| Man City - GUILTY 14:45 - Sep 25 with 35506 views | Northernr |
On all charges. Punishment? Errrrr, haven't decided yet.
|  | | |  |
| Man City - GUILTY on 16:34 - Oct 1 with 1317 views | daveB |
| Man City - GUILTY on 16:14 - Oct 1 by TK1 |
Just watched it, really good insights and fantastic not to have so much Disney and other product placement in an edition for once. |
Less great insight but football Ramble has also been really good from a fans point of view this week. |  | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:13 - Oct 1 with 1133 views | KensalT |
| Man City - GUILTY on 15:08 - Oct 1 by TK1 |
And yet that's exactly what they (and Qatar, Saudi) did. That the UAE's trade is worth £25b a year to the UK means they have massive political influence, with the City group at the sharp end.
Abu Dhabi Group invested billions into City, regenerated East Manchester to a previously unimaginable degree (at laughably advantageous rates) all the while currying favour of the garrulous mayor, A Burnham.
If at that the end of all that, the footballing body of England that they have - in their eyes - bankrolled and promoted with their expensive sexy football then sanctions them with relegation, eye watering fines and perhaps even banishment as individuals from the sport...well, money doesn't fix that alone. Political influence does.
Andy Burnham's whole brand is about being a good guy in tune with the country and the common man, all about fairness and saying largely what people want to hear. Other than City fans *nobody* wanted to hear Burnham say he would be "really concerned" if the UAE leave City. That's political influence.
Look, I have no idea what's going to happen. But it's potentially very ugly and not just for the City ownership group. The sponsorship deals at Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle will all be thrown under the spotlight. |
I don't want to get into a political back and forth. Particularly not over Manchester and the bloody Arabs.
Suffice to say politicians like major urban regeneration but they have to lube up for whoever has the money to invest in it.
Thatcher had London Docklands, Burnham had Manchester, Knighthead are busy cosying up to politicians in Birmingham, and if Tony Fernandes had treated Boris to a line of coke and a couple of dancing girls we might not still be playing in Loftus Road!
It's a mutually beneficial relationship. The politicians can cut through red tape and make preferential deals, and in return they get plenty of political capital and no doubt a few undeclared freebies.
But that's just how the world of business works.
If the UAE wanted to buy a Prime Minster they wouldn't have had to sink a small fortune into Manchester to do it. There are far more direct ways of doing that when you're sitting on top of as much oil as they are.
It's serendipitous for them that Burnham has moved into Number 10. But now that he's there and they need a few favours it's inevitable they will try to exploit that.
In truth I think political influence is the strongest card left for them to play. But that doesn't mean it will work.
I think it would be a disaster for the PL if they tried to brush City's cheating under the carpet. It would shatter their credibility globally.
Yes it's true that the UAE does a lot of business with the UK.
But the PL is a global brand that also brings in large sums of money and sustains many jobs. Ernst & Young value that at £33bn over the next three years:
https://www.insideworldfootbal
Yes the Arabs might throw their toys out of the pram and they might even pull some of their investments for a while. But in all likelihood they will be back. As I said in an earlier post there's a lot going on in the Middle East, some geopolitical experts are speculating that by the time the Iran war is done the whole map could be redrawn and some of the smaller states could disappear off the map forever.
The UAE might be p!ssed off with us now but in a year or two they could be desperate for our help. If only because our banks and financial institutions are a safe place for them to park their wealth if they need to do a runner.
At the end of the day football is the national sport. Burnham might have plenty of friends in Manchester and might even owe a few favours but he knows that most of the country does not support the Manchester clubs and him bending over backwards to do them favours will lose him far more votes than he will gain. [Post edited 1 Oct 18:00]
|  | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:20 - Oct 1 with 1112 views | TheChef |
Funny how this has come out during the three week international break, so everyone could give it their full undivided attention 
Conspiracy theorist? Moi? |  |
| |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:22 - Oct 1 with 1105 views | KensalT |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:20 - Oct 1 by TheChef |
Funny how this has come out during the three week international break, so everyone could give it their full undivided attention
Conspiracy theorist? Moi? |
I thought Tonda Eckert's Spygate hearing was going to be the big entertainment | | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:53 - Oct 1 with 987 views | DavieQPR |
About 40- 50points would see them relegated so the PL could give them 500point deduction and it would make no difference other than PL bragging 'record punishment'. City's problem will be that it is unlikely that contracts have a relegation clause. |  | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 18:19 - Oct 1 with 930 views | TK1 |
| Man City - GUILTY on 17:13 - Oct 1 by KensalT |
I don't want to get into a political back and forth. Particularly not over Manchester and the bloody Arabs.
Suffice to say politicians like major urban regeneration but they have to lube up for whoever has the money to invest in it.
Thatcher had London Docklands, Burnham had Manchester, Knighthead are busy cosying up to politicians in Birmingham, and if Tony Fernandes had treated Boris to a line of coke and a couple of dancing girls we might not still be playing in Loftus Road!
It's a mutually beneficial relationship. The politicians can cut through red tape and make preferential deals, and in return they get plenty of political capital and no doubt a few undeclared freebies.
But that's just how the world of business works.
If the UAE wanted to buy a Prime Minster they wouldn't have had to sink a small fortune into Manchester to do it. There are far more direct ways of doing that when you're sitting on top of as much oil as they are.
It's serendipitous for them that Burnham has moved into Number 10. But now that he's there and they need a few favours it's inevitable they will try to exploit that.
In truth I think political influence is the strongest card left for them to play. But that doesn't mean it will work.
I think it would be a disaster for the PL if they tried to brush City's cheating under the carpet. It would shatter their credibility globally.
Yes it's true that the UAE does a lot of business with the UK.
But the PL is a global brand that also brings in large sums of money and sustains many jobs. Ernst & Young value that at £33bn over the next three years:
https://www.insideworldfootbal
Yes the Arabs might throw their toys out of the pram and they might even pull some of their investments for a while. But in all likelihood they will be back. As I said in an earlier post there's a lot going on in the Middle East, some geopolitical experts are speculating that by the time the Iran war is done the whole map could be redrawn and some of the smaller states could disappear off the map forever.
The UAE might be p!ssed off with us now but in a year or two they could be desperate for our help. If only because our banks and financial institutions are a safe place for them to park their wealth if they need to do a runner.
At the end of the day football is the national sport. Burnham might have plenty of friends in Manchester and might even owe a few favours but he knows that most of the country does not support the Manchester clubs and him bending over backwards to do them favours will lose him far more votes than he will gain. [Post edited 1 Oct 18:00]
|
I don't think we are actually disagreeing. Influence is opaque. But Abu Dhabi would have had less of it without Man City. I hope the PL sanction them as hard as they can.
The one line I disagree is this:
"But the PL is a global brand that also brings in large sums of money and sustains many jobs. Ernst & Young value that at £33bn over the next three years"
This estimate is before the 114 charges. Now, the PL is fatally compromised and its worth domestically and globally will crater. See Serie A, once the dominant league but hobbled by scandals and post the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 cooked. League hasn't really fully recovered there. Here too we are saying that several years of the product exported around the globe, "the best league in the world" is null and void. A sham. A lot of the value is based on the best players and managers being here - that's already changing and will be accelerated now.
The value of the PL will plummet. Oil, meanwhile, as you say continues to rise and that money can be invested elsewhere. |  | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 18:57 - Oct 1 with 857 views | KensalT |
| Man City - GUILTY on 18:19 - Oct 1 by TK1 |
I don't think we are actually disagreeing. Influence is opaque. But Abu Dhabi would have had less of it without Man City. I hope the PL sanction them as hard as they can.
The one line I disagree is this:
"But the PL is a global brand that also brings in large sums of money and sustains many jobs. Ernst & Young value that at £33bn over the next three years"
This estimate is before the 114 charges. Now, the PL is fatally compromised and its worth domestically and globally will crater. See Serie A, once the dominant league but hobbled by scandals and post the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 cooked. League hasn't really fully recovered there. Here too we are saying that several years of the product exported around the globe, "the best league in the world" is null and void. A sham. A lot of the value is based on the best players and managers being here - that's already changing and will be accelerated now.
The value of the PL will plummet. Oil, meanwhile, as you say continues to rise and that money can be invested elsewhere. |
Fair.
But with some significant provisos:
1. Italy has had some big clubs but Juventus has always been head and shoulders above the rest. For them to be cut down to size was a very big deal for the whole country (except their hometown of Turin where they like to stick it to the man).
Man City are a wealthy club but have never been the biggest. Cutting them down to size is not going to have the same impact on the standing of the PL that Juve represented in Serie A.
2. Italian football has had more than one major scandal in recent decades. There was Juventus, at least two organised betting scandals, and drug scandals on top of that:
https://www.theguardian.com/fo
None of that has yet happened in the PL, Although as Clive has suggested, it beggars belief that no one ever fails a drug test!
3. Everyone knows that Man City has been cooking the books. the only surprise is that it has taken this long to prove it. But none of those rumours has stopped the TV deals getting bigger and bigger.
4. Having finally exposed Man City's cheating I think it would now do more harm to the PL's reputation to let them off lightly than it would to get medieval on their sorry carcass.
I completely agree with your wish that the PL sanctions them as hard as they can. | | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 20:19 - Oct 1 with 727 views | GroveR |
| Man City - GUILTY on 18:57 - Oct 1 by KensalT |
Fair.
But with some significant provisos:
1. Italy has had some big clubs but Juventus has always been head and shoulders above the rest. For them to be cut down to size was a very big deal for the whole country (except their hometown of Turin where they like to stick it to the man).
Man City are a wealthy club but have never been the biggest. Cutting them down to size is not going to have the same impact on the standing of the PL that Juve represented in Serie A.
2. Italian football has had more than one major scandal in recent decades. There was Juventus, at least two organised betting scandals, and drug scandals on top of that:
https://www.theguardian.com/fo
None of that has yet happened in the PL, Although as Clive has suggested, it beggars belief that no one ever fails a drug test!
3. Everyone knows that Man City has been cooking the books. the only surprise is that it has taken this long to prove it. But none of those rumours has stopped the TV deals getting bigger and bigger.
4. Having finally exposed Man City's cheating I think it would now do more harm to the PL's reputation to let them off lightly than it would to get medieval on their sorry carcass.
I completely agree with your wish that the PL sanctions them as hard as they can. |
Don't forget the influence (control) broadcasters have.
The main Italian broadcaster (RAI) had exclusivity until Italian law changed to allow individual clubs to negotiate their own deals. Predictably, Juventus and AC Milan signed massive deals and the Oldhams and Lutons of Serie A got gob-bummed.
The Premier League was only ever founded to maximise commercial revenues for it's members and by extension, itself. In retaining collective bargaining power, they could play Sky against everyone else (LWT/ITV, BBC, Setanta (LOL), BT Sports) and profit. PL revenues are four times those of FIFA year on year. In typical Rangers fashion we fell into the proverbial barrel of tìts and came out sucking our thumb.
I would love to see the whole stinking edifice come crashing down and specifically a 15 acre site on the Fulham Road razed to the ground and sowed with salt but there's just too much money involved. |  | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Man City - GUILTY on 20:54 - Oct 1 with 638 views | KensalT |
| Man City - GUILTY on 20:19 - Oct 1 by GroveR |
Don't forget the influence (control) broadcasters have.
The main Italian broadcaster (RAI) had exclusivity until Italian law changed to allow individual clubs to negotiate their own deals. Predictably, Juventus and AC Milan signed massive deals and the Oldhams and Lutons of Serie A got gob-bummed.
The Premier League was only ever founded to maximise commercial revenues for it's members and by extension, itself. In retaining collective bargaining power, they could play Sky against everyone else (LWT/ITV, BBC, Setanta (LOL), BT Sports) and profit. PL revenues are four times those of FIFA year on year. In typical Rangers fashion we fell into the proverbial barrel of tìts and came out sucking our thumb.
I would love to see the whole stinking edifice come crashing down and specifically a 15 acre site on the Fulham Road razed to the ground and sowed with salt but there's just too much money involved. |
That's an interesting point.
FIFA is just an administrative body. Its one big commercial asset is the World Cup and once every four years it has a huge tournament that generates a mountain of money, and the rest of the time it loses money (or so I understand).
Part of me is surprised that the big English clubs haven't tried to negotiate their own TV deals. And maybe one day they will. But would it really be in their interests?
The reason American sports try to level the playing field is because they realised a long time ago that people won't watch if the same couple of teams hoovers up all the big prizes.
You could say that's what we have got already in England, except that maybe five or six clubs have a chance of winning something and maybe as much as half the PL now has the consolation prize of qualifying for Europe - not you Spurs!
The recent Liverpool takeover valued the club at $5bn. That's more than double the combined value of all 72 EFL clubs!
And if you look around Europe.......
It's years since an Italian club won a major European trophy, and their once mighty national team has failed to reach the last three World Cup finals.
Bayern dominate German football, and their national team is also in the doldrums.
Portugal produces good footballers but most of their top players play abroad and their domestic league is woeful. Osman Kakay and Hevertton Santos have both been able to get a game there in recent years. And in the two years Gyokeres spent out there he seemed to score every time he walked onto the pitch.
In France you've got a great PSG team, and not much else.
In Scotland - well do I even need to say it 
The one big exception is perhaps Spain, but they invest heavily in high quality coaching at youth level. probably more than anyone else.
The 'elite' European leagues (and Scotland) are all becoming less competitive as more and more wealth gets concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Eventually the game will eat itself. | | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 21:14 - Oct 1 with 587 views | KensalT |
And on the subject of European football.........
| | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 21:47 - Oct 1 with 484 views | Match82 |
| Man City - GUILTY on 21:14 - Oct 1 by KensalT |
And on the subject of European football.........
|
What's that, self serving, me? Nah guv, just an honest citizen, wanting to do my part. |  | | |
| Man City - GUILTY on 22:33 - Oct 1 with 354 views | Dorse |
Have they said how many points we'll be docked yet? |  |
| 'What do we want? We don't know! When do we want it? Now!' |
| |
| Man City - GUILTY on 23:21 - Oct 1 with 254 views | kensalriser |
| Man City - GUILTY on 22:33 - Oct 1 by Dorse |
Have they said how many points we'll be docked yet? |
Haven't this been inducted into the LfW Hall of Retired Jokes? |  |
| |
| Man City - GUILTY on 00:39 - Oct 2 with 165 views | numptydumpty |
| Man City - GUILTY on 22:33 - Oct 1 by Dorse |
Have they said how many points we'll be docked yet? |
We will face charges from 2012 onwards, basically because Wayne Rooney, never known to be a cheat, has stated with 100% assertion, that QPR let City get their Aguero moment, which if that didnt happen, Man Utd would have continued to dominate forever more.
So QPR are equally culpable from that moment, so our points deduction will be for the fourteen seasons after this, and we will therefore be deducted 50 points at the beginning of the next 14 seasons coming, on a par with a similar fine as City.
As inevitable, as night follows day !! |  |
| |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.