Ant 🔰

[Madrid Xtra @MadridXtra]

🚨 Thibaut Courtois: “What Man City did was RIG THE COMPETITION.

Maybe if they hadn’t done what they did, they WOULDN’T have been able to attract the players they signed.”

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@UKlionfan @KevEastSports @baidinho10 @RealTolmie @premierleague Forensic financial investigations rely on bank statements, contracts and email trails - not verbal testimony.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@Jenny_MCFC92 @rphamer1984 "Forced upon us because of the majority vote" is how democracy works. Joining a league means accepting majority rule, regardless of when you bought the club or how you voted.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@AllyFogg @rphamer1984 You're splitting hairs. ​Buying a Premier League club means buying a seat in a democratically governed league. Losing a vote on spending caps doesn't grant you immunity to run £900m+ in sham deals to bypass them does it?

[Melissa Reddy @MelissaReddy_]

Poor - and biased - response from Andy Burnham on Manchester City being found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules by an Independent Commission.

He says “I can’t intervene *more* in the process,” which requires an explanation in itself.

Then offers commentary on previous proceedings he felt was unfair, AND states he wouldn’t want to lose the club’s owners who have “been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester. Obviously, the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.”

How was that force built?

And on the investment into the city itself, per a 2022 Guardian report: “Nine sites were sold to Sheikh Mansour at a fraction of their value, and well below what other plots nearby fetched. They were on leases lasting 999 years, well beyond the norm. And the fund shifted what had been public assets to companies registered in Jersey.

“That walk along the water from New Islington into Ancoats now passes blocks of privatised land owned in an offshore tax haven, which yields millions upon millions for a key member of the wealthy elite running a surveillance state halfway across the globe. One of the greatest cities in the world has sold itself to a senior figure in a brutal autocracy – and not even for a good price.”

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

“I would be really concerned to lose them.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the possibility of Manchester City’s owners selling up. What?! These are owners found guilty of serial breaches of the Premier League rule-book by three judges on an independent commission after a lengthy investigation. Owners who outraged other clubs and countless fans by flouting the rules and inflating sponsorship income with the Disguised Funding Scheme.

Owners who misled auditors and regulators, who threaten to bring this Premier League season – and, potentially, future seasons - to a standstill by their appeal, deny, delay tactics. Owners who are patently not proper custodians of a famous, historic club. Owners who many hope will sell up and ship out after bringing such shame and sham contracts to the game.

So these are astonishing, alarming comments from the PM. “I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn't just put into the Etihad and the campus around it but also into the city," Burnham told the BBC’s Chris Mason.

Come on, PM. Read the room. Read the commission’s report. Read the belligerent statements from the Abu Dhabi owners and their chief executive like Ferran Soriano. Rather than thank CFG, perhaps thank the diligence of the Premier League in seeking to enforce its rules and protect the national sport. Perhaps thank the three judges for their pain-staking work in sifting through reams of evidence and coming to their considered conclusion.

Burnham spoke as a politician seemingly with one eye on diplomatic and trade links. He spoke as a former mayor whose city benefited from investment in east Manchester by Abu Dhabi. “They've been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.” And how was that building financed?

Burnham spoke as a politician and not the football fan that he truly is. The lifelong Evertonian is usually pretty sound on football matters. He misread the mood of many fans not wanting the possible return of drinking in Premier League stands but that was a rare misstep. This is far worse. This makes him look out of touch with the prevailing mood. He was speaking at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Maybe he should head to Anfield on Sunday week and witness the anger felt towards City.

Burnham did add that he wasn’t getting involved in the process and that City had a right to appeal if they felt harshly treated. But how does the PM’s sympathetic words for controversial owners help the independent football regulator charged by Government with leading the fight against those who risk the credibility of their club, who play fast and loose with the rules and who damage the integrity of the national sport?

How frustrating if Burnham’s words embolden City's owners and Soriano further. Bit of an own goal by No 10.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@dankthemanc Think you're barking up the wrong tree here - leagues are legally permitted to enforce spending caps to protect financial solvency and fair play. City agreed to the rules. Re APT, the tribunal confirmed APT rules are lawful under UK competition law.

[Paddy Power @paddypower]

The Manchester sign gets an update…

18+ GambleAware

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@draper_rob This is the point, the rules may not be perfect but they're designed to help keep clubs solvent and help ensure competition is decided by smart club management and sustainable growth, not just who has the richest benefactor.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@rphamer1984 @imo_omar EFL rules (SCMP) operate very differently to PL PSR, so I'm not sure you can really make the Salford comparison. But if Salford breached EFL limits or disguised funding through fake deals, they’d be charged too - that's consistency.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@rphamer1984 @Erotomania91 Except that a shop isn't in a 20-team football league where everyone agrees to equal spending rules to help keep the league alive.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@rphamer1984 @imo_omar And when the benefactor is for all intents and purposes a nation-state, the problem multiplies exponentially. Sovereign wealth can absorb losses no normal business ever could, destroying market competition unless strict, transparent rules are enforced.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@rphamer1984 @imo_omar I understand your argument, but PL ​clubs aren't standard private companies. The rules are designed to help to keep clubs solvent and help ensure competition is decided by smart club management and sustainable growth, not just who has the richest benefactor.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@thecitydefender Seriously?! Chelsea self-reported historical reporting breaches, while City were found guilty of a £900m+ disguised funding scheme over 9 seasons. You don't get a £15.5m fine and suspended transfer ban for systemic fraud - but nice try!

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@City_Chief Let's be real - when you've been found guilty on 114 charges for running a multi-year, £900m+ disguised funding scheme, any talk of mitigation is clutching at straws.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@footyinsider247 You don't dock 20 points for £900m+ in sham agreements over 9 years when minor PSR overspends get 6-point deductions.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@Citizzy It was a formal liability decision handed down by an Independent Commission after a 42-day hearing and a 4-year investigation. You don't get a basic fine for £900m+ in sham agreements over 9 years when minor PSR overspends got 6-point deductions.

[Ant 🔰 @anthonyandrew10]

@City_Chief Pointing to CAS 2020 ignores how the cases differ - the PL has no time-barring limits and conducted a 4-year probe into bank trails and financial records.

[Paul Manc Bald and Bred @MufcWonItAll2]

Fair fucking play to this lad.

This is genuinely the first city fan I've seen on here to say it exactly how it is.