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Explaining Man City's £900m 'sham' finances

The Athletic FC Podcast

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Manchester City have been found guilty of artificially inflating their revenues and reducing costs via "sham payments" in the verdict reached by an independent regulatory commission investigating the charges brought against them by the Premier League.

Kate Mason is joined by The Athletic's senior news reporter Matt Slater, at the European Football Clubs general assembly in Copenhagen as well as former England goalkeeper Rob Green to react to the statements released by both the Premier League and Manchester City

The Athletic's football finance writer Chris Weatherspoon also breaks down the nature of the "sham" payments as outlined by the commission as well as the extent of the owner funding within Man City's ownership group.

Our Man City correspondent Sam Lee also joins to discuss City's stance, as the club continue to insist on their innocence and well as saying they will "pursue the appeal avenues open" to them.

00:00 Intro
00:44 The Premier League’s statement on Man City
07:02 The Premier League calling City’s dealings a ‘sham’
11:26 Man City’s statement in response to commission's findings
15:00 How this will effect the players?
16:55 Ferran Soriano’s comments on the ruling
22:17 How this verdict was reached
35:20 Has Man City's stance caused more scrutiny for them?
37:21 What punishments are open to Man City?
42:23 Outro

Executive Producer: Guy Clarke
Producer: Xavi Bird
Video Producer: Liam Warburton

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#manchestercity #premierleague #mancity

20 Comments

@RinneganMan-h5f 1 day ago

When does the investigation into their dealings SINCE 2018 start? You can't tell me they stopped. They don't even admit they've done anything wrong.

@akmunrasungod 1 day ago

Sam trying to pass off City being acquitted by CAS. They were not acquitted; they got off on a technicality.

@chevithegreat5846 1 day ago

900M is only up to 2018, it's not like after that they just became law abiding citizens, Man city deserves to be dismantled.

@dqdr 1 day ago (edited)

I'm surprised Sam Lee doesn't mention the fact that City's "victory" at CAS was more about the financial indiscretions being time-barred and due to UEFA's lack of expedience and ability to bring a semi-coherent case, than they were anything to do with City suddenly found to be angels in the scenario and all was suddenly forgiven.

@T0AD0FT0ADHALL 1 day ago (edited)

Blows my mind that the media is basically reporting this like we didn't really know for sure before the press release. Everyone knew in 2011. Players, staff, and managers signed since 2011 knew what was going on. They are all complicit. The penalties should be retrospective (as well as ongoing) and cost every single one of them their medals. End of. Everyone who went there did so without an ounce of morality.

@ajahnpadawan8812 1 day ago

No one should have any embarrassment about being awarded retrospective medals. You may not have felt your team was good enough at the time, but you were measuring yourself against an artificially and unfairly enhanced squad.

@MrTimothydclark 1 day ago

How does Sam at the end not mention the fact they only got off at CAS because the evidence/charges were time -barred? Real failure to miss that element off.

@carnifex2000 1 day ago

No matter what happens now Shamchester City will not recover from this in a long, long time. All the respect is gone.

@MatthewChauta 1 day ago

If you don't strip the titles, that just incentivizes other clubs to cheat. Most clubs would trade virtually any punishment for three league titles.

@JosephKassango 1 day ago

The Greatest Scandal in Football History. The Pepestein Files Will Feed Generations.

@marineboy1964 1 day ago (edited)

City didn't win the appeal in European football CAS
City dragged it out so long it went over the 3 year time period and they got off on a technicality

@betrayer-s9s 1 day ago

They should be immediately investigated for post-2018 dealings. I do not believe for a minute the revenues suddenly became legal/legitamised.

@BillyG598 1 day ago

So this isn't comparable to Lance Armstrong and Calciopoli, this is Enron in 2001 and Lehman Brothers in 2008. This is systemic fraud. Enron and Lehman went extinct.

@creamsobaz 1 day ago

They scammed everyone for over a decade. The punishment should affect them for a decade.

@ClintOnYouTube 1 day ago

Somebody should be challenging Sam Lee over his framing of the CAS ruling.

City did not get vindicated. They got away with the ban because of a UEFA own goal.

CAS still upheld a portion of the fine for non-cooperation.

CAS's own ruling said that UEFA had a legitimate basis to prosecute City.

@WaniZame 1 day ago

The confidence comes from them being a group of people who aren’t used to being told what to do and get everything they want. It’s bloody obvious but Sam is incapable of saying it.

@d1sciple83 1 day ago

What a lie about CAS, it only got off on time. It didn't get anything else, fuck me this is dreadful journalism, that guy needs to be fired.

@pleasureseekers80s 1 day ago

They won the CAS appeal on a technicality: the statute of limitations. UEFA had found them guilty, but the case was brought outside the five-year limitation period.

@antonioalvarez9087 1 day ago

Nothing short of relegation and stripping them of their metals will be sufficient. The credibility of the entire league and footballing world rests on Man City feeling sufficient pain to dissuade other clubs from trying to play the same fruad game.