6pm. 
 

wonder who he’s about to drop in it now 

Claims to have damning evidence that Infantinos a corrupt cheat!

Who’s going to believe that!

[lfu]

8 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

"Legal Opinion" is a specific phrase in law though, to be fair

That's what I'm getting at, they're disingenuously trying to pass off "Legal Opinion" as "just an opinion" rather than something that has any official weight

Edited Friday at 12:05 by lfu

[urban.spaceman]

13 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Top and Rudkin frantically deleting emails after reading that

It'll be evidence that Mansour personally installed a gremlin in our fax machine which resulted in the 14 second delay in signing Silva. 

[davieG]

6 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

It'll be evidence that Mansour personally installed a gremlin in our fax machine which resulted in the 14 second delay in signing Silva. 

Not forgetting changing the names of the players on our submission to the PL so we ended up with the wrong ones. It certainly wasn't RUdkin's fault as he helped us win the PL

[Ric Flair]

31 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

The guy who hacked the original emails is claiming he’s going to drop another nuke at 6pm. 
 

wonder who he’s about to drop in it now 

Think there might need to be a financial doping amnesty where they all get free reign to admit what they've been up to and then measure the gravity of it. Could allegedly be a lot of hypocrisy going on here in the outrage in football? 

 

Shake hands and let's kill the sport. It's done. I'm so bored of it. Easier said than done but if football was banished for good and nobody even tried to play it illegally i think the world would be a far better place. 

[davieG]

1 minute ago, Ric Flair said:

Think there might need to be a financial doping amnesty where they all get free reign to admit what they've been up to and then measure the gravity of it. Could allegedly be a lot of hypocrisy going on here in the outrage in football? 

 

Shake hands and let's kill the sport. It's done. I'm so bored of it. Easier said than done but if football was banished for good and nobody even tried to play it illegally i think the world would be a far better place. 

No they'd just corrupt another sport already been tried with golf.

[Ric Flair]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

No they'd just corrupt another sport already been tried with golf.

People's hearts won't be in it though. I love sport but truth be told, I would put up with no other sport what I do with football. I'd have lost interest a long while ago. With football it's tribal. Despite how angry, disillusioned and apathetic I get about the game and my club, I remain trapped and obsessed. Horrible sport.

[mazarron fox]

People will just look elsewhere for their fix. We support a 3rd div team in Spain , still enjoy the pub near the ground 2 hours before kick off, still meet mates , still analyze our teams chances, still buy a bit of merchandise knowing our team will always be at this standard. This is what people will do 

[urban.spaceman]

Looks like I picked the wrong season to stop sniffing glue

[Rubbersoul]

Khaldoon private meeting at Downing Street days before the guilty verdict came back.. 

 

hmmm 

[lfu]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7651933/2026/10/02/manchester-city-premier-league-verdict-bonuses/?unlocked_article_code=1.FlE.-X9l.QgedO1uLWBfB&source=emp_shared_article&smid=re-share-ta

Really good article
 

Quote

The Premier League appealed at several preliminary hearings for City to turn over a vast swathe of documents — the independent panel would later say this stretched to “millions of documents being searched” — while the club sought to keep the scope as narrow as possible, arguing some documents were either irrelevant or confidential.

Initially, according to sources with knowledge of this process, City placed the disclosed documents on a server where the club could track which individuals accessed the information, and which did not allow text to be copied and pasted. This slowed down the Premier League’s investigation significantly. After further legal appeals from the Premier League, the club placed the evidence — which amounted to emails, financial spreadsheets, and other assorted documents — onto another more accessible platform.

However, the disclosure process still contained surprises. German newspaper Der Spiegel had originally published Pinto’s leaks in 2018 and when they published another investigation in April 2022, revealing further allegations of financial wrongdoing based on emails hacked by Pinto, Premier League investigators noted they included documents which City had not disclosed.

 

Edited Friday at 13:19 by lfu