Adam

Manchester United | PL & European Football | 📧 [email protected] | IG & TT: @adamjosephfootball | @nqatpod & @tplmufc 🎙️ | sponsored by @rainbetcom

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

🧵 THREAD: Manchester City, the charges, the evidence, & how justice was delayed.

Manchester City weren’t charged because rivals complained or because they 'spent big'. They were charged because evidence shows a decade-long system designed to hide owner funding, inflate revenue & deceive & obstruct investigations.

The Premier League’s case didn’t appear overnight.
It began in late 2018, triggered by Football Leaks documents - internal emails, invoices, contracts - that contradicted what City had been telling UEFA & the Premier League for years.

Those emails are the backbone of everything that followed. At the centre of the case is a simple allegation: Manchester City repeatedly disguised owner funding as commercial revenue.

FFP rules require sponsorship income to be real, independent, and market value. What the emails suggest is that City’s biggest 'sponsors' weren’t paying what City claimed - Abu Dhabi was.

Take Etihad as an example. Leaked emails show City executives discussing Etihad paying only a fraction of headline sponsorship deals, with the shortfall quietly topped up by Abu Dhabi government-linked entities.

One email explicitly references ensuring funds 'come through the correct channels' so they are not detected as separate sources of funding. That is the definition of disguised equity. This wasn’t a one-off.

Emails show Etihad deals where shirt sponsorship, stadium, training kit & campus naming rights were all inflated wildly out of line with the market at the time - later confirmed in the actual contracts, not just drafts.

The numbers in the leaks weren’t hypothetical. They were real. UEFA auditors suspected this as early as 2013–14.

They found £47m of 'intellectual property' sales boosting income, a £5m 'win bonus' paid for an FA Cup final City lost & sponsorships from Aabar and Etisalat above market value.

City were fined & restricted - but crucially, UEFA never saw the full records. Why? Because City refused to provide them. This becomes a pattern.

When UEFA charged City again in 2020, they imposed a two-year Champions League ban. City appealed to CAS & had it overturned. City fans shout 'INNOCENT', shared out of context screenshots. They're wrong.

CAS did not rule that City were innocent. CAS ruled that UEFA could not meet the burden of proof - largely because City did not co-operate. City were fined €10m specifically for obstructing the investigation.

Even City's own expert witness was denied access to key information that could have disproved disguised funding. 'No evidence' doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means the evidence was withheld.

CAS explicitly stated that disguised equity funding could not be excluded - only that neither side could conclusively prove their case. That vagueness was entirely engineered.

After CAS, new emails emerged suggesting Simon Pearce, a senior City executive & Sheikh Mansour adviser, had given misleading testimony under oath. City declined to comment. Again.

While all this was happening, the Premier League had already been investigating City for years. City’s response? Delay. Delay. Delay. Obstruct. Litigate.

Court filings later revealed City challenged the legality of the investigation itself, filed repeated procedural applications, refused to hand over documents, forced arbitration, then challenged arbitration & tried to keep the entire process secret.

A High Court judge called it out in 2021. “It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made.” That’s legal spiel for stonewalling.

This obstruction accounts for 35 of the 115 charges alone & that’s before we get to the secret payments.

City declared Roberto Mancini's salary as £1.45m per year. On the same day he signed with City, he also signed a “consultancy” deal with Al Jazira - a club owned by the same man who owns City - worth £1.75m per year. That deal was explicitly marked confidential.

Emails show City executives arranging the payments. Same signatures. Same people. Same day. The allegation is obvious: City paid Mancini off the books.

Leaked documents allege undeclared payments for Yaya Touré, including via third parties. These aren’t rumours. They’re contracts, emails, invoices. This is why there are 14 charges relating to manager and player remuneration.

Then there’s image rights. City told UEFA they sold player image rights for a £24.5m lump sum to comply with FFP. Later, they quietly resumed earning millions from image rights again.

The buyer? A company whose directors included City’s own senior legal officer. Independent journalists couldn’t even establish its genuine commercial purpose.

All of this feeds into the core allegation across 54 charges: City failed to provide accurate financial information in good faith. Not once. Not twice. But repeatedly, over nearly a decade.

Now add politics. UK government departments discussed City’s charges with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi. Those communications are sealed - because releasing them could 'damage relations with the UAE'. City insist they are not state-backed. Then why is the state involved?

Yet still, the delays continue. A 12-week closed-door hearing. Half a million documents. Years of silence. City remain 'innocent' - not because the evidence disappeared, but because the verdict hasn’t landed.

This is why the case matters. If City walk away with a fine, it tells every club to cheat cleverly, obstruct endlessly, spend on lawyers, not compliance.. & the rules collapse.

This isn’t about jealousy. It isn’t about success. It’s about whether financial regulation in English football is real - or optional for the richest club in the league.

The evidence exists. The emails exist. The delays are documented. Now only one question remains, do the rules apply to City or not?

[No Question About That @nqatpod]

We still haven't had a verdict in the 115 charges against City for (alleged) financial malfeasance. City are spending more money this winter, chasing another title. Ed and Adam pick up the story. @AdamJoseph

Patreon: https://t.co/JfG0Pf4PvB
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[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@Ellis_ That many in a year - or at all - is crazy, you deserve it. Keep it going brother.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@unitedhan Sesko has missed 7 of 46 games through injury since joining Manchester United. He isn't injury prone at all.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@SwedishRumble @valuball You were quoting capology as recently as this year lol.

[Wayne Barton @WayneSBarton]

Fergie : The Lost Tapes is published on Thursday.

It’s 528 pages to tell the greatest football management era in history. 400+ hours of rare Ferguson interviews, exclusive interviews with so many more.

Discounts here :

https://t.co/FLX5N7ohBp

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@ManUtd Win. Doesn't matter how, just got to get it done going into the International break.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@__scottsaunders When you drop tweets like this:

[Scott Saunders @__scottsaunders]

Alan Shearer called Bruno Fernandes “pathetic” and for him to get sent off a week ago for something nowhere near as aggressive and petulant as what Rice did.

Funny that.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@FrankEra_ You deserve it brother. I know you aspire to be one of the very best in what you do & you're one of the very best there is on here, regardless of field. Appreciate you.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@AcademyScoop I would say something is incredibly uncomfortable about this, but I know exactly what that something is.

[Fin @AcademyScoop]

Understand Ali Barat of Epic Sports is playing a key role in efforts to engineer a move away from Manchester United for JJ Gabriel.

Raises question marks over whether an agent of such high profile should be involved in a deal of this nature for a 15-year-old.

Plenty of talk about Gabriel’s father but there are others involved in the deal that should be scrutinised.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

For Sully to speak so openly should be applauded, whether you agree with the content or not it is an extraordinarily courageous piece of writing.

The most damning aspects:
- lack of alignment in overall decision making, particularly around hiring & firing of managers
- treatment of Dan Ashworth
- decisions made on emotion
- internal disillusionment with INEOS
- Matt Hargreaves seen as an embarrassment internally by many & someone who isn't fit for the job
- Christopher Vivell being bracketed with Wilcox & Hargreaves in decision making & due criticism

When you have relationships & contacts in an industry that relies on them, it is a fine line to tread of saying what you know & what you can't say.

It is important for the likes of Sully & Nathan Salt to speak their mind so openly.

[Sully @SullyTalkz]

INEOS and the Glazers aren't destroying United, they've already destroyed it.

The only thing they are best in class in is saving money while United fans suffer the consequences.

An in-depth breakdown of how they are failing yet another coach @UtdDistrict https://t.co/BNz5rkbA6a

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@SullyTalkz @UtdDistrict '50 Cent got shot nine times and survived. INEOS haven't landed a single target, and United fans are dying.'

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Real & Atleti are both chasing Barcelona, nothing less than a win in El Derbi Madrileño will do for that & obvious reasons.

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[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Brentford 3-0 Chelsea
Villa 3-2 Tottenham
Brighton 3-0 Arsenal

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Martin Odegaard hauled off in a 3-0 loss to Brighton. I hope he will be held to the same standard as Bruno Fernandes now that he's been absolutely dreadful in a horrendous loss. Or does he get reverse treatment, where he only gets praise when things are going well?

(Yes)

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@StevenRailston Oh no Steven. No way...

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Thanks Arsenal, Manchester United's 3-2 loss to Brighton isn't starting to look so bad now.

3-0 spanking happening in broad daylight.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

The Premier League has never been more difficult than it is now. There isn't the depth of elite teams, but the parity across the board is brutally hard. Every away trip is no joke. Clubs have closed the gap to the top, learned how to spend well, find & develop talent.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

When times are tough, you are always reminded that there are people in much worse positions than you.

For Premier League clubs, there's always Tottenham.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@PapaSayds @ManUtd