Sportswash! - Let’s oil stare at Manchester City!

[villa89]

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

So if I drive at 150mph on the motorway because the 70mph is bullshit, is it an over reaction to give me a fine or ban me from driving?

Because that's what it seems you are saying

It shouldn't seem like that, they'll be fined or have an transfer embargo or both or suffer a points deduction next season and that's fair enough. But the level of outrage is something like you'd expect if they were found to have bribed refs or bought off opposition players. I don't think its as severe an infringement as people are making out. 

[Mic09]

Just now, villa89 said:

But the level of outrage is something like you'd expect if they were found to have bribed refs or bought off opposition players. I don't think its as severe an infringement as people are making out. 

The essentially bought off players like Milner, Delph, Grealish, Barry, because they inflated their income.

So it's exactly what they did. 

[duke313]

18 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

Accusations of Klopp's Liverpool team taking that has been rife amongst rival fans for years, questioning how they can have such high energy levels for 90 minutes across multiple seasons.

Lance Armstrong FC

[Sulberto21]

Just now, duke313 said:

Lance Armstrong FC

And billion dollar enhancePep fc.

PEPtides FC 

[Chindie]

The game has rules about how a club can bring in money. They blatantly broke them and through breaking them made themselves into 6 times League, 6 times League Cup and FA Cup winners, and CL runners up artificially. A decade of dominance built on the back of cheating. Money they used to make themselves into this charmless hateful victory machine contravened the rules, without this cheating they wouldn't have achieved what they have, and as a result have warped the entire football pyramid for that period.

They should be deleted from the game.

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

Just checking in: They still in the league?

[TheMelvillan]

just to flip the script/ narrative a little, would it be fair to say that,  in respect to transfer fees paid out,  Villa are the English club that have benefitted most from City's corruption? Arsenal have also made out pretty well over the years I imagine

[stewiek2]

5 hours ago, duke313 said:

Lance Armstrong FC

During the lockdown season when Liverpool were so off rival fans forums were full of 'haha the puffers not working eh Klopp' and the like.

Edited February 8, 2023 by stewiek2

[The_Steve]

The industrial level financial doping not only brought trophies - it brought income they wouldn’t otherwise get and allows them to pay obscene wages to players not even in their first XI. None of that would be possible without how they cheated their way to the top. They use that financial clout to now to ensure they ring fence talent far beyond what other clubs could pay. How many clubs could afford the wages given to Haaland, KDB, Grealish and Stones? Even now, I’d have serious reservations about what they are actually being paid. Hence why City is refusing to comply. They are hostile witnesses in all of this. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by The_Steve

[turnbull]

4 hours ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Bored of going to Wembley

Says it all really

Crucially though, not bored of winning the Champions League.

[GlobalVillan]

57 minutes ago, villa89 said:

It shouldn't seem like that, they'll be fined or have an transfer embargo or both or suffer a points deduction next season and that's fair enough. But the level of outrage is something like you'd expect if they were found to have bribed refs or bought off opposition players. I don't think its as severe an infringement as people are making out. 

You must be on a wind up here. Surely.

[desensitized43]

1 hour ago, villa89 said:

It shouldn't seem like that, they'll be fined or have an transfer embargo or both or suffer a points deduction next season and that's fair enough. But the level of outrage is something like you'd expect if they were found to have bribed refs or bought off opposition players. I don't think its as severe an infringement as people are making out. 

You keep talking about “the level of outrage”…are people supposed to be just a little bit upset that another team in the division has cheated for over a decade, pillaged other clubs of their best players and then refused to comply with the investigation? Doesn’t it make you angry at all?

This is the reason why we have such a **** country. People who just accept corruption and wrongdoing…compliant, forelock tuggers.

[Dodgyknees]

1 hour ago, TheMelvillan said:

just to flip the script/ narrative a little, would it be fair to say that,  in respect to transfer fees paid out,  Villa are the English club that have benefitted most from City's corruption? Arsenal have also made out pretty well over the years I imagine

Not really. Destabilising if anything.

[desensitized43]

5 minutes ago, Dodgyknees said:

Not really. Destabilising if anything.

This. Let’s not forget that business with Fibian wealth. City just couldn’t take no for an answer and threw all that dirty cash around and the destabilising effect (coupled with the admittedly shocking reinvestment) sent us down.

[Teale's 'tache]

The more I think about this whole thing the more it bothers me, it's difficult to grasp the sheer scale of damage that has been done. It's not just the trophies they've won, the players they've stolen, but they've also inflated the market, both fees and wages, they were already rising and would always have continued to rise, but their spending has undoubtedly contributed in a sharp increase in both. Every club in Europe has had to pay more to keep up with them, and of course that means a knock on effect further down the pyramid as well.

I don't have much expectation that the punishment will be as severe as it should be, money talks after all, but I do hope that this becomes a sliding doors moment, where the powers that be realise that something has to change and meaningful changes are made.

I don't know the best way forward, what regulations would work, what model might be achievable, but I do think this proves it's time to start having that discussion, before the game we all love turns in to something we can't stomach. 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Teale's 'tache
typo in my typo

[Follyfoot]

12 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

The more I think about this whole thing the more it bothers me, it's difficult to grasp the sheer scale of damage that has been done. It's not just the trophies they've won, the players they've stolen, but they've also inflated the market, both fees and wages, they were already rising and would always have continued to rise, but their spending has undoubtedly contributed in a sharp increase in both. Every club in Europe has had to pay more to keep up with them, and of course that means a knock on effect further down the pyramid as well.

I don't have much expectation that the punishment will be as sever as it should be, money talks after all, but I do hope that this becomes a sliding doors moment, where the powers that be realise that something has to change and meaningful changes are made.

I don't know the best way forward, what regulations would work, what model might be achievable, but I do think this proves it's time to start having that discussion, before the game we all love turns in to something we can't stomach. 

I think that horse may well of altered bolted mate, sadly 

[KMitch]

3 hours ago, Mic09 said:

So if I drive at 150mph on the motorway because the 70mph is bullshit, is it an over reaction to give me a fine or ban me from driving?
Because that's what it seems you are saying.

Rules are bullshit. Which is fine. 

But if they are in place, what punishment should teams that break them face in your opinion? 

And that's before we get to the actual nature of the offences - they tried to cover up their tracks by dodgy sponsorship deals, very well knowing they can not do that. 

I would have less of an issue if the sheiks said 'Screw it, Mbappe, here is a billion for you, and here is a blue shirt.' 

One important thing to point out here, they didn't just break the law once or twice, it's been a blatant disregard of all the rules and regulations for over a decade.

Speeding one or two times is a fine...  The reality is that they've been driving 150 mph on the motorway every day for the past 14 years and every time a cop tries to pull them over, they laugh at the cops and drive faster.  Whenever the cops do manage to get them to stop, they refuse to cooperate with the police, act like it's a big conspiracy to frame them, then hire a PR team along with a legion of lawyers to get them out of any sort of trouble.  Other motorists are starting to see this behavior going unchecked and ask "why do I have to follow the rules if they aren't?" and start to drive faster themselves, creating an unsafe motorway for everyone using the roads, especially less wealthy people who don't have an army of lawyers to defend them when they get caught. 

[Lichfield Dean]

Any chance Chelsea's crazy spending was in anticipation of some new restrictions coming along in the near future?

Probably not related, I don't see that they'd know this Man City stuff was in the works, but the timing is certainly coincidental.

[Stevo71]

I suspect “Champions of Europe” will get a heartfelt airing at the weekend. 
They’ve unfairly and unjustly taken a seat at the top table, artificially inflated their league and cup wins tally and lorded it over far more historic and worthy teams for over a decade, taking players at will. I’m getting more worked up about it the more I think about it. 

[Mr_Dogg]

1 hour ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Any chance Chelsea's crazy spending was in anticipation of some new restrictions coming along in the near future?

Probably not related, I don't see that they'd know this Man City stuff was in the works, but the timing is certainly coincidental.

Chelsea spotted a loophole with the lengthy contracts, that loophole will be closed as a result.