Manchester City Guilty of Financial Breaches Charges Golden Threads

[The GOAT]

I miss the days when there wasn't a lot of money in football, 3 o'clock kick offs, terraces and you didn't really talk about players wages etc, but then again I'm an old git.

You're not alone!

 

[Dylan]

 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/2108192105575456949

Their defense is not to save the club but rather the owners. They will let City sink at the first opportunity if they can get out of this mess. Especially now that some really (personal) law suits can follow.

 

[Cappuccino Kid]

Maresca is towing the party line in his press conference and is of the belief that they will win the appeal. Also believes that the titles are not tainted.

I see a lot of people saying other owners don't want City expelled from the league. Is that how it actually works? Surely the punishment is not decided by other clubs?

 

[Black Sheep]

I see a lot of people saying other owners don't want City expelled from the league. Is that how it actually works? Surely the punishment is not decided by other clubs?

Expulsion is decided by the other clubs.

Everything else is decided by the Premier league. So that's transfer bans, point deductions, fines etc

 

[Franco Pinion]

Maresca is towing the party line in his press conference and is of the belief that they will win the appeal. Also believes that the titles are not tainted.

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has said the club's titles are "absolutely not" tainted after the Premier League found them guilty of the majority of the 115 charges brought against them.

Maresca said he has complete trust in the club's owners and believes City will win their appeal against the verdict, which was announced by an independent commission.

The club were found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. City have appealed and said the commission's ruling contained "clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe".

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Maresca said: "The reason I joined this club is that I completely trust, 100%, the owner, the CEO, the sporting director, all the organisation. So I don't have doubt about that.

"I spoke with the club for sure. We all trust, and probably the right moment to speak about that is when we are going to win this appeal."

He added: "For me, the players - we can control just the pitch side, the football side. So we are focused on that. This is what we can do and what we can control."

City are preparing for their first match since the verdict, away to Liverpool on Sunday. Maresca said in an in-house interview on Thursday that the "feeling is fantastic" among his players and they are not affected by "the noise" around the club.

The Italian said the atmosphere at Anfield would make the match more difficult, adding: "It will be a tough game, for sure. We need to be ready, the focus needs to be about the game, but we know the environment at Anfield.

"It probably will be worse because of the situation but, again, it will be our duty to do our best and try to win the game."

Maresca, who was appointed as Pep Guardiola's successor in June, is in his third spell at the club after time spent with the academy and as Guardiola's assistant coach, including during the Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign.

He has won each of his first five Premier League games in charge and could become the fourth manager to win his first six league matches in charge of a club if City beat Liverpool.

Maresca would not say whether he had read the independent commission's findings. He said the charges were not discussed during talks over his appointment and insisted he would "100%" still have taken the job if the findings had been published earlier.

He also confirmed Erling Haaland is "ready" to play against Liverpool after recovering from his efforts for Norway during the international break in Marbella.

Earlier on Friday, Bayern Munich manager and former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany said: "I played 11 years for the club and I've loved all the years I've played for the club. Everything we've achieved and done on the pitch I'm really proud of.

"Everything else, as a player you're not a part of that. Right now, as a coach of Bayern Munich, I'm not too occupied with that topic."

Surely, if they have cheated, then the titles are tainted? Yes, they played excellent football to win those titles, but they wouldn't have had the players or been in a position to win those titles without breaking the financial rules.

 

[Scotty G]

I'm not sure it'll be anywhere near as bad as some are predicting on Sunday or beyond that.

Clubs are all about self preservation and especially those outside the elite few won't want to rock the boat.

I really hoped there'd be a show of solidarity across the league in managers' pre-match press conferences leading up to this weekend with widespread condemnation of City (obviously pending the appeal) but aside from very guarded comments from a couple there was the old 'no comment' approach.

I'm also sure that during the holding period between now and whenever the appeal verdict is announced, political pressure will be applied to influence the eventual outcome.

I just hope that the members of this new independent commission are strong enough to ignore everything other than the evidence and uphold the findings of the original panel.

Furthermore I hope that original panel hold strong to the courage of their convictions and hammer City with a set of sanctions that are worthy of the charges convicted of

 

[Steve]

Could someone better informed than me please tell me what exactly an 'Independent Premier League Commission ' is, independent of what?

 

[Franco Pinion]

Could someone better informed than me please tell me what exactly an 'Independent Premier League Commission ' is, independent of what?

From the Premier League.

Manchester City FC has appealed the decision of an independent Commission regarding breaches of Premier League rules.

The club lodged the appeal to the Chair of the Judicial Panel.

The independent Appeal Board hearing will remain private and confidential until publication of the outcome is permitted.

Notes

Premier League investigations, independent Commissions, and Appeal Boards

• The Premier League Board has the power to investigate any suspected or alleged breach of Premier League Rules.
• Where, following the conclusion of an investigation or otherwise, the Board believes that there is a suspicion or allegation of a Rule breach, it has a number of options available to it. One of these options is to issue a written complaint and refer the matter to a Commission.
• The League has established an independent Judicial Panel, comprising a number of legal, financial and other experts.
• Members of the Judicial Panel are appointed by its independent Chair. It is also the Chair of the Judicial Panel who selects members of the Judicial Panel to sit on Commissions, which are independent of the Premier League. The Chair of the Judicial Panel at the time of the Complaint in these proceedings was Murray Rosen KC. The current Chair of the Judicial Panel is Sir Gary Hickinbottom.
• All proceedings convened under Section W of the Rules are confidential and heard in private.
• The Commission appointed under Section W of the Rules has a broad discretion as to the sanctions it wishes to apply, the non-exhaustive list set out in rules includes fines, points deductions and other sporting sanctions.
• Whenever a Commission makes what is described as a 'final award' in the rules, such decisions are published on the Premier League website.
• A party to proceedings that wishes to challenge a decision of the Commission may do so under Section W of the Premier League Rules, by filing an appeal to be heard before an Appeal Board.
• Appeal Boards are also appointed by the Chair of the Judicial Panel and must have three members, one of whom should have held judicial office, and would sit as the chair of the Appeal Board.
• An Appeal Board has wide discretion in respect of the appeal, and may allow it, dismiss it, or make any other order that it thinks fit (including varying the order of Commission).

For further information on the disciplinary process, please see Section W of the Premier League Handbook.

Manchester City FC appeal decision of independent Commission

www.premierleague.com

 

[Random Guy]

Football is absolutely fucked and this Man City saga is just another example of it.

I don't agree with unlimited spending but I also don't agree with 3 clubs being able to spend whatever they want and pretending like they're playing the same game the rest of the clubs in the PL are. Especially when one of those clubs is £1bn in debt. Liverpool have three £100m+ players in their starting XI. It's obscene.

There's got to be some middle ground to be had here. It shouldn't be the case that 3/4 of the league know before the first ball is kicked that they have no chance of winning the title.

 

[Gemma]

Which of the following sanctions, if any, do you think would be appropriate if Manchester City are found to have broken the Premier League's financial rules? Please select all that apply.

Poll Votes are public

Which of the following sanctions, if any, do you think would be appropriate?

• A financial penalty/fine

  Votes: 9 100.0%

• A points deduction

  Votes: 8 88.9%

• A ban on signing new players for a period of time

  Votes: 8 88.9%

• A ban from European football (e.g. the UEFA Champions League, Europa League)

  Votes: 5 55.6%

• Stripping trophies won during the period when the breaches allegedly occurred

  Votes: 6 66.7%

• Expelling the club from the Premier League

  Votes: 5 55.6%

• Owners should be forced to sell the club

  Votes: 8 88.9%

• None of the above

  Votes: 0 0.0%

• Not sure

  Votes: 0 0.0%

---

• Total voters

  9

Black Sheep, Boot Cleaner, Bob the Ninja and 6 others voted · 9 votes Voters