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

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[Adam @AdamJoseph]

I for one, am shocked that a crucial decision at an important moment of the game benefited City.

3-2, blatant handball not given, City now lead 5-3 in a game that they've been vastly outplayed in.

Good job @prorefofficial, total incompetence yet again.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@ManUtd Yeah I'm going to need to see proof of that over the coming 90 minutes.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@AliceTalksFooty I don't think Benjamin Sesko is injury prone (missed 7 of 46 games through injury since joining Manchester United & this shin was a freak injury), but it's the same situation as Hojlund where too much is expected of one player regardless of the fee, with little to support him.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Considering the injuries Benjamin Sesko & Luke Shaw have had already this season (& preseason), perhaps this summer when Michael Carrick wanted a striker & a left back Manchester United should have got him both.

Hope is not a strategy, it is planning to fail.

[(fan) Frank 🧠🇾🇪 @FrankEra_]

🚨🤕 | JUST IN:

It sounds like Benjamin Sesko could be out with the SAME shin issue that kept him out across the summer.

[@StevenRailston]

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

The main concern I have with Manchester United's starting lineup is, what are the repercussions for bad performances if those who did not perform vs Brighton (Dalot) keep their place & what about those who did perform (Yoro, Lacey) not starting?

It doesn't send the best message.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Great to have Carlos Baleba available for a potential debut, as well as Luke Shaw back in the team. Injury concerns remains but the team is better with him in it.

Matheus Cunha up front again is not ideal, I would have preferred Shea Lacey to start on the right so Bryan Mbeumo could play through the middle.

Leny Yoro deserves more chances to play, he was lumped in with the display but was the only one keeping anything at bay among Darlow & the back four.

Hope Benjamin Sesko is ok. Come on lads.

[Manchester United @ManUtd]

Presenting your United XI to face Fulham ✊

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@ManUtd Got to find a way to win & hopefully convincingly so.

Three points & nothing less will do.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@Ellis_ Invest in good people >>>

[Steve @CansAndBansV12]

It’s clearly being coached into them. And that’s the issue

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Liverpool fans have made every excuse for Florian Wirtz. He needs time to settle (he doesn't), his underlying metrics are good (they weren't), Iraola will unlock him (he won't), he's a connector not a creator (give me a break).

Reality is, he's crap. He can't even do the basics.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@JonesyyyMUFC @ManUtd Happy birthday legend.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

Feeling for the City fans leaving all those empty seats & missed Brian Brobbey's equaliser for Sunderland.

It must be because it's a midweek cup game that they aren't there.. oh wait, no it isn't.

[Adam @AdamJoseph]

@SibsMUFC Got the big 500! That's an insane number 😂

[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.